Why should public sector be better off?

gregg1

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 are talking absolute rubbish. My OH and I both work for the public sector and have paid a pretty hefty percentage of our wages into the pension fund. We don't get it for nothing you know? Retire at 60? I wish ! We will probably both be working till we are nearer 70. get your facts right.

It also really pees me off when people think that just because they have it tough (usually because they have not bothered to make provision for their retirement whilst earning) then everyone else should be made to suffer as well. What a blinkered and selfish way of thinking.

barbiedoll

My aunt worked in the public sector until she was 65 (she retired 25 years ago) to ensure that her pension was a little higher. To thank her for providing for her old age herself, the government now let her pay full rent and full council tax. Unlike the majority of her sponging neighbours with their shedload of kids and their generous weekly benefits who contribute nothing to the economy, she worked all her life, never claimed a penny in state aid and even now, at the age of 90, is still "popping in" to help her disabled neighbour, who cannot get a home help due to the budget cuts. Better off? I don't think so!

qetu1357

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?

I don't know how many children and grandchildren she has but lets assume 2 and 4.

Why don't the 2 and 4 (makes 6) slip her £20 a week each making £120 a week?

hoogervaaner

I work hard in the public sector and I pay into my pension every month. I get a bit cross when people think public sector jobs are cushy goldmines. I earn less than I would in the private sector but love my work and love making a genuine difference and improvement to the sector I work in.
Today I made a 250 mile round trip on a call out in my 13 year old car, where I spent 5 chilly hours on site. I'm not whinging, I feel honoured to be in my role. I worked damn hard at school, college and uni to be in my position and still earn less than the national average. I hope my pension is reasonable, I most certainly will have worked hard and paid hard into it.

karens_3

That is pretty much what we are going to do, qetu1357.
I am just stunned by what has been written by the public 'servants' on this thread (ha! what a stupid thing to call you - self-serving more like it). Do you really know how much you would have to save to get any sort of pension? £100,000 buys an annual income of around £5000 - £100 per week (who said they had ONLY got £50 per week pension? Still an ample pot of £50,000 to give you THAT). A public servant on a pension of £25000 (not unheard of) would have to have a pension pot of half a million pounds! You really believe that you poor, hard-done-to public servants have made proper contributions from your incomes to produce a pension pot like that AND live as well??? It's a sick joke. You are deluding yourselves. Get real.
The only public sector workers who deserve good, gold-plated pensions are our armed forces.
Ask anyone with a proper job whether they can manage pension contributions and pay mortgages etc. - lorry drivers, shop assistants, chefs, car body repair lads etc.
Unless you can drum up a final pot of more than £5000, forget it. Annuity companies don't want to know.

gregg1

karens wrote: »

That is pretty much what we are going to do, qetu1357.
I am just stunned by what has been written by the public 'servants' on this thread (ha! what a stupid thing to call you - self-serving more like it). Do you really know how much you would have to save to get any sort of pension? £100,000 buys an annual income of around £5000 - £100 per week (who said they had ONLY got £50 per week pension? Still an ample pot of £50,000 to give you THAT). A public servant on a pension of £25000 (not unheard of) would have to have a pension pot of half a million pounds! You really believe that you poor, hard-done-to public servants have made proper contributions from your incomes to produce a pension pot like that AND live as well??? It's a sick joke. You are deluding yourselves. Get real.
The only public sector workers who deserve good, gold-plated pensions are our armed forces.
Ask anyone with a proper job whether they can manage pension contributions and pay mortgages etc. - lorry drivers, shop assistants, chefs, car body repair lads etc.
Unless you can drum up a final pot of more than £5000, forget it. Annuity companies don't want to know.

As I said before - you are talking absolute garbage. We are certainly not going to have anything even in spitting distance of a £25,000 pension. You are new here I see and I would strongly advise you to get your facts right next time before you post. People will take you far more seriously if you stop ranting and use that energy to do your homework!!

Deep_In_Debt

karens wrote: »

That is pretty much what we are going to do, qetu1357.
I am just stunned by what has been written by the public 'servants' on this thread (ha! what a stupid thing to call you - self-serving more like it). Do you really know how much you would have to save to get any sort of pension? £100,000 buys an annual income of around £5000 - £100 per week (who said they had ONLY got £50 per week pension? Still an ample pot of £50,000 to give you THAT). A public servant on a pension of £25000 (not unheard of) would have to have a pension pot of half a million pounds! You really believe that you poor, hard-done-to public servants have made proper contributions from your incomes to produce a pension pot like that AND live as well??? It's a sick joke. You are deluding yourselves. Get real.
The only public sector workers who deserve good, gold-plated pensions are our armed forces.
Ask anyone with a proper job whether they can manage pension contributions and pay mortgages etc. - lorry drivers, shop assistants, chefs, car body repair lads etc.
Unless you can drum up a final pot of more than £5000, forget it. Annuity companies don't want to know.

Have you got proof of this?

hoogervaaner

karens wrote: »

That is pretty much what we are going to do, qetu1357.
I am just stunned by what has been written by the public 'servants' on this thread (ha! what a stupid thing to call you - self-serving more like it). Do you really know how much you would have to save to get any sort of pension? £100,000 buys an annual income of around £5000 - £100 per week (who said they had ONLY got £50 per week pension? Still an ample pot of £50,000 to give you THAT). A public servant on a pension of £25000 (not unheard of) would have to have a pension pot of half a million pounds! You really believe that you poor, hard-done-to public servants have made proper contributions from your incomes to produce a pension pot like that AND live as well??? It's a sick joke. You are deluding yourselves. Get real.
The only public sector workers who deserve good, gold-plated pensions are our armed forces.
Ask anyone with a proper job whether they can manage pension contributions and pay mortgages etc. - lorry drivers, shop assistants, chefs, car body repair lads etc.
Unless you can drum up a final pot of more than £5000, forget it. Annuity companies don't want to know.

I'm flattered you think I may earn the £75,000 I would require to get £25,000 back as a 1/3 of salary pension. Sadly I do not, nor does anyone I work with, this includes my boss, her boss, her bosses boss, her bosses bosses boss or indeed her bosses bosses bosses boss..... I could go on but as we have yet to reach the £50k mark it could take some time and we would need to get to director level of which there are only a few in the entire organisation of several thousand staff!!!!! If you honestly don't think many of the folks in admin who have devoted their lives to public service, paid out for 40 odd years to get a pension of £5000/year deserve every penny you and I are destined not to agree.

WhiteHorse

Esqui wrote: »

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

Or is it that the public sector is paid at inflated non-market rates?

WhiteHorse

karens wrote: »

I am just stunned by what has been written by the public 'servants' on this thread ...

Yes, it's always interesting to shake the tree and to see what falls out. All the nasty little nobodies whose perceived status is dependent upon their employment, and who consequently consider any attack upon the organisation to be an attack on themselves.