Teachers' pension - stay? go?

CLAPTON

hieveryone wrote: »

Believe me, I have tried and tried to read pension guidelines and they baffle me completely :rotfl:

Thank you for your help though, will try to keep investigating.

start at the beginning

read from the top and then left to right

read a whole paragraph in one go

when a paragraph makes no sense the post it here and people will help

mulronie

CLAPTON wrote: »

start at the beginning

read from the top and then left to right

read a whole paragraph in one go

I agree.

Clapton maybe you should go into teaching? I think kids these days could do with that kind of instruction!

To the OP, the fact that your colleagues in teaching and the wider public sector took strike action over pensions should tell you how valuable this benefit is and how you'd be insane to stop participating.

While everyone is agreed it is emphatically a good scheme for you to participate in, you owe it to yourself to get to grips with why. You wouldn't throw £150 a month into a well on the recommendation of this forum, so do the research and find out exactly what benefits you are accruing for your contribution.

CLAPTON

mulronie wrote: »

I agree.

Clapton maybe you should go into teaching? I think kids these days could do with that kind of instruction!

To the OP, the fact that your colleagues in teaching and the wider public sector took strike action over pensions should tell you how valuable this benefit is and how you'd be insane to stop participating.

While everyone is agreed it is emphatically a good scheme for you to participate in, you owe it to yourself to get to grips with why. You wouldn't throw £150 a month into a well on the recommendation of this forum, so do the research and find out exactly what benefits you are accruing for your contribution.

no doubt about it, it's best you don't go into teaching.

opinions4u

OP, stay in the scheme.

Martin, your campaign for financial education in schools is flawed.

hieveryone

Thanks all for your advice.

To be fair, I think there are some people in this world who are more financially minded and can make sense of this sort of thing. I'm not one of them.

I work with children who are disabled and/or have severe and complex needs and the thought of sitting down to try and read something that could essentially be written in a different language doesn't appeal to me.

I know it is important, I just wasn't sure how important.

As for the strike action, anything for a day off, eh? :rotfl:

jem16

hieveryone wrote: »

I know it is important, I just wasn't sure how important.

When did you join the scheme as there are two different ways of calculating your pension depending on when you joined? Retirement age is also different.

As for the strike action, anything for a day off, eh? :rotfl:

Personally I'd rather not strike. I'd rather have been at work. I did, however, join in with the march.

hieveryone

jem16 wrote: »

When did you join the scheme as there are two different ways of calculating your pension depending on when you joined? Retirement age is also different.



Personally I'd rather not strike. I'd rather have been at work. I did, however, join in with the march.

I joined in 2009.

The bit I bolded was a joke on my part, as this seems to be the common stereotype of what teachers' think.

jem16

hieveryone wrote: »

I joined in 2009.

So you are on the 1/60ths scheme described earlier. It also has a retirement age of 65.

If you joined in 2009 you would not be entitled to a refund of contributions if you left but you would be absolutely mad to do leave and even more mad to take a refund and lose all of your employer contributions.

I was just talking to a colleague last week who is 60 shortly but says she can't retire just yet - part of the reason being that she took a refund of her contributions all those years ago when she left teaching to start a family.

The bit I bolded was a joke on my part, as this seems to be the common stereotype of what teachers' think.

Well hopefully you joined in the march somewhere. From my school the only 2 members of staff that went along were the 2 "oldies" about to retire. You youngsters ( assuming you are here) need to find out how important this is and worth fighting for. Although to be honest I don't think it's going anywhere. From 2015 it's more than likely going to be a career average scheme, which is still good.

hieveryone

jem16 wrote: »

So you are on the 1/60ths scheme described earlier. It also has a retirement age of 65.

If you joined in 2009 you would not be entitled to a refund of contributions if you left but you would be absolutely mad to do leave and even more mad to take a refund and lose all of your employer contributions.

I was just talking to a colleague last week who is 60 shortly but says she can't retire just yet - part of the reason being that she took a refund of her contributions all those years ago when she left teaching to start a family.



Well hopefully you joined in the march somewhere. From my school the only 2 members of staff that went along were the 2 "oldies" about to retire. You youngsters ( assuming you are here) need to find out how important this is and worth fighting for. Although to be honest I don't think it's going anywhere. From 2015 it's more than likely going to be a career average scheme, which is still good.

Yes I did join in, and I am relatively young at 27!

I think perhaps 'back in the day', a pension was seen as something to look into and invest in, and that has somehow been lost along the way.

I look at that money going out of my payslip and think 'I could have a better car, I could use that money for something else etc..' and not properly understanding the benefits in later life.

I know I should really look into it so that I value what it is I have, it's just a case of finding the time.

Thank you for all your replies though, it has put me off cancelling the scheme.

jem16

hieveryone wrote: »

Yes I did join in, and I am relatively young at 27!

Glad to hear that.

I think perhaps 'back in the day', a pension was seen as something to look into and invest in, and that has somehow been lost along the way.

I look at that money going out of my payslip and think 'I could have a better car, I could use that money for something else etc..' and not properly understanding the benefits in later life.

I think your 2nd paragraph shows why it's been lost. Unfortunately many of todays youngsters are of the "I must have it now" brigade. Most older people saved up and then bought something as opposed to just sticking it on credit.

I know I should really look into it so that I value what it is I have, it's just a case of finding the time.

There's always time if it's important enough.

Thank you for all your replies though, it has put me off cancelling the scheme.

That's good. You would regret it later in life.