To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons the pension actuarially of Gurkha's who transferred to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme is 23 to 36 per cent for service that took place prior to 1st July 1997.
Answered on
17 July 2018
To be eligible for the Gurkha Offer to Transfer (GOTT) in 2007/8, a Gurkha had to have served in the Army on or after 1 July 1997.
The service credits applied under the GOTT to service pre-July 1997 were based on actuarial assumptions calculated by the Government Actuary's Department and accepted by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). This is normal practice across the public services for those transferring between pension schemes.
The assumptions took into account differences in benefit structures between the Gurkha Pension Scheme and the Armed Forces Pension Scheme, including age on joining, length of service and mortality rates.
Legal challenges to the terms of the GOTT, up to the European Court of Human Rights, were rejected, with MOD's view that the transfer terms were fair and reasonable being upheld.
No pension value was removed from any Gurkha as a result of the GOTT.