do you think they are right?

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

I would be all in favour of new Public sector workers having to take out a private pension and no pension provisions being provided by the government but don't change the goalosts halfway through.

That is actually the solution which should be adapted, but successive governments have not taken the plunge and done this as it would immediately cost too much. At the moment they don't have to pay out until employees actually retire.

This is the big difference between Gov. & Private pensions. What is even more annoying is that the Government then has a department which dictates to private pensions what they can pay out based on the value of the fund. That is why the private sector pensions have fallen from some schemes, haven’t seen any pensioners go on strike? Although a lot are really hurting.

My solution would be to adopt the same as has been applied in the private sector and close the “final salary” scheme from a set date and then turn it into a contribution scheme. With the country in such a financial mess, something like this needs to be done. That would cut the politicians completely out of the picture and workers would get a pension based on what is in the scheme, not how much muscle they can apply to politicians.

[pete g]

lol

that is my pension mate  

and with my new revised reitirement date will still be making me money for 5 years after death

unless in another year they decide to move the retirement date back further

[blitz]

A couple of questions.

Why is a multi millionare who only has to be an MP for five years to qualify for an index linked pension for life, cutting anyones pension?

Why does he insist that it is cheaper to keep a young man with a family, on the dole, while a 67 year old firefighter, police officer, refuse collector, etc etc. has his job until he hopefully dies early from working for 50 years like me and many others?

Labour started the end of everyones proper pensions by raiding them and this lot are doing the same and some of you are in favour of it.  Seems odd to me.

[ibbo]

labour is using the unions to fight its own battles dont remember the unions kicking up a fuss when gordon brown the clown only two months in power taxed pensions i work for royal mail he took our money out of our wages for 13 years and didnt pay a penny in no wonder we are in a mess

[Gromit]

QUOTE

Shall we invite someone who cannot afford any car to come and join in the discussion.

That`ll be me then.

[XTR2Turbo]

A couple of questions.

Why is a multi millionare who only has to be an MP for five years to qualify for an index linked pension for life, cutting anyones pension?

Why does he insist that it is cheaper to keep a young man with a family, on the dole, while a 67 year old firefighter, police officer, refuse collector, etc etc. has his job until he hopefully dies early from working for 50 years like me and many others?

Labour started the end of everyones proper pensions by raiding them and this lot are doing the same and some of you are in favour of it.  Seems odd to me.

MPs are on a n/40 or n/50 scheme depending upon the personal contributions that they make. Generous but not massively different to other public sector pensions.

If you are referring to David Cameron, what has his personal wealth got to do with it?  I hope that he is implementing policy that is for the good of the long term prosperity of the country. You could argue that he is more likley to do this if he has less need to protect personal income.

It was not that long ago that most people never retired. Personally I would like to retire as soon as possible just saying that today we are in a much much better position vs retirement age and retirement than ever before.

Life expectancy is today around 78 for a male in the UK and will probably be 80 when most of us retire.

In 1909 when the state penson was introduced you only received it from 70 years old. Then life expectancy was only about 54 so very few ever drew a pension.

The situation only started to reverse in the 1970's.

[Meakin]

i do actually know what teachers do ,my wife works at rease heath college and my neighbour is a teacher to ,and trust me you have it b****y easy ,i think some people just need a reality check ,you have had it to easy for to long and know your not getting it easy and your plans have maybe had to change you dont like it , welcome to the real world  

Yeah that's right, that's why I'm still working now. I don't know what your wife does but if she can get away without working late at least once per week (11.00pm) then I would like her job, but then again, you didn't actually say she was a teacher. Just 'cos you see your neighbour at home before you, doesn't mean they are not working later.

I'm sure my neighbors think the same after all we get all those wonderful holidays and the kids finish at 3pm. they don't get to see what I'm doing now. So sure I have it bl****y easy in their eyes too.

That's the point. Teachers have been been thought of lazy people for a long time since the 70's without people actually seeing what a modern secondary school teachers workload actually is.

I worked in the private sector BNFL and it was very nice to finish at the end of the day and then go home and NOT have to do work. Or if I did the time was made up or it was appreciated not expected all the time. the reason I left because I didn't like the place and I felt like I made no difference at all.  

I also have been self employed (ICT consultancy) so know the score on that front. Funnily enough I work more hours now than I did when I was doing that job. Quite simply because the organisations that I worked for closed for the day. I stopped that because I was "head hunted" back to education and as always when you're self employed you're chasing business and the option of a nice fixed wage and of course continuing with my pension looked good.

We all like to think the grass is greener and I'm sure there are teachers (hey I know a few) that play the system and are not hard working professionals, but they exist in the private sector just as much.

I just put a teachers pov across because i felt there were some facts that were missing. Such as the fact the pensions have been evaluated and been classed as sustainable and affordable by the gov themselves.

At the end of the day I'm sure you'll disagree and I don't go onto this forum for this kind of discussion I prefer talking about my hobby.... cars. After all, this is my break

Anyway back to work, Happy motoring.

Paul

[smorse]

i left a local authority last year so speak from experience, on £20k salary i paid 6.5% of my wages into the LPGS or local government pension scheme, the government or taxpayer contributed 18%, yes 18% & nearly forgot, they threw in free life insurance for good measure, now in the private sector i get no where near that deal, my stakeholder pension with my new company is i pay 6% which is matched by my employer, can someone please tell the strikers to tune into sanity FM!!!!

[Crash test dummy]

i left a local authority last year so speak from experience, on £20k salary i paid 6.5% of my wages into the LPGS or local government pension scheme, the government or taxpayer contributed 18%, yes 18% & nearly forgot, they threw in free life insurance for good measure, now in the private sector i get no where near that deal, my stakeholder pension with my new company is i pay 6% which is matched by my employer, can someone please tell the strikers to tune into sanity FM!!!!

Why did you leave?

[scott beeland]

I reckon Tommo should get to 67 and come and try a day in my job

[pistonbroke]

I reckon Tommo should get to 67 and come and try a day in my job

I can do that , Giz a job      

[Meakin]

Hi steveD. Haven't finished the work I wanted to get done but calling it a day now (23.20), time for bed, tomorrow back to school (6.30 start). Will certainly be working again tomorrow night and possibly the weekend.

BTW this is quite normal for a secondary school teacher.

Paul

[Lurksalot]

Just my 2p worth.

I am a teacher and went on strike. Why?

Simply put it is a breach of contract from the gov.

When I started teaching 20+years ago one of the attractive features was the good pension at the end, another was the good holidays, but seeing as I spend 8hrs a day working with adolescents you need 'em . The wages themselves are cr*p for the amount of work you do and the responsibility you have. So paying into the pension  was part of the role.

What hasn't been mentioned here is the fact the extra money being asked for is NOT being put into pensions for the future but straight into the gov funding to address issues now (in other words to bail out)  Imagine if you will, being asked by a pension company to increase your contributions so they can pay off a loan for a boat! You would tell them where to go.

The teachers pensions were re-evaluated in 2007 to ensure they would be sustainable and they were changed to ensure that they were. Even the National Audit Office report in December 2010 stated that the public sector pensions are "sustainable and affordable". The gov. have produced no figures, facts or anything else to suggest this has changed.

Negotiations have been happening for months now to no avail. simply put, the gov made a "final offer" which was unreasonable.

I went on strike to allow the representatives in my union to have something to negotiate with.

The union I am a member of, has not had any industrial action for over 100 years. So its hardly a decision that has been taken lightly.

Hopefully that's clarified a few points

Paul

Sorry my friend.... but ..... maybe if you worked a full week and didn't spend your 'working ' hours reading and responding to hobby posts , you wouldn't have to work so late  

[SteveD]

Hi steveD. Haven't finished the work I wanted to get done but calling it a day now (23.20), time for bed, tomorrow back to school (6.30 start). Will certainly be working again tomorrow night and possibly the weekend.

BTW this is quite normal for a secondary school teacher.

Paul

oh i do feel sorry for you , come and do my job ,thats real work ,14-16 hour days ,most days without breaks ,and i give myself 15 days holliday not 13 weeks like teachers , the major difference is im not on here bleedin moaning about my job and how long and hard i work ,i dont want recognition for it or people to feel sorry for me ,you know why because its my job ,i chose to do it and i just get on with it

my neighbour (the teacher)i atually get on very well with we regulary go out together ,so we do actually talk a lot ,my wifes father was a university lecturer then was principle for a few years ,so i really do now how easy you have compared to most of the population  

if your up till that time your doin summat wrong  

i'l say it again , its your career choice ,get on with stop whinging

you could allways change jobs and step into the real world    

[ACW]

Just my 2p worth.

I am a teacher and went on strike. Why?

Simply put it is a breach of contract from the gov.

When I started teaching 20+years ago one of the attractive features was the good pension at the end, another was the good holidays, but seeing as I spend 8hrs a day working with adolescents you need 'em . The wages themselves are cr*p for the amount of work you do and the responsibility you have. So paying into the pension  was part of the role.

What hasn't been mentioned here is the fact the extra money being asked for is NOT being put into pensions for the future but straight into the gov funding to address issues now (in other words to bail out)  Imagine if you will, being asked by a pension company to increase your contributions so they can pay off a loan for a boat! You would tell them where to go.

The teachers pensions were re-evaluated in 2007 to ensure they would be sustainable and they were changed to ensure that they were. Even the National Audit Office report in December 2010 stated that the public sector pensions are "sustainable and affordable". The gov. have produced no figures, facts or anything else to suggest this has changed.

Negotiations have been happening for months now to no avail. simply put, the gov made a "final offer" which was unreasonable.

I went on strike to allow the representatives in my union to have something to negotiate with.

The union I am a member of, has not had any industrial action for over 100 years. So its hardly a decision that has been taken lightly.

Hopefully that's clarified a few points

Paul

Sorry my friend.... but ..... maybe if you worked a full week and didn't spend your 'working ' hours reading and responding to hobby posts , you wouldn't have to work so late  

Wot he said

Time management and disciplin that's the key.

Tbf my mother was a head at a special needs school and at times work late and anti social hours ( no worse than I) but had plenty of down time unlike me. She retired in the golden age and now lives in France in a nice gaff.