Advice for son

bigadaj

Ultimately all employment packages should be stated to include all benefits, then there would be a like for like comparison. The real value of defined benefit schemes would then be evident and ona sensible world arguments would more easily be settled about relative worth, payments etc. I'm just surprised that the government hasn't put more emphasis on this, jacking up public sector salaries by a half to a third would make them look much better.

taking_stock

tell him to join - as everybody else has said!

.... and keep telling him until he has. Be absolute madness not to!!

GhIFA

kidmugsy wrote: »

There's a serious point lurking here. If these horribly expensive schemes - expensive for the taxpayer, that is to say - aren't appreciated by the employees, then it seems likely that they aren't doing their job of attracting and retaining staff.

Might it not be better to offer a 10% pay rise to any employee who agrees to leaves the scheme? They could always be offered defined contribution auto-enrolment terms instead.

Would fly in the face of the auto-enrolment legislation which is very clear on the punishment employers face on offering incentives for employees to opt out of the pension.

badger09

wrlfc wrote: »

Hello everyone.
My eldest son has just started work at a local prison.
He was given the option to join the Local government pension scheme that is run there.He used to work in another local prison for about 4years up until 3years ago and was a member of the LGPS scheme(same supplier as his proposed new one).
He has asked for my advise about rejoining the scheme as he is unsure what to do.His contribution is 5.5% with his employers paying 14.4%.I informed him he would be foolish not to rejoin,but he is still not sure.
He is 28 years old but is only on 18.5 hours per week, so therefore I don`t think he will pay income tax,not sure about NI.
I`ve posted on here so that maybe more knowledgeable people might be able to inform him of his options.
Thank you.

Why is he unsure what to do? Tell him if he doesn't join, he is saying 'No, thank you' to free money! Why on earth would he do that? :eek:

Good advice from hyubh to investigate consolidating both periods of service. This can make a huge difference if it is still a final salary scheme.

kidmugsy

GhIFA wrote: »

Would fly in the face of the auto-enrolment legislation which is very clear on the punishment employers face on offering incentives for employees to opt out of the pension.

Isn't the punishment for encouraging opting out from auto-enrolment, rather than opting out of some other scheme into auto-enrolment?

kidmugsy

hyubh wrote: »

You realise this thread doesn't actually support that assertion?

But the thread is written by people who are not the son: the issue is that the son hasn't a clue how valuable the scheme is to him. Yet the son's attitude is repeated in this forum by other people several times a week. The cost of these government-employee schemes is absurd. Time for auto-enrolment, just as the civil servants have designed for the plebs.

GhIFA

kidmugsy wrote: »

Isn't the punishment for encouraging opting out from auto-enrolment, rather than opting out of some other scheme into auto-enrolment?

Yes, but the point is that, regardless of what type of scheme you are referring to, you are advocating that public sector bodies should be able to offer financial incentives to "encourage" staff to opt out of a pension scheme, when a private company taking the same action would be hit with a significant fine. Unworkable in my opinion.

kidmugsy

GhIFA wrote: »

you are advocating that public sector bodies should be able to offer financial incentives to "encourage" staff to opt out of a pension scheme, when a private company taking the same action would be hit with a significant fine. Unworkable in my opinion.

Oh well then it will be necessary just to close those final salary schemes and find some other way to attract and retain staff. After all, when - as will presumably soon be the case - no other employers offer final salary pensions, it will not be necessary to compete with other final salary schemes.