This note is provided for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) as scheme manager of the Armed Forces pension arrangements and sets out how to determine the appropriate reduction to be applied to a member's benefits when retiring early or late in normal health for eligible members of AFPS15, AFPS05 and AFPS75. The factors may also be used for early retirement cases in the Reserve Forces Pension Scheme (RFPS05) and Full Time Reserve Service Pension Scheme (FTRS PS).

This note covers early and late retirements in normal health only for eligible members of AFPS15, AFPS05, AFPS75, RFPS05 and FTRS PS. In particular, this note does not cover factors to be used to adjust pension debits or credits, or factors to adjust Annual Allowance offsets, or late retirement factors for members who were in service over the period of delay.

A member may have benefits in both AFPS15 and in Armed Forces legacy pension schemes. For the purposes of calculating a member's early retirement pension, the early retirement pension for each scheme should be calculated separately using the relevant parts of this guidance.

The Consolidated Factors Workbook contains the relevant factors for use in early retirement calculations. The table for use in general early and late retirement calculations is table 401.

The following changes have been made when reviewing this guidance:

• Important information around the expected audience for the guidance, use of the guidance, review of factors, compliance and limitations applies across all sets of guidance. Rather than being repeated in each set of guidance, this can now be found on the scheme home page. It is important to read this information alongside the guidance.
• Calculation methodology: No changes have been made to the calculation methodology.
• Examples: There are no examples in this guidance. Worked examples, using the calculation methodology, can be found in prior versions of the guidance (though please note that these use historic factors).
• Factor tables: The "Factor Tables" tab contains the names of the tables that are referenced in the calculation methodology. The tables of factors themselves can be found in the most recently published "Consolidated Factors Workbook" which is available by clicking the "Download current Consolidated Factors Workbook" button on the scheme's home page.
• Assumptions: The key assumptions underlying the factors in each note are contained in the Consolidated Factors Workbook.
• Regulations: The regulations that require the production of the actuarial factors and/or guidance that is the subject of this note are summarised in the "Regulations" tab.