Local Government Strikes tomorrow

[SS4]

You use the word "have" as a form of imposition, rather than something that you would have done of your own free will, in order to eventually gain the best possible company employment pension, which will supplement your state pension.

Both my wife and I paid in the maximum possible employee contribution allowed into our company employment pension, in addition to having our own personal private pension schemes, before our retirement. We both are now reaping the benefit of what some would decry as "personal responsibility".

Personal Responsibility is great but just as you need eggs to make an omelette you need money for personal responsibility. I am lucky in that I can afford to save for my pension in my 20s (and, like you, investing the maximum available) but there are those who can't which forms part of the state burden. Retroactive reform seemed to be the biggest bugbear in my time in the Civil Service which I can fully understand

 

[Moonshot]

You use the word "have" as a form of imposition, rather than something that you would have done of your own free will, in order to eventually gain the best possible company employment pension, which will supplement your state pension.

Both my wife and I paid in the maximum possible employee contribution allowed into our company employment pension, in addition to having our own personal private pension schemes, before our retirement. We both are now reaping the benefit of what some would decry as "personal responsibility".

Which is what I have been doing myself for donkeys years. Relying on a state provision for which the goalpost are increasingly moving upwards is something I have no wish to do. Im some many years away from retiring - but I certainly dont want to have it imposed on me at 68 , I d like the choice of retiring when I want to .....

 

[Jonny]

Which is what I have been doing myself for donkeys years. Relying on a state provision for which the goalpost are increasingly moving upwards is something I have no wish to do. Im some many years away from retiring - but I certainly dont want to have it imposed on me at 68 , I d like the choice of retiring when I want to .....

I think 68 is meant as a minimum... you can work on for longer if you want to (as long as you're up to the job) or whenever you like with alternative means.

 

[Greenback]

I say a big well done to everyone who has been, or is, paying into a pension scheme. It's not easy to find the money to do it for many people, and impossible for some, but we can only hope that the message about the need to make provision for a more comfortable old age will reap benefits in future years.

But, at the same time, let's remain cautionary and remember the plight of the ASW workers in Cardiff, who were robbed of their pensions and had to fight long and hard to get anything at all. Let's also remember the pensions misspelling carried out in years past, which gave some unrealistic expectations. I remember myself a sales person producing magical figures about how much I could expect to get if I retired at 50. Fortunately, I was very sceptical even at the age of 24, and it turned out that it was a flawed product.

So, there will undoubtedly continue to be various issues, but such things as that workplace pension scheme and a higher realisation that individuals will have to make additional provision if they want a reasonable lifestyle, will hopefully help to ease the burden in future years.

Of course, with high levels of unemployment amongst the young, coupled with student loan debts and the high cost of housing, everything in the garden is far from rosy...

 

[Tom B]

Whilst I have been paying into a pension since I started full time work, I have now been told that I am being pulled out of the scheme and my contributions frozen. I am entitled to a basic pension as mandated by law, but not the good one I have now.

I felt it sensible to pay in each month as the (say) £50 per month would be balanced out by the benefit in the long term.
Based on my current salary I could earn more in the private sector but not have the pension or other employment rights, however the current attitude seems to be to remove all of these and leave people earning less.

Ironically, this cut is due to the high cost to the employer of providing these pensions - however they are not withdrawing older and longer serving colleagues who are close to retirement, and so will, in a few years, have nobody to pay the contributions to fund their pension payments!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ironically, this change is due to the high cost to the employer of providing these pensions - however they are not withdrawing older and longer serving colleagues who are close to retirement, and so will, in a few years, have nobody to pay the contributions to fund their pension payments!

That part of your quote above that I have emboldened is somewhat difficult to comprehend. Will the said pension scheme be one that will meet the current financial requirements of the pension industry regulator and what safety strictures will be so applied.

 

[Tetchytyke]

So you feel that the pension funds that bought into the sale of the Royal Mail did a disservice to those pension fundholders who have pensions with them ?

Which pension funds? The priority investors for Royal Mail were, by and large, hedge funds and venture capitalists. Many of these are regular donors to the Conservative Party. It must be pure coincidence.

I also don't care who bought Royal Mail, the fact it was undervalued- today's reports estimate by £1bn- is disgraceful.

Of course it tends to be the richest people who have private pensions anyway, as poorer people very much live hand-to-mouth. Yet more theft of public property into the hands of the wealthy Tory benefactors.

Incidentally, how good it is of you to put right the scurrilous rumour that the Labour Party in its last terms of office was profligate

The only "profilgacy" was bailing out the failing bankers instead of letting the whole lot go bankrupt.

Economics George doesn't have that excuse, yet has managed to blow half a trillion pounds in five years.

FWIW I very much believe that all politicians are thieving scum, and that Labour are just as bad as the Tories. At least the Tories are a bit more transparent about the fact they want to drag us back to Victorian-style serfdom as quickly as possible. There's loads of money in this country, it's just all being given to the Mayfair bankers.

Both my wife and I paid in the maximum possible employee contribution allowed into our company employment pension, in addition to having our own personal private pension schemes, before our retirement. We both are now reaping the benefit of what some would decry as "personal responsibility".

Except you haven't paid in enough to cover what you've taken out, which is why we're in this mess now. Nobody who is currently receiving a public sector pension did. The Universities Superannuated Scheme has a deficit of £500m, for instance, all because of ongoing liabilities to existing pensioners. The Royal Mail pension scheme liabilities- conveniently not sold to Economics George's mate from the Bullingdon Club, funny that- is about the same.

As I've said before, the Baby Boomers have cleaned us out. I will not have the same standard of retirement that you did regardless of how much money I put aside- my pension is "career average" rather than "final salary", for one thing- and the same is true for most people of my age. And as it currently stands I've actually had to freeze my pension payments because I can't afford them. Between rent and travel costs I have precious little left over, I certainly don't have 7% of my salary sitting around spare. But my rent is paying for some baby boomer's buy-to-let investment property, so that's all grand.

 

[ExRes]

Let's also remember the pensions misspelling carried out in years past, which gave some unrealistic expectations.

Not wishing to be pedantic, especially to a moderator, but wasn't it pentchyon misselling ?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Of course it tends to be the richest people who have private pensions anyway, as poorer people very much live hand-to-mouth.

My good lady wife and I wish nothing but the best for those workers who are currently installing new fencing along the stream side of our east paddock at the rear of our 18th century 6 bedroom residence that was once an estate office of the nearby hall. Despite any scurrilous rumours that we have a fleet of barouche in our outbuildings, I can assure you that we still only have the two Range Rovers.

You will now be aware that both of us at home paid in the maximum allowable employee occupational pension contributions for a very long period in our working lives and unlike certain people who find that a sum of money from different sources means spending it and "living for the moment" instead of investing it in a private pension scheme that will offer the benefits once retirement arrives.

An example of this occurred when I was 16 years old in 1961 when Viv Nicholson and her husband won £152,000 on the football pools (worth £2,870,000 at today's rates) and achieved notoriety by her announcement that she would "spend, spend, spend" which she did to such an extent that the old adage of " a fool and his money are soon parted" was indeed proved true. A drama documentary was televised that showed that she did not have the mental ability to deal with such a large sum of money.