Council Jobs to Go -10% Staff Saving Needed

Generali

Oblivion wrote: »

Quite so. I spent my working life in Local Government and had to contribute 6% of my monthly salary to the pension fund, with the employer contributing whatever percentage was needed to keep the pension fund sustainable, based on regular actuarial valuations.

Local Government is facing two big problems now ...

Firstly, the fact that we live longer has meant that councils' own contributions to the pension fund have been steadily rising over the years to unprecedented levels, and this reflects directly in the levy of council tax.

Secondly, the massive cuts in interest rates means that council's are not getting the returns they used to get on money left on deposit, or on the investments associated with the pension fund. This shortfall in funding revenue will place an even greater burden on the council tax payer.

In the short-term, there's yet another blow on the way. Local Government pensions are indexed linked, and the annual increase in April is based on the RPI figure for the previous September. September this year saw one of the biggest RPI increases in a long time, and so the pension bill is set to rise significantly this coming April.

I just hope you will all enter into the spirit of it all and work that bit harder to keep me in cigars and whisky. You know it makes sense :rotfl:

Dave.

Well FWIW my guess is that Local Government pensions are the best funded of the lot.

Of course that makes them the most likely targets for Nationalisation in one way or another.

I hope that doesn't happen but I suspect it will.

If you're looking for someone to help with the cigars and whisky then personally, I like Macallan and Cohibas (the latter being Fidel's smoke of choice).

HTH.

G

Davesnave

MrsE wrote: »

I only hope that any job losses will be through natural methods.

I work for the county council:(

Hemlock? Wolfbane? Digitalin? All these are naturally derived, effective and swift. What's more they're guaranteed to reduce dependency on pensions or redundancy money.

From some of the comments on this thread, such a solution would seem better than some of us deserve.

beingjdc

dopester wrote: »

How long has Children's Service existed in one form or another? How much has the budget grown over the last 10 years?

A difficult job to police and ensure parents are not abusing and mistreating their own children. It must have happened in the past though, way back before there was any money for Children's Services.

It's existed for about 120 years in one form or another, since the police in 1889 were given the power to enter homes if they suspected the mistreatment of children within them, and Councils given powers to regulate the employment of children. The task was given wholesale to local councils in 1948.

In the 1960s it was merged into 'social services' and education separated out, then in about 2002 it was split again into children's services including schools, and adult social care for the meals on wheels / old people's home / stairlift kind of stuff, and turned into a duty to promote the wellbeing of all children in the area, rather than specifically to protect the vulnerable ones.

How much has the funding grown is very hard to track - massively if you include the amount delegated to schools. If you don't, then I'd say if anything it's been squeezed heavily between the schools delegation and the growing number of old people clamouring for social care as they live longer.

Are all City law firms hiring graduates? Last news article I read in Summer had many saying they would not take on new trainees next year, and others saying they would cut the starting pay.

Maybe. Regardless, my friend has just started on just under £40k. I don't know how many graduates they're taking on, but it's probably more than there are Directors of Children's Services vacancies, and that role was available with a good undergraduate degree and a year's legal course (though my friend does, as it happens, have a masters in an unrelated discipline).

dopester

Davesnave wrote: »

Hemlock? Wolfbane? Digitalin? All these are naturally derived, effective and swift. What's more they're guaranteed to reduce dependency on pensions or redundancy money.

Yes. Some of us think old people have a duty to die. Well not all old people, especailly if they are financially independent, but those who are well-past it (mentally) and costing us a fortune for nursing care, when in any other age, they'd not have the same cushy expensive drain on the NHS for treatments, and nursing or residential care laid on by the state + pensions with it.

Old people with dementia have a duty to die and should be pushed towards death, says Baroness Warnock
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1058404/Old-people-dementia-duty-die-pushed-death-says-Baroness-Warnock.html

How many more people working in the public sector since Labour took control in 1997? Isn't it 3 million?

Not only that but all the public sector fancy jobs created to serve dubious purposes and cushy set-up and regional agencies where, as much as I can tell, are full of pen-pushers just earning fortunes for very little value in return.

The public sector needs dealing with - hard.

As much as some people find my projection for cutbacks and pay-cuts and public pension cuts (mainly because of deflation).. it is coming whether you like it or not. I suggest you prepare yourself for it.

dopester

beingjdc wrote: »

It's existed for about 120 years in one form or another

Good answer. Yes I know of that legal course... it is like 2 year LPC crammed in to 1 year, for people who didn't study Law at University. C... something.

beingjdc

dopester wrote: »

As much as some people find my projection for cutbacks and pay-cuts and public pension cuts (mainly because of deflation).. it is coming whether you like it or not. I suggest you prepare yourself for it.

There are ways and means to save significant amounts of money in the public sector, some of them aren't even that complicated, although they may be politically difficult. The two things which are depressing are firstly how much chatter on the internet is about how someone's heard from their mate down the pub that that Council Chief Exec has a gold plated limo and that's why tax has gone up, all from people who switch off if you try and have a conversation about the facts, and the other is that with a rising base of people with a need or entitlement of some sort (particularly the elderly) much of that saving will just be running to stand still, rather than something that can be converted into useful new spending or tax cuts.

Poppy9

Public sector expenditure has grown as the population ages and has more needs aside from all the other expectations we have of public services. Among the services you LA provide are:

• Social Services for children, elderly disabled, mentally ill and learning disabled.
• Education and lifelong learning which includes adult education classes and libraries.
• Enviromental services which include:
  Abandoned Vehicles
  Animals
  Building Control
  Cleaning and Litter
  Commercial Waste
  Commons Registration
  Composting
  Food - cafe, pubs, restaurants etc.
  Health and Safety Inspections public premises i.e. shops
  Local Land Charges
  Pest Control
  Planning
  Pollution
  Problem Hedges
  Recycling
  Rubbish Collection
  Trading Standards
  Tree Preservation Orders
  Waste Services
• Culture and Recreation (this includes parks, theatres, leisure centres).
• Highways. - Road building and maintenance. Public highway lighting
• Burials and cremations

Not all these services are provided in-house by the LA. What you may think is being done by your LA is actually contracted out to a private company or are agency workers.

When I started work for the LA over 20 years ago I didn't know of any office based agency workers. Now over 10% of my colleagues are agency staff with no job security, no pension etc but when they are dealing with members of the public they are subjected to the same attitude as salaried staff.

StevieJ

dopester wrote: »

Yes. Some of us think old people have a duty to die. Well not all old people, especailly if they are financially independent, but those who are well-past it (mentally) and costing us a fortune for nursing care, when in any other age, they'd not have the same cushy expensive drain on the NHS for treatments, and nursing or residential care laid on by the state + pensions with it.

Dopester, you are getting worse:eek: It was bad draw at Boro:D

Geoffo_M

dopester wrote: »

As much as some people find my projection for cutbacks and pay-cuts and public pension cuts (mainly because of deflation).. it is coming whether you like it or not. I suggest you prepare yourself for it.

No chance of any pension cuts, the unions are too strong. And those same unions contribute to New Labour. Also, most of the extra 3 million workers are likely to vote NL (job protection) so it is not in the interest of government to reduce this figure

Old_Slaphead

Geoffo_M wrote: »

No chance of any pension cuts, the unions are too strong. And those same unions contribute to New Labour. Also, most of the extra 3 million workers are likely to vote NL (job protection) so it is not in the interest of government to reduce this figure

Well maybe if they can't do anything about pensions then Gov't should freeze public sector pay indefinitely.

If any of them want future payrises they should trade off against part of their pensions.

Tho' NL may have the public sector votes in the bag, the rest of us are getting mighty hacked off and there's still (just) a few more of us - neither can 3 1/2 million on the dole be good for Labour reelection chances.