NJ
I stand corrected. It was always a point of envy and bone of contention when my cousin's husband moaned that I could retire on a full pension at 49 and he had to work until he was 60 odd. He worked with BT when it was GPO and started as a Motorcycle telegram boy (Red BSA Bantams), Lineman and retired as a manager of an automated exchange. He worked with the GPO when N.S. was still going and got placed into the Royal Signals. Long time ago. I seem to recall when the reply was that he paid nothing into his ,by then, BT pension fund he made no denial so assumed he didn't.
Equally, as an aside, it was a bone of contention that GPO/BT service was counted as contributory pension when joining the police force, whereas, any young police cadet's service was not deemed pensionable within the police pension scheme :-(.