Introduction

Pensions can feel really confusing, especially when retirement feels a long way off. When things are squeezed in your day-to-day budget and retirement feels as if it’s a lifetime away, it’s easy to avoid thinking about your pension.

But if you’re a regular or reservist in the armed forces, you’re already part of one of the most generous pension schemes in the UK. 

The Armed Forces Pension Scheme offers a range of valuable benefits and, unlike many workplace pensions, you don’t need to contribute from your salary to build up your pension. 

Even so, it’s still important to understand how it works. It’s an important part of the overall pay and benefits package that comes with military service. Depending on your circumstances, you or your household may also have other pensions alongside your armed forces pension – for example from previous civilian jobs, reserve service, or private savings.

Across the wider population, millions of people aren’t saving enough and many don’t know if they will have a decent income in retirement. 

Now, we can’t guarantee anyone’s health or longevity, but the fact is that on average we’re all living longer, which means the pressure on retirement savings is growing.

There are ten short videos in this series. We’ll cover different types of pensions, including state, workplace and private pensions. We’ll explore how the Armed Forces Pension Schemes work, explain benefits such as death-in-service and support for dependants. We’ll also look at how the State Pension fits into the wider picture.

The goal for these videos is to help you make choices and decisions that will build a comfortable retirement.