Why should public sector be better off?

karens_3

My nan has just retired at 65 after spending her working life doing a variety of cleaning jobs and shop assistant jobs - mostly on the minimum wage. She has to manage now on £97.65 a week. Well, she can't. So she has to do part time work wherever she can get it.
I don't see why public sector people should retire at 60 (ha - long before this) and yet they still bleat away about being underpaid.
Have they ever thought how much they would have to put away from a salary to get those pensions?? Most people can't afford ANY pension saving!
I hope this government force public sector workers to save for their own retirement like the rest of us (in flawed insurance schemes like Equitable Life etc.). Make the pampered bunch keep earning until they are at least 65 like everyone else! Their work isn't any more valuable or exhausting so why not?

Esqui

I'd rather the private sector got itself together, and treated its workers just as well. No need to drag everyone down to the same low

vyle

karens wrote: »

My nan has just retired at 65 after spending her working life doing a variety of cleaning jobs and shop assistant jobs - mostly on the minimum wage. She has to manage now on £97.65 a week. Well, she can't. So she has to do part time work wherever she can get it.
I don't see why public sector people should retire at 60 (ha - long before this) and yet they still bleat away about being underpaid.
Have they ever thought how much they would have to put away from a salary to get those pensions?? Most people can't afford ANY pension saving!
I hope this government force public sector workers to save for their own retirement like the rest of us (in flawed insurance schemes like Equitable Life etc.). Make the pampered bunch keep earning until they are at least 65 like everyone else! Their work isn't any more valuable or exhausting so why not?

You've obviously never worked in the public sector.

When you speak of pampered workers, you mean the minimum wage, the fact I would still have to retire at 65 had I stayed, NO employee benefits, ridiculous, contrived working practices to note the minutiae of every piece of work I did to make sure the paper trail was 100% accountable -- I'm talking having to write a long winded note on a person's record every time I looked at a page, even if I had to look at the same page twice in a row.

The office was about 30 mins walk from the nearest shop, and charged £2 for a coffee and food was equally overpriced, training was non-existant (my team got moved to a new workstream and the week of the training was cancelled, but our other job had gone, meaning that we had literally NOTHING to do for a week until they got the training guy in for two days to do a week long course).

And if it wasn't !!!! enough working there, there were people like you, OP who looked down on me every time I had to say where I worked because they assumed that public sector workers sit on satin cushions and have caviar spooned into their mouths while earning huge salaries and get to retire after a week to giant pensions.

Christ, at the time I left, my pension (Which came out of my pay anyway) stood at £50 a week. Huge, huge pension. Yeah, that's enough to live on.

catch_me_if_you_can

Does your nan qualify for pension credit?

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/moneytaxandbenefits/benefitstaxcreditsandothersupport/on_a_low_income/dg_10018692

wealdroam

OP, would've been a good idea for your nan to have subscribed to some sort of private pension scheme.

Many people in the private sector realise they need to do that to supplement the state pension.

Rolandtheroadie

My only critisism of the public sector in this day and age is that they should pay more to their own pension. The wifes council employed, it's not just sour grapes.
My own final salary scheme has went from 5% to 12.5% ish.
OP. your gran could have contributed (and paid) for her own pension as has been said.

Foggster

wealdroam wrote: »

OP, would've been a good idea for your nan to have subscribed to some sort of private pension scheme.

Many people in the private sector realise they need to do that to supplement the state pension.

Totally agree. My father of 80 and mother of 75 were never public sector workers but now draw comfortable pensions because they took it upon themselves to save for the future. Neither of them were in executive positions or anything fancy but realised they shouldnt rely on anyone to help them in their old age.

Does the OPs nan have any kind of housing and council tax benefit or is she expected to fund that out of her £97.65? If she does then maybe those figures need to be added to the sum she is expected to live on to ensure a balanced argument.

tony6403

karens wrote: »

I don't see why public sector people should retire at 60 (ha - long before this) and yet they still bleat away about being underpaid.
Have they ever thought how much they would have to put away from a salary to get those pensions?? Most people can't afford ANY pension saving!
I hope this government force public sector workers to save for their own retirement like the rest of us (in flawed insurance schemes like Equitable Life etc.). Make the pampered bunch keep earning until they are at least 65 like everyone else! Their work isn't any more valuable or exhausting so why not?

You don't seem to understand how local government pensions are financed.
There are so many rules but some which you ought to know are:
- employees have to pay towards their pension - 6% to 8% of their earnings
- yes retirement can be at 60 years of age but the pension will only be paid based on the number of years worked and contributions paid
- their occupational pension contributions are in addition to national insurance payments

cherie1122

I work for the local council and pay into their pension scheme. I'm 61 now and still need to work (no retirement for me just yet)

When I do retire I'll get a Local Government pension which won't be very much but will stop me getting extras like pension credit. We get no perks for working in local government and like one of the posters above have to pay sky high prices for coffee and meals. I end up making my own coffee and bringing sandwiches in to eat at lunchtime.

Your nan could have paid into a pension scheme like I did all those years - it's not difficult.

suited-aces

People, stop letting facts get in the way of a good rant, its not how things work round here!

Freddie_Snowbits

My first boss in 1978 said the Company has a subssided shop, a sports and social club and a pension scheme. he then explained that if he was our age then, he would not put a penny into the said as when we retire, they'll be nothing left in the pot. he then said that if we wanted to guarantee our pension, work for some time in your life for the public, as the pensions they pay are taken from today's taxes, as the employee (the public sector) does not put money aside to pay for these things.

Then we had in the late 1990's, the Gorbo Blown who raked over the company schemes to collect a tax to pay the public pensions.

And stil;l we have the misguided belief that if I put away 5% of my salary for 40 years, I can live for another 20 years on 2/3rds of my final salary! One gathers that 5% and 66% are extremes apart, the calculation did not work then, it doesd not now, it shall not still when I retire.

Note to editors, I finish work tomorrow as an employee for the last time. On Wednesday my pension pot shall be gathered in, and become part of my company I set up 3 years back