Armed forces pension increase 2025
The armed forces pension increase for 2025 is 1.7%, applied from April 2025. Like other public service pensions, armed forces pensions are uprated each April in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).
Key takeaways
- The 2025 increase is 1.7%, based on the September 2024 CPI figure.
- It applies to armed forces pensions in payment from April.
- Preserved pensions are also revalued each year until you draw them.
- The increase is index-linked to CPI, so it varies year to year.
What the 2025 armed forces pension increase is
The armed forces pension increase for 2025 is 1.7 percent, applied from April 2025. That figure is set by the Consumer Prices Index measured to September 2024, which came in at 1.7 percent, and it carries straight across into every public service pension scheme, the armed forces schemes included. So whether you are drawing AFPS 75, AFPS 05 or AFPS 15, the headline uprating you would have seen on your April 2025 payment, or banked on a preserved award, is 1.7 percent.
I will be blunt about what this is and is not. It is the annual index linking that keeps your pension broadly in step with the cost of living. It is not a discretionary pay rise, it is not negotiated, and it is not something you apply for. The rate is the same percentage for AFPS 75, AFPS 05 and AFPS 15, because the Pensions Increase machinery treats them all as public service pensions. What differs between the schemes is timing and the route the money takes, and that is where people trip up, so I will work through it properly below.
One thing to keep straight from the off. The 2025 rate of 1.7 percent is a quiet year by recent standards. For comparison, April 2024 was 6.7 percent and April 2026 is 3.8 percent, both of which are covered on their own pages. A low rate does not mean anything has gone wrong with your pension, it simply means inflation to the September before was low. The system is doing exactly what it is designed to do.
How the annual CPI uprating works
The mechanics are simple once you see them. Each year the government looks at the Consumer Prices Index for the twelve months to the September before, then applies that figure to pensions from the following April. For the 2025 uprating, the relevant month was September 2024, the CPI reading was 1.7 percent, and the increase landed from April 2025. The same September to April rhythm runs every year, which is why the rate is always known months in advance of the payment changing.
The legal route is the Pensions Increase (Review) Order, made under the Pensions (Increase) Act. That Order sets the percentage for all public service pensions in one go, and the armed forces schemes follow it automatically. You do not need to claim it, fill in a form, or contact Veterans UK. If your pension is in payment, the new rate is applied by the administrator and shows up in your April payment without you lifting a finger.
CPI is the measure used now, not the older RPI. CPI tends to run a little lower than RPI in most years, which matters over a long retirement but is not something you control. The key point for planning is that the increase floats with inflation. In a low inflation year like the one feeding the 2025 figure you get a modest 1.7 percent, and in a high inflation year you get a much larger figure, as the 6.7 percent in 2024 showed. There is no cap and no floor baked into the armed forces schemes beyond what the Order itself sets.
Who receives the 2025 increase
Two broad groups benefit, and both are covered. First, anyone with an armed forces pension already in payment. If you are a veteran drawing AFPS 75, AFPS 05 or AFPS 15, or receiving Early Departure Payment income, the 2025 uprating applies to your award from April 2025, subject to the age rules I cover in the next section. Second, anyone holding a preserved or deferred pension that has not yet come into payment. Your preserved award is revalued each year so that its value does not wither away while you wait to draw it.
There is one timing wrinkle worth knowing. If your pension only came into payment part way through the year, your first April increase may be applied on a pro rata basis, reflecting the months you were actually in payment rather than a full year. After that first part year, you receive the full annual uprating like everyone else. This is normal and is not an error, it simply lines your award up with the standard April cycle.
Survivors and dependants drawing a pension from these schemes are treated the same way. A spouse, civil partner or eligible dependant in receipt of a scheme pension also sees the annual CPI increase applied to their award. The uprating is a feature of the pension itself, not of who happens to be drawing it, so it follows the money.
In payment versus preserved pensions
This is the part that genuinely confuses people, so read it twice. Under AFPS 75 and AFPS 05, a pension in payment is held flat from the day it starts until you reach age 55. It does not rise with CPI in those early years. Then, at 55, all of the accumulated inflation since your pension started is applied in one go, and from that point it rises each April with CPI in the normal way. So if you left early on AFPS 75 and your pension started at, say, 40, you will see no annual increases for a long stretch, then a single catch up at 55, then yearly CPI rises after that. The 2025 rate of 1.7 percent only touches your payment in a year where you are already 55 or older, or in that catch up calculation.
Preserved pensions behave more kindly. A preserved AFPS 75 or AFPS 05 award is revalued by CPI every year between leaving and drawing it, so it keeps pace the whole time it sits waiting. The flat to 55 rule bites on pensions in payment, not on preserved awards that have not started yet. This is why someone who left years ago can be pleasantly surprised at how much their preserved figure has grown by the time they actually claim it.
AFPS 15 works on a different footing again because it is a career average scheme. While you are still serving, your built up pot is revalued in line with Average Weekly Earnings, the earnings index, not CPI. Once your AFPS 15 pension is deferred or in payment, it switches to CPI uprating, which is where the 1.7 percent for 2025 comes in. So the same 2025 percentage applies to in payment and deferred AFPS 15 pensions, but active members building their pot are tracking earnings instead during service.
How 2025 compares with nearby years
Context helps you read your own statement without alarm. The 2025 increase of 1.7 percent sits between two very different neighbours. April 2024 delivered 6.7 percent, driven by the high inflation reading to September 2023, and April 2026 brings 3.8 percent, from the September 2025 CPI. Seen as a run, 6.7 percent then 1.7 percent then 3.8 percent, the 2025 figure is plainly the low point of that three year stretch.
None of that means the 2025 uprating short changed anyone. Each year stands on its own September CPI reading, and a low reading simply produces a low increase. The system is symmetrical. When inflation spiked, pensioners received the large 6.7 percent rise without any cap clipping it. When inflation eased, the rise fell back to 1.7 percent. Over several years these even out to track the cost of living, which is the entire purpose of index linking.
If you are comparing years on your own annual statements, line them up against the September CPI for each, not against pay awards or headline news inflation. The pension uprating always uses the prior September figure, so a year that felt expensive in real life can still produce a modest April increase if prices had already cooled by that September. The 2025 rate is a clean example of exactly that effect.
A worked example for a typical pension
Here is an illustrative example using only round figures so you can see the arithmetic. It is illustrative, not a quote for your own award. Suppose a veteran has an armed forces pension in payment of 10,000 pounds a year and is already over 55, so the annual CPI uprating applies in full. The 2025 increase of 1.7 percent adds 170 pounds, taking the pension to 10,170 pounds a year, which is about 14 pounds a month gross before tax. That is the whole effect of the 2025 rate on a 10,000 pound pension.
Scale it as you like, the percentage does the work. On a 5,000 pound pension the 1.7 percent adds 85 pounds a year. On a 20,000 pound pension it adds 340 pounds a year. The increase is a flat percentage of your existing pension, so a larger pension sees a larger cash rise from the same rate. Nothing about your scheme, rank or accrual changes the percentage, only the base figure it is applied to.
Now the catch for early leavers on AFPS 75 or AFPS 05. If that same veteran were only 50 and drawing a pension in payment, the 1.7 percent would not show up yet, because the pension is held flat until 55. Their statement would look unchanged in April 2025. That is correct behaviour, not a missed increase. The value is not lost, it is stored up and applied at 55 along with every other year's inflation. Treat any worked figure here as a rough guide and use your own Veterans UK forecast for real numbers.
Revaluation and why it is not the same as the increase
People mix up two things that deserve separate boxes. The annual increase, also called the Pensions Increase, applies to pensions in payment and to preserved pensions, and for 2025 that is the 1.7 percent CPI figure. Revaluation, in the AFPS 15 sense, is what happens to your pension pot while you are still serving and actively building it. During service your AFPS 15 accrual is revalued in line with Average Weekly Earnings, the earnings index, which is generally meant to keep each year of accrual broadly in step with current pay rather than with prices.
The practical upshot is that an active AFPS 15 member should not expect to see the 1.7 percent CPI rate on their building pot for the in service period. Their pot is moving with earnings instead. The CPI uprating, including the 2025 rate, attaches to AFPS 15 pensions once they are deferred or in payment, and to AFPS 75 and AFPS 05 pensions in payment, subject to the flat to 55 rule, as well as to preserved awards under those legacy schemes.
Knowing which mechanism applies to you tells you which figure to expect. If you are serving, watch earnings revaluation on your AFPS 15 pot. If you hold a preserved legacy pension, watch annual CPI revaluation keeping it warm. If you are drawing a pension and are 55 or over, watch the annual CPI increase, which for 2025 is 1.7 percent. Three different labels, three different triggers, one tidy system once you see the map.
How to check your own position and avoid common mistakes
First, confirm which scheme or schemes you are in. Many serving members and recent leavers are affected by the McCloud remedy, which covers service from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022. For that remedy period you choose between your legacy scheme, AFPS 75 or AFPS 05, and AFPS 15, and your choice is set out in a Remediable Service Statement. From 1 April 2022 every serving member builds AFPS 15. The scheme that ends up applying to a given slice of your service decides which uprating and revaluation rules bite, so get that straight before you read any percentage onto your statement.
Second, get an official forecast rather than relying on estimates. We are an independent education site and we are not affiliated with the Ministry of Defence, Veterans UK or JPAC, and nothing here is regulated financial advice. An official forecast comes from Veterans UK using form 12 if you are still serving or form 14 if you hold a preserved pension. If a figure matters for a real decision, request the proper forecast and use that.
The common mistakes are easy to name. Expecting a CPI increase before age 55 on a legacy pension in payment, when the flat to 55 rule means it has not started yet. Confusing earnings revaluation on a serving AFPS 15 pot with the CPI annual increase. Assuming a low year like 2025 means an error, when 1.7 percent is simply the September 2024 CPI. And forgetting that you need at least two years of qualifying service to have earned a pension at all. Check the scheme, check your age against 55, and request a Veterans UK forecast before you act.
See your own numbers
Get your pension, lump sum and EDP in seconds.
Frequently asked questions
James Hartley
James Hartley spent 22 years in the British Army, including unit personnel administration and pensions and records duties, and now writes the scheme guides and scenario pages on this site. He is not a regulated financial adviser, so the content is general information rather than personal advice.
Sources: gov.uk · GAD factors · Veterans UK · Forces Pension Society · MoneyHelper.