ChrisT70 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 with none of the benefits a public sector worker received such as pension, job security (job for life), subsides canteens etc. the private sector may have been paid more (back then) but the benefits the public sector received more then filled this hole. but then again this has all changed, as just over a year ago average public sector pay was £2,000 more then in the private sector! dont believe everything you read in the papers. we work in contracting and the average pay is still £35k+ pa for a good competent engineer plus pension which is private. my mate in the public sector earns £22k for putting in a decent job, gets no subsidised meals and will get no more than £11k pension if he lives to see 65. he does get sick pay which contracting dont always get altho the bigger firms do pay it via insurance schemes. edit to add- how do you feel about the pension pot for the head of lloyds bank, he will get over 680k pa pension and a 5million lump sum according to some sources, will he ever have paid in enough to his pot to cover that? the big society is the actual top end of society, private and public sector, they will be laughing at the working man squabling over the pensions available! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wednesday1 Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 No it isn't. Did you read the link that I posted? To paraphrase: Affordable: Being able to pay your next shopping bill. Sustainable: Being able to pay all your shopping bills for ever. The current pension payments aren't really hurting anyone. There are those who choose the current low interest rate regime to claim otherwise. If we don't reform pensions, they will become a problem. Brutally fixing the problem will almost certainly make matters worse.I suspect that you already knew that, but it doesn't fit with the Taxpayers Alliance agenda, does it. Spot on. Pensions do need reform for them to be affordable in the future as we are living longer, although this modern trend may soon change direction though as the ConDems policies will see us all working our fingers to the bone for nought! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Some government pensions have already been 'reformed' (reduced.) Armed Forces pensions were payable when the individual retired (at a fixed rate until age 55.) They are now deferred until age 55. The change happened some years ago, but it applied to people joining. - Those already serving did so under their original terms of service. If the government (or any other organisation) wants to change pension terms, so be it. But if they apply the changes retrospectively, that could open a whole can of worms (and might even dissuade people from joining the organisation.) After all, if they can renege on existing agreements, what's to stop them from from simply cancelling your pension just before you retire? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wednesday1 Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 dont believe everything you read in the papers. we work in contracting and the average pay is still £35k+ pa for a good competent engineer plus pension which is private. my mate in the public sector earns £22k for putting in a decent job, gets no subsidised meals and will get no more than £11k pension if he lives to see 65. he does get sick pay which contracting dont always get altho the bigger firms do pay it via insurance schemes. edit to add- how do you feel about the pension pot for the head of lloyds bank, he will get over 680k pa pension and a 5million lump sum according to some sources, will he ever have paid in enough to his pot to cover that? the big society is the actual top end of society, private and public sector, they will be laughing at the working man squabling over the pensions available! Your comments will be sadly wasted on the working class Tories / LibDems on here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisT70 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Some government pensions have already been 'reformed' (reduced.) Armed Forces pensions were payable when the individual retired (at a fixed rate until age 55.) They are now deferred until age 55. The change happened some years ago, but it applied to people joining. - Those already serving did so under their original terms of service. If the government (or any other organisation) wants to change pension terms, so be it. But if they apply the changes retrospectively, that could open a whole can of worms (and might even dissuade people from joining the organisation.) After all, if they can renege on existing agreements, what's to stop them from from simply cancelling your pension just before you retire? i agree they shouldnt change them retrospectively for people under say £25k pension which would cover the vast majority of ALL public sector workers, it should be done with negotiation for future joiners to the scheme and with increased contributions if required from all involved to ensure its funded. its the odd few on the £200K+ and the many at £100K+ salaries who must be hammering the final salary schemes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 That might cause more problems than it solved. If you say to somebody 'Your pension will be capped at (say) £25k' then once he has reached the point where he is entitled to that amount of money, he may well leave and get another job elsewhere. You could end up losing skilled/talented people who you would like to keep. If the individual is good enough to rise rapidly in one job, perhaps he might do quite well in another? Furthermore, by capping his/her pension, you are effectively punishing him/her for outstanding performance. "You've done very well lad. We're proud of you. Take a pension cut to reward you for your efforts!" Is that really a good idea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildcat Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Spot on. Pensions do need reform for them to be affordable in the future as we are living longer, although this modern trend may soon change direction though as the ConDems policies will see us all working our fingers to the bone for nought! The Govt.s own figures show that public sector pensions were affordable long term prior to the shift from index linking with RPI to CPI which reduced their value by 15%. See the table at the bottom of the page from the Hutton report to see the cost as a proportion of GDP falling from 1.9% to 1.4% long term. http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/12/nao-say-that-public-sector-pension-costs-were-stabilised-before-cpi-indexing/ There is no good reason to cut back on public sector pensions, and especially not when there is a pay freeze in place making working in the public sector even less attractive to anyone looking for work when they compare the jobs with private sector equivalents that already pay more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchresearch Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 with none of the benefits a public sector worker received such as pension, job security (job for life), Welcome back to planet Earth, how was the weather on Mars while you've been there for the past six months? Spending review: government expects 490,000 public sector job cuts http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/19/spending-review-document-job-cuts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisT70 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 just to prove how crazy the world is, with normal working people clamouring for cuts to each other, the now departed boss of BP who presided over the monumental c**k up that polluted half of the gulf of mexico has apparently left with a £13.8 million pension pot and an annual pension of £680,000 for his efforts during his term at BP anyone else hoping to join their BIG society in the near future? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansheff Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 They are saying that a teachers pension contribution is going up by £1200 by 2014. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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