Found this on the RLConLine Site.

"It seems everyone who had commutated part of their pension pre 2001 had the commutated amount of money removed from their pension during the transfer to the civilian Paymaster at Crawley. There is now an RAF Secretariat investigation into what happened with everyone's pension money and could take months unless you identify your pension as been one of those affected.

Just to bring everyone up to date, I had two letters yesterday and two again today bringing my pension back to normal but no apology from MOD or their civilian Paymaster. Xafinity Paymaster wrote a A4 letter with one single line, 8 word reply?
It seems everyone who had commutated part of their pension pre 2001 had the commutated amount of money removed from their pension during the transfer to the civilian Paymaster at Crawley.

There is now an RAF Secretariat investigation into what happened with everyone's pension money and could take months unless you identify your pension as been one of those affected. If any one here took commutation part of their pension, they are strong urged to check their P60 and 'Notice of Entitlement' pre 2002 and compare it to any post 2003 to 2006 to make sure they are still getting their full pension and their gross pension figure is correct. Commutation ends at the day you reach 55 years old (MOD's calculated life expectancy of none commissioned ranks), and everyone's pension should then return to full pension unless you were able to take life commutation which is normally only open to commision ranks".

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"if your took commutation of your pension pre 2002, you may also have your pension devalued by the sum you commuted and that is an extra over £100 a month in your pocket after tax when you reach 55. I would advise any and everyone to check their P60 forms for anything missing as it might be a computer error or it maybe fraud, but either way it is missing money out of my pocket and possibly yours too? You will need to compare old Form P60 2001 and before with your recent 2006 P60 from the Paymaster at Crawley. If you find an inconsistency, please immediately report it to the Paymaster and the Minister of Defense, possibly using your local MP for added support".

Sunday Telegraph 17/12/2006

By Sean Rayment and Rob Watts, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:28am GMT 17/12/2006

Parachute training in the Army is set to be halted for four years as part of a £1 billion cost-cutting programme by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Members of the Parachute Regiment will not receive parachute training

The proposals mean that Britain will be without a parachute-trained force for the first time since the Second World War when the Parachute Regiment was created on the orders of Winston Churchill.

Documents leaked to The Sunday Telegraph reveal that no new recruits or even serving members of the Parachute Regiment or airborne forces will be trained in military parachuting from next year until 2011. It will then take a year to get the Army's 2,500 paratroopers up to scratch.

The cost-cutting programme is being launched after defence chiefs warned that spiralling costs of complex equipment and the demands of military operations would create a financial "black hole" in the MoD of £868 million by the end of the next year. The severity of the crisis prompted one of the Government's most senior civil servants to describe the situation as "an extremely difficult position with no clear way forward".

The crisis has placed the MoD on a collision course with Gordon Brown and the Treasury, and has raised fears that multi-billion pound projects could be postponed or even cancelled.

The planned cuts to be imposed on 16 Air Assault Brigade, which theMoD admits would be a public-relations disaster, can be Continued on Page 2revealed just days after 77 members of the unit received awards, including a Victoria Cross and a George Cross, for their actions in Afghanistan.

The document states that if the cuts were imposed "the Parachute Regiment and other airborne units would be undermined with implications for morale, recruiting and retention. It would take until March 31, 2012, to retrain all aircrews, dispatchers, planers and parachute-trained units". It adds: "This measure would also have implications for special forces' recruiting and selection."

The Parachute Regiment provides more than half of the special forces' intake. Senior officers were aghast last night at the latest round of cuts. One said: "It is extraordinary that at a time when the Armed Forces are fighting two wars and are stretched to the very limit, defence spending is being pared back in this way. "The crisis has emerged two months after Tony Blair promised commanders in Afghanistan that they would get whatever they needed to beat the Taliban.

The scale of the crisis within the MoD is highlighted by another leaked document in which Ian Andrews, the 2nd permanent undersecretary of state, warns that the military is having to take "painful measures" to stay within budget. "Equipment, support, fuel and utilities costs are causing real pressures across the departments. We remain in an extremely difficult position with no clear way forward."

In an effort to stay within budget, he proposes measures including a "moratorium on recruitment" of civilian manpower and that all "existing contracts for agency or casual staff be terminated".Instead of flying to meetings around the world, senior officers should "encourage staff to consider video conferencing, e-mail or the telephone".

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