NHS Pension worth it?

PipPip

Have to agree. Just been browsing NHS jobs website. Finance jobs, advertised as 35 hours per week, pay similar to private sector. When you add the pension and the fact that most of them are not real jobs, the total packages look a lot higher plus people no doubt do only actually work their 35 hours. I was not joking when I mentioned looking into NHS jobs, might as well try to get my snout in too.

Ripoff_2

wonderpupp wrote: »

I am 30,
married, child free. (But 2 dogs, few chickens and a pair of ducks - kind of living the good life, but still have to work to pay the rent n bills, you know? )

No pension, few savings, no debt, rent house with my husband, living comfortably.

Been offered a job with the NHS, and thus offered NHS Pension.

Is it worth it, as by the time I get there, retirement age will be 68-70 at the rate we're going, and I doubt with my medical history and family med history I'll make it past 65...

So is it worth it, or just stick the money into an ISA?
If I don't join the pension, I'll have an extra £140 a month in my pocket, which I would put into my ISA. (Or save up for another motorbike..?)

The answer to your question is YES it is worth it, the other posts have alluded to that.

What I find most surprising and disturbing on this thread is the anger towards the public sector and it's pension schemes. The public sector jobs were and are available to ALL to apply for, the people moaning about the public pension scheme could have applied for jobs in the public sector if they were a mind to. The question therefore is "Why didn't you?" then you would have the benefit of a public sector pension, if that is now so important to you!

If you work in the private sector, it was and is your choice, along with the terms and conditions that go with it. Not all can work in either sector I agree but as it stands most people chose to work in the job they wanted be it public or private. It is only now when the issue of pensions is so up front that perhaps many are looking at that choice.

It is therefore not right for anyone to pull down others benefits and terms as though they should not be entitiled to them because you have not got the same terms. Your employment choice was yours alone and should you want better terms and therefore pensions you move jobs.

May I suggest that many people who chose the private sector went for the higher pay and bonuses and never really thought about things like pensions. You followed the money and now are decrying other peoples choices and benefits.

We should NOT be fighting each other public against private and driving all pensions to the bottom, we should be fighting together to get the best pensions for both private and public. Divide and rule has always worked and this thread is helping that succeed. Fight and stand together as ONE, not divided. WE should ALL have GOOD pensions both private and public and the fact that the private schemes are so poor are not the fault of the public sector workers.

yotmon

Well said Rip off. I joined the Police service over 30 years ago and didnt give two hoots about the pension - that was something to think about in my 50's. Just paid my contributions and got on with the job. Now after paying 11% I can afford to retire at 52 with a pension valued at £25,000. Yes, in todays society, it does seem young to retire, but when I joined in 1980, officers up to 1987 could retire with 25 years pensionable service at the age of 43. It's all relative to the times. Prior to 1962 when the length of service changed, nobody wanted to see bobbies on the beat in their late 50's chasing after burglars - no desk/backroom jobs in those days ! The choice is there for all to make, but nobody of my generation went into a job in the 70's and early 80's with an eye on a pension - unless you were a bit strange ! Now all employees look at are the fringe benefits/ health care freebies/child care needs/flexible working hours/sick pay etc etc. Just get a job you like and enjoy it - whether its 30 years or 50 - just enjoy !

Thicko2

Lots of misguiuded nonesense here as usual.

In terms of international comparative efficiency the NHS system holds up robustly compared to other places. Look at USA GDP expenditure for example and the shame that despite the total expenditure it leaves 1/2 population uncovered.

In terms of NHS pension affordability, look at the National Audit Office report into 2008 changes to the big public sector schemes, including that of the NHS. What it tells you is the changes introduced then pegged the expenditure to current levels. Currently the NHS pension scheme a year pays back 2bilion back to the treasury a year. it also placed responsibility back on members if the scheme became a net drain on the treasury.

Post this we have had rpi to cpi, and a plan to raise employee contributions by an average of 3%. infrormal rumours coming from discussions in NHS is that top earners, may go from 8.5% to 15%. RPI to CPI has reduced my transfer value by circa 15%. Wow what a tax rise.

The poster looking at NHS finance jobs - go for it. I suspect if it is at any level above processing invoices, the expectation on 35 hours is just that. Senior posts 35k plus are filled with people doing 50 to 60 hours as a rule, of course all unpaid overtime. Mostly because we have to get the work done. With 15 billion of efficiency savings to deliver and job cuts this isnt going to change. I suspect the poster attitude of looking for an easy life wont fit the values of the NHS.

A fundemental issue here on all such debates is the level that some 'taxpayers' believe they are supporting public sector workers. 14% employer contributions is not an absurd amount for a final salary pension scheme.

To be honest from my perspective, give me back my transfer value at RPI basis, promise me a 14% employer contribution and i would go it alone in a SIPP. With my contribution raising to somewhere between 11% and 15% and my total lack of faith in the coallition to keep their promises i would be more confident in charge of my own destiny.

bigjl

Lets not forget that the also get some pension if you have to retire due to ill health, tier 1 gives you what you have already paid for, tier 2 gives you what you have paid for and a percentage of what you would have got at normal retirement age.

For example I joined at 31, and now 10 years later I am facing ill health retirement at tier 1, as I was buying extra years, just over 10 yrs in the 1995 Section I will be getting a 20 yr pension if my application is successful.

It is very hard to get your pension early as in most things financial the NHS is very aggressive towards staff, they will happily pay out a lying chav that makes up a !!!! and bull story to get compensation just to keep them out of the papers, staff are an easy target.

But only a fool joins tha NHS without joining the pension, the only people I know that haven't joined so far seem to be a few of the University Students, obviously all the old hands give them advice to join ASAP which is usually taken.

bigjl

Well said Ripoff, I pay over £400 into my pension pot, a lot more than many people do, yes I pay extra, yes that was my decision and was the best decision for me and my family.

Anybody that moans about the pension in the public sector can go jump.

It took me 5 yrs to get into the LAS, from the date of my first application.

I was in perfect physical and mental health when I joined.

Now I have RA and spondylosis (spinal osteoarthritis), have had unsuccessful knee surgery, an operation that over 50 % of 999 Ambulance staff that I know will have during their career, I also have the beginnings of carpal tunnel syndrome, another medical complaint caused by the job. This is before you consider the post traumatic stress disorder and flashbacks.

I have no regrets, yse the cocktail of strong painkillers and medication for the RA is a bit of a pain, but heyho.

How many people have met later somebody that would have been dead without their direct action, how many people have delevered a baby, not in Hospital but in places such as in an Ambulance in the middle of the Barking Rd junction beside the football monument, or delivered a baby in the lift of a block of council flats, what about resusitating am 18 yr old Dutch student in the mud and shale below Tower Pier.

I have done these things and many others, and that is worth the pain etc.

But to be attacked by the idiots that don't have the guts to do what some public servants do without a second thought does annoy more than a little bit.

I feel sorry for the people joining the any public service job now, they have a very difficult job ahead, I am glad to be out of it in a way, but I still have the memory of my accomplishments, and no amount of moaning by those who couldn't do my job anyway is going to bother me.

mgh

PipPip wrote: »

Have to agree. Just been browsing NHS jobs website. Finance jobs, advertised as 35 hours per week, pay similar to private sector. When you add the pension and the fact that most of them are not real jobs, the total packages look a lot higher plus people no doubt do only actually work their 35 hours. I was not joking when I mentioned looking into NHS jobs, might as well try to get my snout in too.

With quotes like these, you sound almost as much of a prat as Bendix..!!

uk1

wonderpupp wrote: »

I am 30, married, child free.

No pension, few savings, no debt, rent house with my husband, living comfortably.

Been offered a job with the NHS, and thus offered NHS Pension.

So is it worth it, or just stick the money into an ISA?
If I don't join the pension, I'll have an extra £140 a month in my pocket, which I would put into my ISA. (Or save up for another motorbike..?)

As others have said it is a no brainer and you should snatch their hands off before any further changes are made for new entrants to the scheme - which will inevitably happen. You will then be in a position of thinking how wise your decision was rather than regretting not going for it for the rest of your NHS careeer.

You are fortunate to have access to a really great pension scheme like this and unluckily it is the nature of things and life generally that people who are jealous of your good fortune and through their taxes pay for it, will do anything to make themselves feel better by doing everything they can do to try and make you feel unhappy. In this process they make themselves look unattractive. It's very sad to read such nasty tripe aimed at someone who simply asked for factual advice and opinion, and who sounds like a very nice person.

Take the pension option offered to you, work hard looking after the health of the rest of us (and your own) and look forward to your pension. Use a bit of the pension to buy yourself that bike.

kidmugsy

"we should be fighting together to get the best pensions for both private and public": so who's going to pay for them?

saucer

bigjl wrote: »

How many people have met later somebody that would have been dead without their direct action, how many people have delevered a baby, not in Hospital but in places such as in an Ambulance in the middle of the Barking Rd junction beside the football monument, or delivered a baby in the lift of a block of council flats, what about resusitating am 18 yr old Dutch student in the mud and shale below Tower Pier.

I have done these things and many others, and that is worth the pain etc.

But to be attacked by the idiots that don't have the guts to do what some public servants do without a second thought does annoy more than a little bit.

I feel sorry for the people joining the any public service job now, they have a very difficult job ahead, I am glad to be out of it in a way, but I still have the memory of my accomplishments, and no amount of moaning by those who couldn't do my job anyway is going to bother me.

Well said you