Welcome to our world

t0rt0ise

The whole argument just makes me smile. Years back in the 70s I was a nurse on a pittance of a wage. I remember being on an overtime ban in order to try to get a decent pay rise. I don't remember getting one! But then it was people in the private sector earning much more and saying that we'd made our choice, which was quite right as I loved the job. Now it's all turned about and it amuses me.

aife

The current NHS pension scheme is rubbish.
I'm 55 now but I don't know if I'll ever be able to retire (and I would dearly love not to have to do this job any more)
The whole pension situation in UK is a total mess. There are people at the top of the scale in the public and private sectors who're retiring young on massive amounts of money while most of us are still working flat out for not much reward.
Apart from the unfairness it has implications for the employment situation generally - if people like me have to keep working till we drop dead that means fewer vacancies for young people
And many people have been conned over pensions , or had their entitlement cut through no fault of their own because employers and speculators , from Robert Maxwell and Philip Green to Tata Steel see their savings as just another asset to be exploited

Bonniepurple

I work in the public sector. The 1% pay rise is usually 0.8% with the difference making up bonuses for the "best"staff. Every year, the goal posts are moved so no matter how hard you work, it's never "best". Thankfully, my employers are scrapping the divisive system.

My train fare has gone up by approx 3% - which makes a mockery of my 0.8% increase. I went in today - I'm not contacted to work Friday's- because it's year end and i am one of the few people who can make the payments needed. I won't get paid for it. I went in because I felt it was right.

People used to be able to retire at 55. If I am able to afford to retire, it will be when my state pension kicks in - currently at age 68. I expect that to rise. Yes, I could retire earlier, but years of sub 1% pay rises mean that there is little enough to spend, let alone save.

Out of interest, all these changes which made the private sector even worse to work in (pensions, pay, benefits etc) - did you fight them? Did you contact your MP? Kick up a fuss? Or did you just sit back and let it happen?

LannieDuck

Gavin83 wrote: »

I currently work in the public sector and have an interview next week for a private sector company. Therefore in answer to your question yes I would like to join you in the private sector.

Why am I moving? Due to the massive increase in salary I'll be receiving and the huge amount of stress I'm put under.

Yep, me too.

In my industry, private sector salaries are approx double public sector salaries, but I nonetheless chose to enter the public sector when I qualified. Why? Excellent training opportunities and a final-salary pension scheme.

I'm now as trained as I can be, and the pension scheme's been gutted. Added to which, budgets have been slashed and the work's been piled on. It's no exaggeration to say that my workload is now double what it was when I started, and as a result I've been struggling to cope.

I handed in my notice two weeks ago, and I'll be joining a private company in a few months' time :j

Muscle750

Going back to my post on GCHQ workers been paid £5 a day not to take their car this was due to the lack of enough parking and meant to be so that people used public transport etc however they park in all the side streets close by as stated if this was a massive private company doing this the council would soon be banging up parking metres every few yards in the streets and making a fortune from tickets etc.................but no cant do that to the funny farm workers and as for the other secret GCHQ site not exactly uncommon knowledge as to where it is top 5 floors of a tower block one used by a insurance company a few miles from the main site

gettingtheresometime

Muscle750 wrote: »

Going back to my post on GCHQ workers been paid £5 a day not to take their car this was due to the lack of enough parking and meant to be so that people used public transport etc however they park in all the side streets close by as stated if this was a massive private company doing this the council would soon be banging up parking metres every few yards in the streets and making a fortune from tickets etc.................but no cant do that to the funny farm workers and as for the other secret GCHQ site not exactly uncommon knowledge as to where it is top 5 floors of a tower block one used by a insurance company a few miles from the main site

For the love of all that is holy....give it up.

dawyldthing

aife wrote: »

The current NHS pension scheme is rubbish.
I'm 55 now but I don't know if I'll ever be able to retire (and I would dearly love not to have to do this job any more)
The whole pension situation in UK is a total mess. There are people at the top of the scale in the public and private sectors who're retiring young on massive amounts of money while most of us are still working flat out for not much reward.
Apart from the unfairness it has implications for the employment situation generally - if people like me have to keep working till we drop dead that means fewer vacancies for young people
And many people have been conned over pensions , or had their entitlement cut through no fault of their own because employers and speculators , from Robert Maxwell and Philip Green to Tata Steel see their savings as just another asset to be exploited

Pensions are in my opinion one big con. Give it ten years and I think they will rework it as what's happening now is unaffordable. We're paying for the current retirees but soon there will be more and more, but there's less and less money being paid in.

leslieknope

public sector employee here: can i just add that today i found out they are upping our mandatory contributions to our pension by at least 0.75%? so actually the payrise we get is going straight into our pension - which is no longer the final salary kind, just your regular pension that everyone else gets.

sangie595

Muscle750 wrote: »

Going back to my post on GCHQ workers been paid £5 a day not to take their car this was due to the lack of enough parking and meant to be so that people used public transport etc however they park in all the side streets close by as stated if this was a massive private company doing this the council would soon be banging up parking metres every few yards in the streets and making a fortune from tickets etc.................but no cant do that to the funny farm workers and as for the other secret GCHQ site not exactly uncommon knowledge as to where it is top 5 floors of a tower block one used by a insurance company a few miles from the main site

Jeez, we have been found out. That's the place we are conducting secret experiments in phase shifting.....
Damn, no, got confused with the plot of a Dr Who storyline.

Seriously, give it up now. You have already been proven incorrect on every substantive claim you have made. If you don't like your job, go get a better one - if you can - instead of blaming the world for your own inadequacies.

Muscle750

leslieknope wrote: »

public sector employee here: can i just add that today i found out they are upping our mandatory contributions to our pension by at least 0.75%? so actually the payrise we get is going straight into our pension - which is no longer the final salary kind, just your regular pension that everyone else gets.

Would you kindly let us know exactly what percentage you are contributing and what percentage the taxpayer /employer is ?