Public Sector Pension Strikes – A JOKE !

dizzie

Thicko2, I appreciate that there were pension changes in 2007, but that was pre-recession. The financial situation has changed a lot since then and further cuts have had to be made in all sorts of areas. Private enterprise has pulled in its own belt as regards salaries and benefits for workers since then, and now it is time for reviews and reforms in the public sector.

Don't get me wrong, I loathe and detest the attitude of the super-rich who always pay proportionately less of their income in taxes because they employ professionals to exploit all the little loopholes in the tax system. It is legalised robbery and nothing less. Yet over the years, I've noticed that whichever party is in power, they all treat them with the utmost sycophancy and continue to give them huge concessions. As a first priority, I would love to see someone get tough! But they won't, because they are worried that they'll leave the country and take the "wealth creation" with them.

So it's us - always the ordinary working man and woman that they clobber. I don't like it as much as the next person...but if that's the way it is, then I'd rather we shared the "clobbering" out a little!

As an aside, I note that they are putting welfare benefits up by inflation, but not working tax credits for low paid workers. With unemployment rising and making a bigger deficit hole...surely they should be trying to encourage people to take up some form of work via the tax system. Inflation is particularly difficult for the lowest paid in our society.

Moby

dizzie wrote: »

Thicko2,
So it's us - always the ordinary working man and woman that they clobber. I don't like it as much as the next person...but if that's the way it is, then I'd rather we shared the "clobbering" out a little!

With that attitude you are the perfect cannon fodder this government needs. I don't accept 'that's the way it is'. What sort of an attitude is that....unbelievable!

sheffield_lad

Moby wrote: »

Are your kids employed as chimmney sweeps and do you serve them gravel for breakfast and do you live in a shoe box on side of motorway?;)


You choose to do that because commission forms part of your reward in whatever you do? or is it that you just want to make other people happy?;)

Why because I don't have sickies or lunch lol? I used to be self employed so often went without you get used to it. The 'its my right to a break' is why the PS are often overlooked for jobs in the private sector.


Nope its so I can earn more money to keep the roof over my head and a holiday or 2

sheffield_lad

Moby wrote: »

With that attitude you are the perfect cannon fodder this government needs. I don't accept 'that's the way it is'. What sort of an attitude is that....unbelievable!

She's spot on, we are all getting older and all pensions are shrinking things effect the private sector as well as the PService in real world

dizzie

Moby wrote: »

With that attitude you are the perfect cannon fodder this government needs. I don't accept 'that's the way it is'. What sort of an attitude is that....unbelievable!

I'm a realist Moby, not a dreamer. No-one will ever touch the super rich - they have too much power. Yes, it's a shame that they got so powerful in the first place, but there we are - it's happened.

So you guys want to be protected from the cuts? If you are successful in keeping your current pension deal, then who picks up the tab if they won't touch the super-rich?

Moby

howee wrote: »

Why because I don't have sickies or lunch lol? I used to be self employed so often went without you get used to it. The 'its my right to a break' is why the PS are often overlooked for jobs in the private sector. 2

All you are saying is that you drove yourself harder because you were working for yourself....totally understandable. Its called self interest!

Al_Mitch

The average public sector pension is £6500. The average for women is £4000. Hardly gold plated.

Consider also that being in receipt of this pension will stop you from claiming Pension Credit due to your income being too high and you can see that the difference between someone on a public sector pension and someone who has never worked is actually a lot smaller than you imagine.

People need to forget about private sector pension to public sector pension comparisons. This is a carefully manipulated scheme by the government to draw people away from their real goals which are to erode the terms and conditions of every worker, public or private sector, to satiate their lords and masters the capitalist elite.

This conservative government states the problem is that banks are not lending. They printed £275 billion of new money and gave it to the banks. the bank put it into their safes. They are now giving tax breaks to the banks to lend money. Why did the bank of England not lend the money to the businesses and cut out the middle man? Because then the monied powers would not get their cut.

Public and private sector need to unite to prevent this but the government has us fighting each other while they destroy our rights.

Announced today: -

Employers will be able to make people redundant without being taken to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. - Did any of you catch that one?

Public sector pay will be regionalised meaning different rates of pay dependant on where you live, with the conservative areas of the South West being paid more than the Labour areas in the North. - What about that one?

People on benefits will get a 5.2% rise in their benefits but benefits for workers, tax credits etc, will be frozen. Or that one?

Lets all focus on the real problem and stop quarrelling between ourselves about petty differences in pensions. We, the workers, need to take a stand against them, the monied powers.

MCGONIS

What I am down about is that fact, I work in a benefit office dealing with people in a crisis who have lost their benefit money or whatever. And want an interest free loan instead. There are thousands of these callers each day.

On a very basic level. The people I deal with wanting the loan, do not like us. But from reading these posts, the general public do not like us either.

I wish I had never joined the civil service. I want to earn a wage and do the job HM GOVERNMENT required me to do. But I cannot win either way.

2gorgeousgirls

Al_Mitch wrote: »

The average public sector pension is £6500. The average for women is £4000. Hardly gold plated.

Consider also that being in receipt of this pension will stop you from claiming Pension Credit due to your income being too high and you can see that the difference between someone on a public sector pension and someone who has never worked is actually a lot smaller than you imagine.

People need to forget about private sector pension to public sector pension comparisons. This is a carefully manipulated scheme by the government to draw people away from their real goals which are to erode the terms and conditions of every worker, public or private sector, to satiate their lords and masters the capitalist elite.

This conservative government states the problem is that banks are not lending. They printed £275 billion of new money and gave it to the banks. the bank put it into their safes. They are now giving tax breaks to the banks to lend money. Why did the bank of England not lend the money to the businesses and cut out the middle man? Because then the monied powers would not get their cut.

Public and private sector need to unite to prevent this but the government has us fighting each other while they destroy our rights.

Announced today: -

Employers will be able to make people redundant without being taken to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. - Did any of you catch that one?

Public sector pay will be regionalised meaning different rates of pay dependant on where you live, with the conservative areas of the South West being paid more than the Labour areas in the North. - What about that one?

People on benefits will get a 5.2% rise in their benefits but benefits for workers, tax credits etc, will be frozen. Or that one?

Lets all focus on the real problem and stop quarrelling between ourselves about petty differences in pensions. We, the workers, need to take a stand against them, the monied powers.

Well said.

Today's announcement also included a further freeze on pay at 1% for two years on top of the 3 we all know about.

As for bit in bold about regionalised pay, that has been the case in NI for years. My equivalent in GB earns approx £3,000 pa more than I do.

As well as being paid less, we have limited competition here for many of our services. Until recently NI electricity had a monoply on supplying energy. Most of NI cannot receive natural gas so are stuck with oil for our heating. And, horror of horrors, most of us have no competition regarding tv. Sky is the only option for most of NI as cable is only available in Belfast and surrounding area but even then we can;t get sky broadband at the prices available in GB. All this on top of the increased costs of food, oil, petrol etc.

Now we are partially governed by the local Assembly with 108 MLAs (equivalent to MPs) for a country the size of Yorkshire. We have several education boards, several health trusts and 28, yes, 28 councils. It's all a ridiculous waste of money, money which would be much better spent at the coal face, eg schools, health etc and paying the people who work in these areas a decent wage with a decent pension. NI also desperately needs to look at boosting our private sector by attracting companies from outside NI to invest here.

dizzie

Al Mitch, I think we have to be careful about "averages". We don't know how many years service or part time work made up that pension. A better judgement of a scheme can be made by looking at the actual formula used to calculate a pension.

But I do agree that for those with small pensions, they are sometimes not so much better off than those who have saved nothing (due to the fact that the latter will often get more state benefits). I think it is crazy that people who have been responsible enough to save a little for their retirement should effectively be brought down to the same financial level as those who have "lived for today" and haven't given a toss about tomorrow. Okay, I do appreciate that there are certain people in society who (through no fault of their own) could not save for retirement...but there are also plenty that could have saved, or done an ounce of work, but who have chosen not to.

Likewise, although I'm not affected by the working tax credit changes, I am dismayed that low paid working people should have this frozen, whilst other benefit claimants will see a rise of >5%.