News releases
A New Kind of Military Campaign to Target Cyprus.
Major-General John Moore-Bick is best known for building bridges in Bosnia. However bridge-building skills of an entirely different kind will be needed for his latest trip to Cyprus.
He is on the island to lead a campaign to sign up new members of the Forces Pension Society (FPS). There are over 3,000 British servicemen and 1,000 retired service personnel but fewer than 200 individual members are registered with FPS. There are also about 5,000 Service dependants living in Cyprus.
John Moore-Bick points out that most servicemen draw a military pension for longer than they draw a military salary but the majority do not know what they are entitled to and, if they are retired, whether they are actually getting it.
He says: “According to our calculations, less than 5% of service and ex-service personnel in Cyprus have access to any independent advice about their pension. We believe some retirees could be missing out, big time and many of those who are still in active service do not know what to do to maximise their income after leaving military service.”
With people increasingly living longer, the government is continually concerned about its pension liabilities (which amount to over £4 billion for 600,000 military veterans and their families). There are often rule changes that are difficult to understand. The technical terminology used to describe them is not always supported with examples that a Service pensioner can readily understand to make them appreciate the full implications and how it may affect them and their dependants.
FPS is the only fully independent organisation that represents the pension interests of service personnel and as such keeps a watchful eye on government policy to make sure any changes are in the interests of its members and are in line with best practice. The Society also campaigns to correct unfairness and anomalies of the past and provides expert advice to members, which is frequently faster and more accurate than that provided by the government’s own pensions’ agency.
John and other FPS colleagues arrive on Saturday November 22nd and will spend four days visiting various military bases, where they will give presentations and hold free confidential ‘surgeries’ to advise individual members of the Society on their own Armed Forces pension issues. All retired servicemen and their dependants (including non-members) wanting to attend the ‘surgeries’ in Larnaca & Limassol on 23 November and Paphos on 25 November should contact Mike Groves on 00357 99 068 477.
For further information, photographs and interview requests please contact:
- David Tarsh, Tarsh Consulting, on +44 (0) 20 7602 5262 or +44 (0) 7770 816 070 or at David@Tarsh.com
John Moore-Bick, FPS, on Tel: +44 (0) 20 7820 9988 or at jmb@forpen.co.uk.
