Armed Forces retirement age may be raised to boost numbers

The retirement age for military personnel may be raised to boost forces, a defence minister has said.

Andrew Murrison, the minister for defence people, veterans and service families, has said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) should be open to raising the average age of retirement above 60 for those serving in the Armed Forces.

Dr Murrison said there is “no philosophical barrier as to why we couldn’t look at extending the age of retirement”.

Defence sources said that currently, when a serving member of the Armed Forces reaches 60, “they will be mandatory retired as is everyone who is not a general”.

However, Dr Murrison, the Tory MP for South West Wiltshire, told the Financial Times that “as the workforce ages, as we compete for available talent, I think we have to look at hard cut-offs for service personnel”.

He said it was “quite difficult” to currently serve over the age of 55, and anyone still serving over the age of 60 is an “exception” unless they are very senior.

“I’m not happy with recruitment and I’m not happy with retention,” said Dr Murrison,

He also said the MoD needed to “ensure that we have a workforce with the right skills to reflect a modern UK Armed Forces”.

“As we focus on developing a skills-based workforce, we are continually looking at how we recruit and retain personnel and this includes looking at ways to support those who would like to continue serving later in life,” he said.

However, the defence source added that this “won’t be for all people” but will instead “be for the people we need with key skills”.

It comes as the number of people joining the UK Armed Forces fell by nearly a quarter over the past year, compared with the previous 12-month period.

It currently stands at 133,570 full-time trained personnel.

Low morale

Meanwhile, morale in the Army has fallen to a record low, with complaints having jumped by a quarter in a year, according to the Armed Forces service complaints ombudsman.

In order to combat the declining number of soldiers, troops are now being offered £500 recruiting bonuses for every new person they bring to the Army.

The launch of the incentive comes at a time when the MoD is actively cutting troop numbers to its smallest size since the Napoleonic era. It aims to get to 73,000 by 2025.

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, recently announced that in order to retain talent within the military, troops would be able to move to the Civil Service more easily under new zig-zagging rules.

The Prime Minister said he wanted Army medics, military nuclear engineers and other service personnel to be able to take other jobs in the public sector to avoid losing them to private companies.

Dr Murrison also said he wanted to explore recruiting people with autism and ADHD. He said they “have skills and attributes which other people do not have”.