Teachers' strike (comment made on the radio)

I think the problem is that the contribution of successive governments has been - well - virtual. Meaning that there never was a kitty with a nice pot of money in it, just a vague notion that the taxpayer would go on filling the hole in a hand to mouth kind of a way.

PS I read somewhere recently that when the public pensions were set, it was assumed that retirees would enjoy them for around seven years before they carked it. I have several relatives who have drawing pensions for over twenty-five years and are still very sprightly indeed. I don't think they're isolated cases, either. In the circumstances, something has to give.

 

Something indeed has to give. Step forward volunteers, please.

 

Are we talking euthanasia, Madahlia? In financial terms, we are already well and truly stuffed. Hopefully things will work out over the next few years; if people start investing in things again we will be just about OK, as long as we can continue to do some work into old age. Otherwise, we'll be joining the Las Vegas storm drain dwellers.

 

Don't assume ALL Public Sector workers who may strike are all on a Teachers salary and all get 13 weeks paid holiday and will receive large pensions they won't. Teaching Assistants get about a third and 13 weeks unpaid holiday.

 

I don't see why you think you made 'mistakes', John. You tried to do the best you could. None of us had a handy crystal ball and the pension industry has an awful lot to answer for. Since I have no hope of an index linked pension plus lump sum, I am contemplating the only sensible option for my old age - ie, being totally and utterly feckless. Let's be honest - there's no point in doing things by halves here. The scantest evidence of financial prudence will scupper things for good. I have to ensure I have absolutely no savings, no assets and no way of earning a living. So I will probably have to live in the gutter, wear a bin liner and spend my days drinking cheap hooch out of specimen jar. With luck I'll become such an eyesore that a kindly social worker will take pity on me and set me up in a bedsit and give me enough of an allowance to keep me in gin, baked beans and, perhaps, air freshener.

 

Public sector work and pensions
People had a choice, they could take a good guaranteed job at £100 pw and a reasonable pension
OR
They could take a well paid private sector job £130 pw, save your own pension IF you did, and risk unemployment Which did not happen because back then you could leave or be sacked on Friday and start work on Monday
(I am talking back in the 60's when things were realistic and it is only now that pensions are looming have the goal posts moved)

The payments taken from our salary was not saved in a big pot like we thought, but used immediatley that week to pay the pensions of the people that had retired (not a lot as they had mostly been thinned out by the 39 - 45 carry on)

Off course if you think about it people over 60 now are the baby boomers of the 50's millions of us, now there are millions of us about to retire, and there is no workforce left to take pension payments off to pay us and of course nothing in the non existant pot we have been paying into for fifty years)

The GOLD PLATED pensions that the guillible public get goaded by is not your ordinary public sector worker,But the the TOP 20% who have huge six figure salaries
80% of public sector workers the pension is £5pw for each year worked up to a maximum of 35 years and yes there is an initial lump sum of about £400 for each year worked,
It is only this past couple of years that the Gubernment, have easily and sucessfully set the private sector against the public sector

I personally had both private and public, Only my expensive private one did a Maxwell on me

Jack McHammocklashing (about to be broke)

 

I regularly hear of public sector workers taking arms (well not quite) because they felt so insulted by their pay rise this year, or because their employer's contribution to their pension is going to reduce.

Come and join us in the private sector, who routinely get told "sorry, there's no pay rise this year because of the present economic climate", and "pension? whoaahahahaha".

But in any case, I really don't see the point in this day and age of bickering over a pension. While pensions might be worth something to people already claiming them, but for the rest of us, well I think for most the penny has finally dropped that pensions are worthless.

I have two pensions from previous employers. At the peak of the economic fantasy my pension statement showed I had over £20k in there. The statement showed all the funds that the trustees had invested my money in, and what large returns they'd get. Except they hadn't got any returns at all, because the money was still tied up in those stocks and shares and whatever else. So when the awakening came and everyone realised the money wasn't real, my £20k+ went to £4k in less than a year.

Back onto public sector workers, I do feel a bit sorry for them. If their contract said they'd get certain terms, then they should get those terms. However if the employer can no longer to meet those terms, then a tough choice has to be made. Either they cut costs by laying people off, or they offer those people a chance to avoid redundancy in exchange for different contract terms.

We're all in a difficult situation now, and any of us with any sense know to play the next couple of years very carefully indeed. While nobody should allow themselves to be walked all over, we should remember that now more than ever before, in an employer's eyes, we are very much expendable.

Like everyone else, sometimes I get a bit unhappy about work. When I take the huff about something, I pause, remind myself that I have a mortgage and a family to feed, then I grit my teeth and get on with the job.

 

Well the like button has vanished so post instead

Make sure what you have is safe under the bed when you do retire
If you have anything you will get nowt
If you have nothing then you will get the £300pw benefits, which is a lot more than you will get in interest on any savings or stock you may have

Jack McH

 

Thanks Jack and Strongy: yes, there are plenty of essential public sector workers who are not going to retire on generous terms. Mind you - I believe I'm correct in saying that the average private pension is around £3,600 pa. I don't know what's going to become of us all.

 

Wales. Is that East or West Surrey??

 

Neither. Its in South Yorkshire.

wales south yorkshire - Google Maps

 

But who in Wales could guide us with gardening information when we can not afford the internet to access GC ? :-)

Jack McH

 

Being sailing blind for seven years and my wage slips are online only accessible via work, so I can not say what I am actually paying towards my Gold Plated pension,
When I go back to work I will have a look and post what percent of my income is my contribution

I know as I have just asked them for a projected figure (if you look at my profile I am 64.5 years old and get my pension in April
It is £7k lump sum and £33pw on top of my Government OAP
I do have my Naval pension which is £45pw
The private one was stolen

My cruise monies is taken from selling Mothers home and MILs home after their deaths,
Only SWMBO gave the MILs home money to our daughters, who immediately sold up their local to us home and moved away :-(
I am now the poor tramp that turns up in a Skoda once a month to visit with the neighbours curtains twitching :-(

IF you WIN the LOTTERY think before you distribute the cash, or keep MORE than you give away

Jack McH