At 75-years-old Keith Baker just wants to enjoy his retirement.
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Instead, the lifelong Nowra resident is locked into a compulsory superannuation scheme he can't get out of - and believes he was lied to about in the first place.
Mr Baker worked at Albatross for many years, before retiring at 49. He's part of a compulsory super scheme known as DFRDB - the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits scheme.
Mr Baker isn't alone in the scheme. There's around 50,000 other veterans nationwide, including many in the Shoalhaven region.
When he signed on for the scheme, he was told there was two options upon retirement. He could get a pension for life, or take a lump sum of four or five years pension upfront, a commutation, and get a reduced pension.
Mr Baker said the second option was believed by himself, and his colleagues, to be a loan paid back until the age of 72 - the age ADF deemed as 'national life expectancy'.
However, for many retired veterans that hasn't been the case, and the pension has not reverted to its full amount.
"I've been getting super for years and of course you just get it, but recently I've discovered that I wasn't paying it back until I was 72 - I was paying it back for the rest of my life," Mr Baker said.
Mr Baker said he would not have taken the commutation if he knew he would be paying it back indefinitely.
"Out of all those people who took it, there's only a very small amount who were aware they would be paying it for the rest of their life," he said.
"I never had any idea."
Mr Baker has been fighting the fund for the past few months, along with several other local veterans, including retired Commander Ken Stone.
He and Mr Stone are forming a campaign. Their two main objectives for all veterans are to have all reimbursements stopped for anyone who has reached their national life expectancy, and to restore the monetary value of their super from its original, uncommitted value from that point until their death.
They also want an independent inquiry carried out into the scheme.
In January Veterans' Affairs Minister Darren Chester rejected veterans' concerns, saying that they didn't understand the the scheme and that "commutation payment was neither an advance nor a loan, but rather an immediate payment in exchange for a permanent reduction in pension".
Mr Baker said Mr Chester's response was disappointing.
"It was clear from his answers that he doesn't know anything about it," he said.
Mr Baker said he's not asking for his money back, he just doesn't want to keep paying it for the rest of his life.
"The hope is that people can just pay the money until they're 72," he said.
"After that things resume as normal and live our life - we just want a fair go."