BBC News reports (12 Nov 2010) that Downing Street has rejected calls to protect the armed forces from cuts to public sector pensions:

 

A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said "tough decisions" were needed and the policy decision had been made.

The Forces Pension Society claims widows and injured soldiers face losing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Ministers plan to link public sector pension rises to an alternative, and historically lower, inflation measure.

Chancellor George Osborne announced in the June Budget that public sector pensions would, from April 2011, be linked to the consumer prices index (CPI) - rather than the retail prices index (RPI) - as part of a package aimed at saving £11bn, part of the government's efforts to reduce the record budget deficit.

The Forces Pensions Society calculates that the inflation link - which affects pensions and annual guaranteed income payments - means a 34-year-old wife of a staff sergeant killed in Afghanistan could lose almost £750,000 over her lifetime. ...

• BBC article in full: Military pensions 'not ptotected', Downing Street says

{jb_blackbox}BAFF is well aware that other public sector pensions are being treated in a similar manner. See this link for part of the rationale for retaining the RPI linkage for armed forces pensions:{/jb_blackbox}

• Forces Pension Society: Public Services Pensions and the Armed Forces