It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

german_keeper

SouthCoastBoy said:

Council tax is going to be a real issue in the future if it continues increasing as it currently is, the compounding will see to that. A large percentage of council tax adds no value to quality of provision in local services as it is used to pay db pensions. Public sector need to move to dc pensions like the private sector or alternatively get employees to increase their contributions significantly so that reflect the final benefit they will receive. It seems particularly unfair currently council tax payers pick up the contribution tab.

The following paragraph is taken from an old Civil Service pension booklet. Presumably therefore you would support a large hike in salaries to compensate for your plan. 

Your pension, together with your pay, forms part of your total remuneration package. Although there is no overt contribution towards the PCSPS, salaries are set at levels which take account of the value of the benefits provided by the Scheme.

 

german_keeper

Stubod said:

..it gives me a nice warm feeling that I am paying ever more to fund other peoples indexed linked DB pensions who generally offer a very poor / reducing service...    

The reduction in service is nothing to do with the people who have gold plated pensions. It is called "efficiency savings" and you may well have been voting for it since 2010. 

SouthCoastBoy

Market forces and affordability should dictate pay in the public sector as it does in the private sector.

german_keeper

SouthCoastBoy said:

Market forces and affordability should dictate pay in the public sector as it does in the private sector.

I can't say with any degree of certainty as I have never worked in the private sector but I suspect this is what has been happening since 2010. Highly trained and experienced experts are gradually replaced (when they take their "gold plated" pension ) if at all, by people with no technical training or expertise who are trained on telephony techniques only. They then have to answer telephone calls, often from people with better knowledge than they have themselves. The former are of course paid more than the latter. Senior management spend their time coming up with nonsensical slogans like "more for less" and there you have it, the modern civil service. Unfortunately a side effect is the situation described by Stubod in his earlier post.

Unlike the carefully worded nonsense you might read in your Daily Mail here is an actual example. Since 2010 my pay has fallen by about 20% in comparison to CPI. My pension contribution has increased from 1.5% to 5.45% (although I then changed schemes and now pay 3%) and my National Insurance increased by 1.4%, although of course the new state pension is a great deal for me. The effect for me at my time of life was that I ended up paying the mortgage for 2 years longer than originally planned. Many of my younger colleagues have not been quite so "fortunate".  

And I don't doubt that many people in the private sector have fared as badly if not worse.

SouthCoastBoy

3% pension contribution is very low, for example I pay 12% and my employer pays 6%

SouthCoastBoy

With respect to pay I'm not sure private sector is much better  I think it is fair to say in a number of occupations wages in real terms have been eroded  I think we are starting to see this change, I.e. staff shortages starting to create wage inflation.

zagfles

german_keeper said:

SouthCoastBoy said:

Market forces and affordability should dictate pay in the public sector as it does in the private sector.

I can't say with any degree of certainty as I have never worked in the private sector but I suspect this is what has been happening since 2010. Highly trained and experienced experts are gradually replaced (when they take their "gold plated" pension ) if at all, by people with no technical training or expertise who are trained on telephony techniques only. They then have to answer telephone calls, often from people with better knowledge than they have themselves. The former are of course paid more than the latter. Senior management spend their time coming up with nonsensical slogans like "more for less" and there you have it, the modern civil service. Unfortunately a side effect is the situation described by Stubod in his earlier post.

Unlike the carefully worded nonsense you might read in your Daily Mail here is an actual example. Since 2010 my pay has fallen by about 20% in comparison to CPI. My pension contribution has increased from 1.5% to 5.45% (although I then changed schemes and now pay 3%) and my National Insurance increased by 1.4%, although of course the new state pension is a great deal for me. The effect for me at my time of life was that I ended up paying the mortgage for 2 years longer than originally planned. Many of my younger colleagues have not been quite so "fortunate".  

And I don't doubt that many people in the private sector have fared as badly if not worse.

Have you ever phoned a bank The dumbing down of call centres is universal. Same for pay. And of course far worse for pensions in the private sector.

I blame the minimum wage and AE pensions. Introduce a minimum and it eventually becomes the norm, or the target.

Sea_Shell

In my last few years of work, I was paying 20% and my employer 5%.  I'd have done more, but I was butting up against minimum wage rules!

When I left, I then made a one off payment into the scheme up to my total income that tax year.

I'm now making my £2880 contributions.

Ibrahim5

When I hear that someone is jealous of public sector pensions I always try and match them to a suitable job they could do to earn themselves such a pension. For some reason they are are always unsuitable to every job I suggest.

zagfles

Ibrahim5 said:

When I hear that someone is jealous of public sector pensions I always try and match them to a suitable job they could do to earn themselves such a pension. For some reason they are are always unsuitable to every job I suggest.

Well you're obviously unsuitable as a recruitment consultant then