Pensions envy. Are we heading for financially comfortable but socially uncomfortable retirements?

bostonerimus

pensionpawn said:

bostonerimus said:

Albermarle said:

 massive graduate debt which is effectively another tax with rumour of thresholds for payments being decreased and length of payback are being extended, hopefully not as seems unfair and on top of that in my area at least there seems very few employment opportunities unless you work for something similar to the minimum wage 

Apart from not doing a ' Mickey Mouse' course , it is often necessary for graduates to be willing to relocate, to get onto the rung of the ladder leading to  the higher paid professional jobs. Usually means going to live in a big City , which not all will want to do.  .

It's grim up North though. I always say that in the hope that the southerners will stay in the South.

In fact a better representation is that the North has pockets of prosperity , surrounded by larger areas of deprivation ( the grim bits) . Whilst the South has pockets of deprivation ( which can also be grim ) surrounded by larger areas of prosperity .

I got out of uni in the mid 1980s with a PhD in physics. I had one job offer that was related to my thesis work in optics from a defense company at a starting salary of  £12k pa. There wasn't much work going that was directly related to physics back then and many graduates went into The City because they had good maths skills. I was offered a job in a big bank I think because I knew what a "standard deviation" was and could have started with Arthur Andersen or KPMG etc., but frankly I could not deal with the level of BS that I experienced in the interviews. Anyway a generation of physical scientists was lost to British industry. I got so frustrated that I started applying for jobs overseas and after a couple of months had offers from research institutions in Germany, Australia and USA. I chose a job working for the Smithsonian Institution in the USA with a starting salary of $40k pa which was twice what I was being offered in the UK. The benefits turned out to be excellent too with health insurance all paid for by the Smithsonian and they also put 16% of my salary into the pension.

That time in the mid 1980s when UK employment opportunities were quite limited for graduates gave many the impetus to look beyond the UK. Today I'm in contact with some college friends and they are all over the world, some in the US like me and many in Germany and France. I'm very grateful that I got a good education in the UK before there were out of pocket fees to pay, but sad that the UK could not make the best use of my skills and it's the squandering of intellectual capital, or at least not having the resources or vision to use it well, that I think made me first realize that the UK was in a long term decline.

I grew up on a South Wales council estate in the valleys and for someone studying A level Physics, Maths and Computing at the local (no shopping around then) comp' there was never going to be many opportunities locally, at least until the silicon boom (?) started to move into brown sites in the mid to late 90's. As someone bitten by the early '80s home computer bug I followed a four year Electrical & Electronic Engineering 'thin sandwich' degree course (Oct - March studying, exams, April - Oct paid work experience for three years, final year all uni) moving to the midlands to work and the south coast to study. On graduating I actually ended up permanently living in the midlands (up t'north from where I grew up) where the grass was greener for me. However I eventually moved back down south to start a career in mobile telecoms. The morale of the story being that 'up north' can be just as good as 'down south' and the opportunity for a good post grad career is linked to simultaneous industrial experience. You may also have to relocate, as I did, to the city (though I lived in a leafy town) to pursue your ambition. Thin sandwich courses disappeared in the 1990's however Dyson has opened his own university, where students also simultaneously work for him, which I believe is a step in the right direction. Unless intent on a 'career' in research universities are supposed to be meeting the needs of the workplace. By encouraging 50% of school leavers into university a certain PM sold at least half of those a pup! 

I graduated into the 1980's recession and jobs in applied physics were limited. I'd already moved from the North East to London for university and so the obvious next step was to look internationally when I wasn't getting much interest in my CV in the UK. I had a friend who had applied to the National Physical Laboratory, but they had a hiring freeze and she had sent her CV to CNRS in France and they offered her a position so that encouraged me to look outside the UK.

Random47

Silvertabby said:

daz378 said:

When i got covid last month,  thankfully mild  symptoms,  but  made me focus on the future,  im single at least 5 years at least off retirement...60 ...62 aim... i didn't  have a will....finalized it yesterday 150 quid  local solicitor   but a question  leads on from this...with my lgps  can i nominate brothers and sisters  ,nieces and nephews etc   or can you only nominate in terms of spouse or partner?  My ambitions for retirement are quite modest no car, rented council flat...hopefully get to the pub couple times a month...to inflict my karaoke on customers  ...you all take care

Only a spouse/eligible partner can receive a survivors pension for life.

However, the LGPS has (in your case) a 10 year guarantee period, so if you were to die within 10 years of starting to draw your pension then a one-off lump sum would be paid to your nominated beneficiaries.  You will need to complete a nomination form (available on your LGPSs website).

Would also apply (different amount)  if you were to die before retirement.

Does the 10 year period start at an early retirement age if one leaves before NPA ?

Silvertabby

Random47 said:

Silvertabby said:

daz378 said:

When i got covid last month,  thankfully mild  symptoms,  but  made me focus on the future,  im single at least 5 years at least off retirement...60 ...62 aim... i didn't  have a will....finalized it yesterday 150 quid  local solicitor   but a question  leads on from this...with my lgps  can i nominate brothers and sisters  ,nieces and nephews etc   or can you only nominate in terms of spouse or partner?  My ambitions for retirement are quite modest no car, rented council flat...hopefully get to the pub couple times a month...to inflict my karaoke on customers  ...you all take care

Only a spouse/eligible partner can receive a survivors pension for life.

However, the LGPS has (in your case) a 10 year guarantee period, so if you were to die within 10 years of starting to draw your pension then a one-off lump sum would be paid to your nominated beneficiaries.  You will need to complete a nomination form (available on your LGPSs website).

Would also apply (different amount)  if you were to die before retirement.

Does the 10 year period start at an early retirement age if one leaves before NPA ?

It's from the date the pension is brought into payment, even if that is earlier than NPA.

I say 10 years in this case, because OP was still a contributing member of the LGPS.  Deferred pensioners who left pre April 2008 only have a 5 year guarantee period, even if they started to draw the pension after that date.

Basically, a tax free lump sum of 10 X (or 5 X) pension minus pension already paid.  

However, and this may occur more frequently in the future unless the regs are changed, the death grant is only payable if the pensioner dies before age 75.  So someone leaving at SPA age 66/67/68 would only have a guarantee period of 9/8/7 years.