MSE News: Public sector pension benefits should be cut – report

BoxerfanUK

TheSaint wrote: »

Presumably Boxerfan if you transfer to a civilian grade that counts as if you had left your job and your pension is screwed?

In theory you could become a civilian, but a Prison Officer is an 'operational' grade whereas a civilian is 'non operational', so you would be classed as leaving and taking re-employment, there are all sorts of implications to this in terms of pay and conditions etc.

Butti

Until the end of my fixed term contract last year I was working in the public sector.

There seems to me to be a lot of information and misinformation. For me, in local government and aged 42, my retirement age had already gone up to 68 in the Local Government Pension Scheme. Not sure which age my state pension kicks in at.

Career averages save money so presumably a lot of people who have worked their way up to a certain level will lose out. I think given that Cameron and the rest of the government are such a principled lot, maybe they can lead by example and reform their pensions first. He is entitled to half his salary each year after he has worked 1 day in the job - isn't that nice. The speaker and the leader are on the same package.

B

BoxerfanUK

The other thing I would like to know is......How Hutton and the Gov't are going to deal with the 'Reserved rights' issue.

i.e. ...... Police, Fireman and Prison Officers (the latter who joined before sept 1987) all retain reserved rights to doubling of pension years for each year above 20 years service.

My take on this, is that the meaning is in the words. 'Reserved rights', meaning, a right that is reserved and cannot be taken away.

What does everyone else think?

markeymark

and also not to mention that the life expectancy of a retired prison officer is much lower than "normal stress free jobs"

Stargazer57

Butti wrote: »

Career averages save money so presumably a lot of people who have worked their way up to a certain level will lose out. I think given that Cameron and the rest of the government are such a principled lot, maybe they can lead by example and reform their pensions first. He is entitled to half his salary each year after he has worked 1 day in the job - isn't that nice. The speaker and the leader are on the same package.B

Cameron's already given his up:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1289001/BUDGET-2010-David-Cameron-says-Im-giving-66-000-pension.html

pedro_scot

How do these people who earn less than £11000 a year as a classroom assistant are expected to live with a rise in the cost of living with their contributions expected to rise. You will find a lot of the lower earners pulling out of the pension and where will that leave the public purse in the future. Just when will we see MP's pension arrangements looked at?????????????????????????

Andy_L

TheSaint wrote: »

Presumably Boxerfan if you transfer to a civilian grade that counts as if you had left your job and your pension is screwed?

Aren't prison officers members of the Civil Service pension scheme in which case a pension transfer (to any other part of the public sector) is easy. Although not necessarally a good idea depending on the pay differences

ds9074

I'm in the NHS pension scheme and I have to say Hutton's recommendations still sound like a good deal to me.

If I understand the 'career average' correctly then someone who stays at the same or similar grade of job over their career will not be much worse off than under final salary.

The people that will be worse off will be those that get lucky and get big promotions towards the end of their career.

Overall it sounds fairer because what you get out should be linked more closely to what you pay in if it is career average. At present someone could in theory pay a very low contribution for years on a low salary but if they are promoted late in their career it is basically treated as if they worked in the higher paid post the whole time.

The increase in the Normal Pension Age sounds bad but not sure it will have that much impact on most people. Firstly there will be the option to take the pension sooner at a reduced rate. Secondly you would have to be getting a big enough pension not to need the state pension to retire before SPA - and that rules out most lower paid workers.

It also strikes me that it may give more flexibility for example for people to go to lower paid and less stressed roles later in their career, or go part time, rather than thinking they have to hang on in their job to keep the 'final salary' calculation high.

It also looks like these are still going to be more generous pensions that most private sector workers get. To top it off we also get to keep any final salary entitlement we have accured so people coming up to retirement probably wont notice much difference at all.

So the rationale for strikes over this is what?? Striking to protect high flyers and those on good wages who can afford to retire before they get their state pension? Any old excuse to have a go at a 'Tory-led' government??

borders

Doesnt matter if it's private or public sector. I'm firmly against changes to pensions for existing employees. It's part of the terms and conditions of your job when you started. It's a contract between you and your employer and it should be honoured. Lots of private companies shafted their staff by changing the terms of their final salary pensions. It wasnt right then and it isnt right now.

And lets remember the reason why so many pension funds are in poor financial health. Good old Maggie who told the companies that they could take contribution holidays. If the correct contributions had been made when they should have, and earned the extra money that they should have, then there would have been far less problems with pensions nowadays.

Thats my rant over. Except to remind you that there are plenty of low paid public sector workers who cant afford to retire early and who are the ones who are going to get royally screwed by this. It's not all police, teachers, etc.

BoxerfanUK

Andy_L wrote: »

Aren't prison officers members of the Civil Service pension scheme in which case a pension transfer (to any other part of the public sector) is easy. Although not necessarally a good idea depending on the pay differences

Yes Andy there are all in the PCSPS but as you know there are different versions, Classic (with reserved rights) Classic (without), Classic plus, Premium, Nuvos, Partnership, all of which are dependant on when you joined and with different benefit/contribution rates, so leaving and re-employing in a different grade or job means that the scheme you are currently in won't be the one offered in a different Civil service post.