Fire Brigade pension or private pension

djsmith200

FLAPJACK wrote: »

Don't forget that as a fireman (and thanks for doing that job btw!) you can retire at 50, on a full pension providing you have accrude 25 years service, I don't know how long you have been in the service, but if you started at your age of 28 you could retire with a full pension at 53. Only drawback is that a early fire service pension does not increase annually until you get to 55.

No private pension would pay a full pension at 50 thats for sure...and remember in the high risk profession you are in there is a chance that you would retire early due to ill health (hope not) and again I'm sure a private pension provider would be more "sticky" about providing a full pension then than the fire service pension would be.

Stick with the employers scheme.....as everyone else here says if not only to take advantage of their contribution to your pension pot.

Good luck .....and be careful out there!!

on the subject of age- these current proposals mean that some firefighters who are due to retire in 2 years for example could end up working an extra 5yrs, pay more, and get less.
there is no proof that working until 60 is feasible for this line of work. under the proposed scheme/changes large numbers of FF's are likely to face dismissal under capability procedures as fitness levels decline with age. i hope there will be a level of protection offered as regards to ill health esp.

RichandJ

djsmith200 wrote: »

on the subject of age- these current proposals mean that some firefighters who are due to retire in 2 years for example could end up working an extra 5yrs, pay more, and get less.
there is no proof that working until 60 is feasible for this line of work. under the proposed scheme/changes large numbers of FF's are likely to face dismissal under capability procedures as fitness levels decline with age. i hope there will be a level of protection offered as regards to ill health esp.

Link to your worst case scenario ?

Or is it union propaganda again ?

atush

It is my understanding that the years accrued are fixed and will have the previous retirement date/accrual rate. Only new years going forward will not.

It was also my understanding that those that to retirment would not be affected. But there are so many different PS schemes it is hard to keep track.

pmcx9

I have come back to this thread because I think its interesting to read what people post and then with hindsight see what has actually happened.

Since this thread started;

Firefighters will now retire at 60 and not 50.
They will now pay up to 16% off their salary into the pension rather than the longstanding 11%.
They will no longer be on a final salary scheme but a career average scheme.
Along with many other being affected the annual pension rise has been changed to CPI from RPI as well as the NI rate increasing with earning opt out changes.
Accrural rates have changed from an average 1/45ths to 1/58ths.

taking_stock

pmcx9 wrote: »

I have come back to this thread because I think its interesting to read what people post and then with hindsight see what has actually happened.

Since this thread started;

Firefighters will now retire at 60 and not 50.
They will now pay up to 16% off their salary into the pension rather than the longstanding 11%.
They will no longer be on a final salary scheme but a career average scheme.
Along with many other being affected the annual pension rise has been changed to CPI from RPI as well as the NI rate increasing with earning opt out changes.
Accrural rates have changed from an average 1/45ths to 1/58ths.

and so has every other pension scheme changed... have you not noticed the economic factors... or the political context????

Jack_Griffin

Put it this way, a private scheme with a £200,000 annuity will currently pay about £6500 p.a. index linked at 3% for someone who is 60. That is awful.

Be grateful for what you have got on offer & grab it with both hands.

Stargazer57

pmcx9 wrote: »

I have come back to this thread because I think its interesting to read what people post and then with hindsight see what has actually happened.

Since this thread started;

Firefighters will now retire at 60 and not 50.
They will now pay up to 16% off their salary into the pension rather than the longstanding 11%.
They will no longer be on a final salary scheme but a career average scheme.
Along with many other being affected the annual pension rise has been changed to CPI from RPI as well as the NI rate increasing with earning opt out changes.
Accrural rates have changed from an average 1/45ths to 1/58ths.

These are big reductions, but the remaining scheme is still very good by private sector standards. For me this merely brings home how staggeringly generous the old pension arrangements had become.

caledonia84

Instead of posting a whole new thread that will inevitably descend into public vs private sector again I thought I'd be as well just to continue with this one.

I'm not looking for sympathy here just trying to look at the situation differently. Would appreciate your views on this

It appears fire service privatisation could be another motive for pension reform?. I'd imagine a private company would not step in if they had to honour the current pension scheme?.

As (from the Hutton report) the NFPS is all ready sustainable then the newly proposed contributions the government want us to make will be going to the deficit. How much of difference will that really make to the deficit?

The new proposals are growing more and more unreasonable for us and people leaving the scheme on mass is a real possibility. As the government plan to implement a cost ceiling on what they contribute then the remaining members will have to contribute more to cover the cost of the firefighters all ready retired, the scheme will collapse surely? it doesn't take a large % to go to make the scheme unviable thus leaving the FRS wide open to privatisation.

As mentioned above just looking for your views on this and if it seams possible that the government would actually want the scheme to collapse to pave the way for someone like assetco G4S or Biffa?

Another factor is how they are treating NFPS and FPS very differently and unfairly

FPS will rise from 11.5% to 16%
NFPS will rise from 8.5% to 16% ( to still receive less)

Its as if they are trying to drive a wedge between old and new pension scheme members, play us off against each other so we do leave.

If they implement this cost ceiling then the usual argument of "its still better than anyone elses!" is out the window? Again feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

molerat

Even with the changes the schemes are far better than you will get with a money purchase scheme and even more so if there is no employer contribution to that private scheme. Anyone leaving the scheme IMHO is a fool.

caledonia84

molerat wrote: »

Even with the changes the schemes are far better than you will get with a money purchase scheme and even more so if there is no employer contribution to that private scheme. Anyone leaving the scheme IMHO is a fool.

Thanks but exactley the kind of answer I was hoping not to get on this. As I said the are planning on implementing a cost ceiling to what they will pay which changes the goalposts