Pensions take a hit

doris540

All three of my pensions have seen a hit one way or another plus one has gone into the PPF which means ill get less than i should have. Ive just turned 60 and any thoughts of retiring early have been put to bed . What totally infuriates me is that Public sector pensions are totally shielded and whats on the bottom line is what your going to get so to speak.. With a massive 3% paid by my employer I really dont know why us in the private sector bother. It will never happen but a fairer way to pay for the public sector pensions is that all Public sector employees pay more in tax to help fund their pensions which on average are worth threes times more than Private sector ones

Marcon

doris540 said:

All three of my pensions have seen a hit one way or another plus one has gone into the PPF which means ill get less than i should have. Ive just turned 60 and any thoughts of retiring early have been put to bed . What totally infuriates me is that Public sector pensions are totally shielded and whats on the bottom line is what your going to get so to speak.. 

This seems to be the same drum you've banged many times before e.g. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6135679/will-there-be-pension-apartheid/p1

Any answers you've received before are all going to be the same now, so not sure what you are hoping to achieve by posting the same gripe again now?  You might find this enlightening reading: https://www.civilservant.org.uk/information-pensions.html

doris540 said:

With a massive 3% paid by my employer I really dont know why us in the private sector bother. 

Many private sector employers pay far more than the minimum 3%. 

doris540 said:

It will never happen but a fairer way to pay for the public sector pensions is that all Public sector employees pay more in tax to help fund their pensions which on average are worth threes times more than Private sector ones

As you say, it will never happen and it would be impossible to administer.

sevenhills

How many are employed in the public sector? I would guess around 30% so people choose public sector or the private sector, there is no reason to think that the grass is greener.
I choose my job in the public sector so that I had weekends and school holidays off. That wouldn't suit a lot of people. I am on a 30 hours per week contact too, if I had worked in the private sector, I would have worked many more hours.

hyubh

doris540 said:

All three of my pensions have seen a hit one way or another plus one has gone into the PPF which means ill get less than i should have. Ive just turned 60 and any thoughts of retiring early have been put to bed . What totally infuriates me is that Public sector pensions are totally shielded and whats on the bottom line is what your going to get so to speak.. With a massive 3% paid by my employer I really dont know why us in the private sector bother. It will never happen but a fairer way to pay for the public sector pensions is that all Public sector employees pay more in tax to help fund their pensions which on average are worth threes times more than Private sector ones

Did your LGPS pensioner wife not give you the Christmas present you wanted...? You want https://www.relate.org.uk/, not MSE...

Universidad

doris540 said:

All three of my pensions have seen a hit one way or another plus one has gone into the PPF which means ill get less than i should have. Ive just turned 60 and any thoughts of retiring early have been put to bed . What totally infuriates me is that Public sector pensions are totally shielded and whats on the bottom line is what your going to get so to speak.. With a massive 3% paid by my employer I really dont know why us in the private sector bother. It will never happen but a fairer way to pay for the public sector pensions is that all Public sector employees pay more in tax to help fund their pensions which on average are worth threes times more than Private sector ones

At what point in your working life was it not obvious to you that private sector pensions were on average worse than public sector ones?

You made your choice.

You can try to improve your situation, and I'm sure people here will be glad to help, but bringing everyone else down to the level of your disappointment is the worst kind of sour grapes.

IAMIAM

sevenhills said:

How many are employed in the public sector? I would guess around 30% so people choose public sector or the private sector, there is no reason to think that the grass is greener.
I choose my job in the public sector so that I had weekends and school holidays off. That wouldn't suit a lot of people. I am on a 30 hours per week contact too, if I had worked in the private sector, I would have worked many more hours.

This argument is always the same. If you want good pay rises, free health care, staff discounts, treated like an adult, simple job application process, bonus schemes, career progression, and a rubbish pension at the end of it, etc etc....JOIN THE PRIVATE SECTOR

If you want the complete opposite, striking galore, work with people who have no brain cells when it comes to simple tasks, archaic boring people, no innovation, corruption, boys clubs, white straight male clubs, teflon managers, nothing sticks (all in my opinion) etc etc.....BUT A FANTASTIC PENSION with EARLY RETIREMENT....JOIN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

If you want both, build pension in private sector, get a job in the public sector, transfer pension in, retire a year or two later. The end. 

grumiofoundation

There are a shortage of numerous roles in the public sector, so probably wouldn’t have been that difficult for you to access one of these pensions.

DT2001

My OH and I are now both self employed. No 3% or more from an employer or salary sacrifice to avoid NI. We have 3 small DB’s from previous jobs, 2 of which were non contributory. One is mainly GMP, part of which will not increase following the new SP. Pensions are a mixed bag but they are only part of the package. I look at self employment as an opportunity to mostly avoid workplace politics, work the hours I want, where I want and to a degree for whom and when I want. It isn’t perfect but it is my choice. 

Universidad

Marcon said:

 You might find this enlightening reading: https://www.civilservant.org.uk/information-pensions.html

That's a fascinating page - particularly the table showing mean/median pensions in payment for the different public sector roles.

Looks like the figures are from the 2009/10 report, so most of those figures are probably 40% higher now, give or take. 

Even so, it's a stark contrast to many of the discussions on this forum about avoiding the LTA - or the recommendation that one would need about 30K per year to be comfortable in retirement. Most people are only half way to those numbers!

I'm overpaying on my pension and I don't see how I could ever get to the kind of retirement pots that are routinely discussed on this forum. Heck, it's quite a sacrifice just to top it up a bit, though I am glad to be thinking about it in time to make some difference.

But it's something of a salve for my worries, to see those much more attainable figures as the "normal" public sector retirement.

Grumpy_chap

IAMIAM said:

This argument is always the same. If you want good pay rises, free health care, staff discounts, treated like an adult, simple job application process, bonus schemes, career progression, and a rubbish pension at the end of it, etc etc....JOIN THE PRIVATE SECTOR

That is a rather rose tinted view of the private sector.  
My pay rise for 2022 was NIL.
I guess all that proves is that sweeping generalisations about either sector are meaningless.
Ultimately, I choose my career path and could have chosen the other route had I desired so.

SouthCoastBoy

Public sector pensions should be reformed due to the fact they are unsustainable, however I can't see it ever happening. My wife is a beneficiary of the lgps, although she has only earnt between 10k and 14k over the last 10 years she currently has a pension forecast of around 2.5k per annum payable at nrd if she stopped today, a very generous amount. I see it as a hedge against our council tax bill as the council tax continues rising to pay for the massive pension liabilities.