Armed Forces Pension AFPS 15 UK 2026/27: Tiers, EDP

The Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 (AFPS 15) is the UK Armed Forces' defined-benefit pension. It is not only for post-2015 joiners: MOD's own booklet records that "On 1st April 2022, all members of the Armed Forces moved into AFPS 15" and that it "is the only open scheme for both regular and reserve personnel", so almost everyone serving today is accruing in it whatever they joined under. It is non-contributory - unique among major UK public-sector pensions - and combined with Early Departure Payments (EDP) at the 20/40 point it is one of the most generous structures in UK employment. This guide covers the 2026/27 position.

At a glance

• Type: Defined Benefit (CARE - Career Average Revalued Earnings since 2015).
• Accrual rate: 1/47 of pensionable pay per year (the most generous in UK public sector).
• Revaluation: the Average Weekly Earnings index during active service. Not CPI, and not CPI plus a margin.
• Employer contribution: from 1 April 2024, "MOD's Armed Forces SCAPE employer contribution rate increased to 73.5% of pensionable pay" (AFPRB Fifty-Fifth Report 2026, Appendix 4, footnote 107). The rate moves with each valuation, so check the current figure before relying on it.
• Employee contribution: None - AFPS 15 is non-contributory.
• Normal Pension Age: 60. The scheme glossary is explicit: "The NPA for AFPS 15 is 60." A deferred pension is a different thing and is paid from your State Pension Age.
• Early Departure Payment (EDP): lump sum plus ongoing income at the 20/40 point.

Scheme rules and member guidance are published by Veterans UK on the official armed forces pensions page at GOV.UK, which covers AFPS 75, AFPS 05 and AFPS 15 - use it as the primary source for scheme figures.

How the CARE accrual works

Each year you accrue 1/47 of your pensionable pay as a pension entitlement. The accrued amount is then indexed. MOD's booklet is specific about the index: "Every year, the MOD adds 1/47th of your annual pensionable earnings for that year to your individual 'pension pot' ... This growth, known as indexation, is based on the Average Weekly Earnings index."

That matters because earnings and prices move differently, and assuming CPI is the commonest way a do-it-yourself AFPS 15 estimate goes wrong. Pensionable earnings are narrower than gross pay too: "Basic pay, but excluding allowances, expenses, bonuses, financial incentives, Loan Service Pay, and any form of Recruitment and Retention Pay". X-factor is inside that figure; LSA, flying pay, submarine pay and the other RRPs are not.

Worked example: career-average pensionable pay of £45,000 across 22 years.

Annual accrual: £45,000 / 47 = £957/year of pension
Total over 22 years, before indexation: 22 x £957 = £21,054/year

Indexation on top of that raises the figure by an amount that depends entirely on the earnings index over the period, so the honest answer is that only your annual benefit statement gives it. Leaving at 22 years' Regular service also only reaches the EDP if you are at least 40 when you go: the 20/40 point needs both limbs, and 22 years from a 17-year-old enlistment does not clear the age one.

Early Departure Payment (EDP) - the 20-year inflection

A unique feature of AFPS 15: reach age 40 with at least 20 years of Regular service - the "20/40 point" - and you qualify for an Early Departure Payment:

1. EDP lump sum: 2.25 times your annual deferred pension, tax-free, paid on departure.
2. EDP income: 34% of your annual deferred pension, paid monthly. Each further year served beyond the 20/40 point adds 0.85% of the deferred pension to that percentage.

The EDP income is not a pension. It stops at State Pension age, at which point the deferred pension itself comes into payment. Source: MOD, AFPS 15: Your Pension Scheme Explained.

Both limbs bind on the uplift as well as on eligibility. The booklet's own table gives age 40 with 24 years' service at 34%, age 44 with 20 years' service at 34%, and only age 44 with 24 years' service at 37.4%. Extra years alone do not raise the percentage, and neither does extra age alone: you need to be past both the 20 and the 40 mark for the 0.85% a year to start counting.

Worked example: leaving at age 42 with 22 years' Regular service and a £25,000 deferred AFPS 15 pension. That is two years past both limbs, so the EDP rate is 34% + (2 x 0.85%) = 35.7%.

EDP lump sum (tax-free):  £25,000 × 2.25 = £56,250 (one-off)
EDP income:               £25,000 × 35.7% = £8,925 a year
                          = £743.75 a month
At State Pension age:     EDP income stops and the deferred
                          pension of £25,000 a year begins

EDP makes early Forces departure financially viable in a way that no civilian pension scheme matches. It compensates for the unique risks + service conditions of military life.

The McCloud remedy

The 2018 McCloud judgment applied to AFPS 15 alongside other public-sector schemes. You are in scope if you were a member, or eligible to be a member, of a public-service pension scheme on 31 March 2012, were a member again between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022, and the two periods were continuous, which they are treated as being where any break was less than five years (HM Treasury, guidance on the public service pension scheme consultation response). Active membership on the day itself is not the test. The remedy gives a choice at retirement (or earlier separation point) between:

• The legacy scheme (AFPS 75 or AFPS 05) for the period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022, OR
• AFPS 15 for the same period.

AFPS 75 is not a conventional final-salary scheme: it pays on the representative rate of pay for the rank and length of reckonable service, so "members of the Armed Forces with the same rank and same number of years of reckonable service are normally awarded the same pension, regardless of their actual pay". Its immediate pension point is 16 years for officers and 22 for Other Ranks, and only where the member leaves before age 55 (MOD, AFPS 75: Your Pension Scheme Explained). Each individual's position differs, and Veterans UK is issuing Remediable Service Statements - the statutory term is remediable, not remedial - showing both options.

Resettlement grants

Beyond EDP, the Armed Forces provides resettlement support for transitioning members:

• Resettlement training grant (a specific cash allowance for retraining).
• Standard Learning Credits (SLC) - annual training budget while serving.
• Enhanced Learning Credits (ELC) - additional training entitlement after qualifying service.
• Career Transition Partnership - structured outplacement support.

These benefits are typically tax-free and represent substantial additional value beyond the headline pension.

Annual Allowance for OF-4 and above

Lieutenant Colonel and above can face Annual Allowance issues. Note that the AFPRB reserves the term "Senior Officers" for OF7 and above, the group whose pay moved to it from the Review Body on Senior Salaries in July 2025, so this section is about OF-4 upwards rather than about Senior Officers in the AFPRB's sense. The mechanics mirror NHS senior clinicians:

• A pay rise increases your Pension Input Amount (PIA) by 16x the inflation-adjusted increase in accrued benefits.
• Promotion (e.g. Major to Lieutenant Colonel) triggers a substantial PIA spike.
• Inflation on its own does not. The test uprates the opening value by CPI before comparing it with the closing value - step 4 of the opening-value calculation is "Increase the total after step 3 by the 12 month increase in the CPI to the September before the start of the tax year", and the closing value is worked out "missing out the final step in respect of the CPI increase" (HMRC Pensions Tax Manual PTM053301; sections 234 to 236ZA of the Finance Act 2004). An uplift equal to CPI therefore lifts both sides of the subtraction and nets out to roughly nil. What pushes a PIA over the £60,000 standard Annual Allowance is growth above CPI: a real-terms pay award, a promotion, or AFPS 15 in-service revaluation on the Average Weekly Earnings index in a year when earnings outrun prices.

Mandatory Scheme Pays needs all three of: pension savings in that scheme above the annual allowance for the year, a tax charge of more than £2,000, and notice to the scheme "by the deadline of 31 July of the year after the following tax year" (GOV.UK, who must pay the pensions annual allowance tax charge). For a 2025/26 charge that deadline is 31 July 2027, not the July straight after the tax year ends.

Death-in-service benefits

AFPS 15 includes substantial death-in-service:

• Lump sum: 4 times your final pensionable earnings, tax-free, "paid regardless of whether you have completed at least 2 years of qualifying service".
• Spouse, civil partner or eligible partner pension: 62.5% of a Tier 3 enhanced ill-health pension, not 62.5% of the pension you had accrued. Because the Tier 3 calculation enhances service up to normal pension age, the survivor pension for someone who dies early in a career is far larger than 62.5% of the pot they had built. Death in deferment and death in retirement are the ones paid at 62.5% of the deferred pension itself.
• Children's pensions: for children under 18, under 23 in full-time education or training, or of any age where a physical or mental impairment prevents gainful employment.

These benefits are particularly valuable for personnel deployed on operations.

Service-attributable disability

AFPS 15 includes enhanced provisions for service-attributable disability:

• Accelerated pension if you leave service due to a service-related condition.
• Lump sum compensation in addition to AFPS 15 entitlement.
• War Pensions Scheme payments for pre-2005 service-attributable conditions (administered separately).

These overlap with the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme - talk to Veterans UK for clarification on which apply to your specific circumstances.

How AFPS 15 shows on your payslip

A correctly-structured Armed Forces payslip shows:

• Basic pay at your rank/year-of-service pay point.
• X-Factor allowance (typically 14.5% of basic pay) - recognising military service conditions.
• Specialist allowances (Flying Pay, Submarine Pay, SAS Pay, etc.) where applicable.
• No pension deduction - AFPS 15 is non-contributory.
• Income tax + NI as standard PAYE.

Your AFPS 15 pension accrual is tracked separately by Veterans UK and visible via your Service Personnel and Veterans Agency portal.

To check whether those tax, NI and AFPS 15 lines look right on your own JPA slip, see How do I check my payslip is correct?.

When to talk to a pension specialist

For routine AFPS 15 membership, no specialist advice is needed. A regulated pension adviser earns their fee when:

• You are OF-4 or above (Lt Col, Commander RN, Wing Commander and up) facing repeated AA charges.
• You need to make the McCloud remedy choice at or near separation.
• You are approaching the 20/40 EDP point and need EDP planning.
• You're considering transferring out of AFPS 15 (extremely rare and almost always wrong).
• You're transitioning to civilian employment and need pension consolidation advice.

Veterans UK provides administrative information at gov.uk/veterans-uk. For regulated advice, an FCA-authorised pension adviser experienced with Forces pensions is essential.

More military pay guides

Start at the UK Armed Forces pay, pensions and payslips hub for the full cluster, or go straight to:

• Annual Allowance for OF-4 and above - PIA calculation, Scheme Pays and the AVC question for Lt Col and above.
• McCloud remedy deep dive - the legacy-versus-CARE choice for pre-2015 joiners.
• Army pay scales 2026/27 - the pensionable pay that drives your 1/47 accrual.

Disclaimer

PayslipIQ provides automated educational guidance based on the figures you supply. It is not regulated pension or financial advice. AFPS 15 rules are technical and interact with AFPS 75 and AFPS 05 legacy schemes via McCloud - for substantial decisions especially around EDP planning, McCloud remedy, AA charges, or transfer out, consult a regulated FCA-authorised pension adviser experienced with Armed Forces pensions.