Pensions

Bisphamtang said:
I'm taking pension from nhs and going down to 30 hours a week at the end of October ( just started 3 month notice.) That will mean dropping one day a week but no more shifts ,nights etc .

Pension will cover basics with pay making me comfortable( McLoud correction pending.- will be taking on more training role so less stressful. Can still pay into current nhs pendion

I'm 56 so reckon in new job can do another 4 years at 4 days a week.

Apologies for rambling but my point was I think there will be varied routes to retirement in the future and we may work longer but less hours and combine pendions/savings with part time ,less demanding work.
I think the idea of working for 30 or 40 years then just stopping is a thing of the past .

As for the state pension - will eventually go - the triple lock will go first but politicians know it will be a risky move
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I think that‘s brilliant . I went down to 28 hours. Dropped Mondays and do a short day Friday. It’s ace, and I’m actually better off than a full time wage as you don’t pay NI on the pension bit.

Hope you enjoy your new hours, am sure you will. Work life balance is so important 👍
 
For those who dont undertand the ins/outs of pensions or want advice on them, it would best to seek a good finacial advisor. Fully regulated by the FCA. I will be asking for advice off Earnshaws of Poulton, (think the owner posts on here) in a couple of years, have a few work pensions and a personal one. See what perks I have gained in working hard graft for many years.
 
I finally received my pension quotes. They dropped through the letterbox on Sat after I had set off for the game. Mrs Mullet (no2) sent ne a photo telling ne they had arrived and said she hadn't opened them incase the contents wound me up whilst I was at the game. She us a wise woman as I was surprised to see the wording "actuarially reduced" on the header.
Claiming on my 60th birthday , they have kindly attempted to reduce my classic by £1500/Yr and therefore reduced my lump sum by £4500 also.
I rang yesterday, couldn't get anything out of the youngster on the phone other than a "that's strange" and the inevitable I will have to raise that up the line..
I was 18m shy of the cut-off date from retaining my classic, once its all sorted, I'm going after them.gor a refund on the £ I paid extra for a scheme that I have received no benefit from.
Ironically staff in a different union to myself have received £2650 compensation for the injury and feelings and financial loss....
 
Gordon Brown raided the UK Pensions industry in 1997 as a way to balancing the books to do with dividends tax credits and thought no one would notice. We used to have the best pensions industry before he did that Labour ruined it.
 
Threepeaksphil said:
Gordon Brown raided the UK Pensions industry in 1997 as a way to balancing the books to do with dividends tax credits and thought no one would notice. We used to have the best pensions industry before he did that Labour ruined it.
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This applied to private pensions, not the state pension.

The reason it was done, apart from the revenue raised, was that it was being used as the biggest tax dodge in history. People were getting huge percentages of their pay as pension, with all the tax and dividend benefits, paid for by you and I, the actual tax payers, whilst reducing their own tax contribution to the Exchequer. That isn't the way it was spun, but that was reality. If it was so catastrophic and wrong, why has the Conservative Government not changed it back in the last 13 years?
 
Shandypants said:
Just read a stat that within two years the state pension will cost the govt per annum more than the combined budget for education, police and defence.
This figure will rise dramatically over the next 10 years and be a massive strain on society, plus the NHS will be under huge pressure with an aging population. This is an issue that won't go away, what is the solution? People work longer, give big incentives for people to have children to rebalance the demographics or encourage immigration?
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Don't believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.
 
tommytwojags said:
How about another film, Logan's Run, which depicts a dystopic malthusian future society in which both population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by requiring the death of everyone reaching the age of 21. When people reach this Lastday they report to a Sleepshop in which they are willingly executed via a pleasure-inducing toxic gas. Nobody grows old and nobody gets ill. That would solve the problems
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It was 30 not 21.Jenny Agutter, Michael York and Peter Ustinov played " the old man"
 
Lala said:
Increase national insurance contributions maybe. Which they did, and then reverted back again. It wasn’t a huge increase but the extra resource in the govt coffers would be a help.

Increasing retirement age has been utilised a lot recently but I think that has to stop now. Any further increase possibly wouldn’t impact me, I’ve already had mine moved 7 years upwards from the day I started work, but I don’t think it’s fair on the next generations to keep upping it further.

Enrolment into company schemes now has to be offered as compulsory, but these are still nominal amounts for the employee and from the employer, so I would look towards encouraging the masses to look at putting more into a personal scheme. Many people don’t and it’s crazy really.
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Hunt will cut NI conts tomorrow, not increase it.

However freezing tax thresholds means once again we'll all be paying more tax if you get any pay rise at all.

Smoke and mirrors.
 
Threepeaksphil said:
Gordon Brown raided the UK Pensions industry in 1997 as a way to balancing the books to do with dividends tax credits and thought no one would notice. We used to have the best pensions industry before he did that Labour ruined it.
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We pay more in tax now than in any year you can name under a Labour Government.

We've always had worse pensions than Europe, hence the French kicking off over a rise in pension age to 62. We wish.
 
gjr said:
Maybe people should stop talking about it being stopped at some point because doing so makes it more likely to happen!
A seed is planted, the concept grows in the media and in 20 years everybody says it was inevitable it would be stopped they've been talking about that for years!!
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Spot on. And no one ever queries why it’s inevitable. Pensions go up but so does the amount of tax and National insurance we pay, and all those people who are having to work beyond 60 and 65 are paying tax on income they previously never had. It now seems also that as a country we’re in a position to reduce income tax so can’t be doing that badly. ( Isn’t it weird how we always seem to get to that position in the year before a general election)
 
Lala said:
I think that‘s brilliant . I went down to 28 hours. Dropped Mondays and do a short day Friday. It’s ace, and I’m actually better off than a full time wage as you don’t pay NI on the pension bit.

Hope you enjoy your new hours, am sure you will. Work life balance is so important 👍
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Been on partial retirement for nearly two years now. Best thing I've done in ages. Like @Lala Im better off with no NI conts on the pension element.

Wrote off this morning with formal notice to retire from April. No point in going when the weather is crap 😉
 
bfcpete said:
Sounds like the classic 1973 film, Soylent Green, starring Charlton Heston and Edward G Robinson. At a certain age people are terminated. They are allowed a special death. The death scene of EGR is memorable, with a film of spectacular nature and classical music, as he drifts away from the injection. Then a sinister corporation takes over and recycles the dead bodies into Soylent Green, the staple diet of the population which is marketed as a form of plankton. It is set in 2022, when the world is overpopulated, polluted, food, money and resources are in short supply and only an elite can live decently. Fact or fiction? Hmmm?

Ironically, EGR knew he was terminally ill with cancer and his 'death scene' was his last scene as an actor. He died 2 months later and none of the cast knew he was ill.
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Never seen that, I shall be looking it up👍
 
Wizaard said:
Been on partial retirement for nearly two years now. Best thing I've done in ages. Like @Lala Im better off with no NI conts on the pension element.

Wrote off this morning with formal notice to retire from April. No point in going when the weather is crap 😉
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Good for you re retirement !! Jealous !
 
Well done Mr Chancellor.

8.5% state pension rise from next April plus my annual 3.5% BAES pension rise so a 12% rise early next year whopeeeeeeeeeee I didn’t get a rise like that in 40 years of working in industry.

All of a sudden I feel like I'm on a train drivers salary. 👏

And that’s from a Labour supporter.
 
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L’étranger said:
😂.
That’s nothing. I have 20 different pensions which will all be increasing by 5% next year.
I’m going to be 100% better off (in Jaffa’s world)!!!!!!
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🤣👍
You have to be thankful for what you get these days when you become an old codger irrespective of who’s in power.

Hopefully it’ll stop me dipping into my lump sum now that I got 13 years ago. ☺️
 
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There is no answer to the OP question that anyone wants to hear….. simple as that …. Immaterial of whichever Govt is pretending to be in power at any given time
 
Tangerinemoss said:
This applied to private pensions, not the state pension.

The reason it was done, apart from the revenue raised, was that it was being used as the biggest tax dodge in history. People were getting huge percentages of their pay as pension, with all the tax and dividend benefits, paid for by you and I, the actual tax payers, whilst reducing their own tax contribution to the Exchequer. That isn't the way it was spun, but that was reality. If it was so catastrophic and wrong, why has the Conservative Government not changed it back in the last 13 years?
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Indeed, this particular dodge was first noticed by Lamont in the early 90's and he started the ball rolling with the initial withdrawal of those particular reliefs in the 1992 budget (I think). The dodge, I believe, was facilitated by Thatcher and Lawson during the mid-80's, with the deregulation of the financial services industry.
 
Shandypants said:
Just read a stat that within two years the state pension will cost the govt per annum more than the combined budget for education, police and defence.
This figure will rise dramatically over the next 10 years and be a massive strain on society, plus the NHS will be under huge pressure with an aging population. This is an issue that won't go away, what is the solution? People work longer, give big incentives for people to have children to rebalance the demographics or encourage immigration?
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Would love to see the source of the stat, because its a common trope for those who want to get rid of the majority of social programmes. Its just come up in the US again where a MAGA republican presidential candidate has quoted "statistics" that show medicare bankrupt in ten years, social security bankrupt in fifteen and I think public education as well included in similar timeframe. What is the solution in their view, reduce taxes and pass over to the private sector.

In the UK as in almost all westernised industrialised countries there is a population problem where the cost of pensions is going to become a burden, particularly where taxes are being consistently reduced, and particularly where taxes from the wealthiest and biggest corporations are reduced disproportionately. Secondly, in a rentier economy like the UK there is very little (if any) downstream chain of wealth creation, or even chain of job creation. If basic needs (home, food, clothing travel to work) are not being met within the level of 50 or at the very most 60% of take home pay then, there are two risks, 1) there isn't money to save that could plausibly go to a private pension and 2) there isn't enough money to maintain a consumptive economy therefore companies cannot sell their non-essential or lifestyle goods, productivity (as in producing things) will fall and less workers are needed.

The global population is already problematic, so increasing the population for economic means doesn't seem particularly sensible.

As with the post on the Dutch election and the rise of the far right into power, there is need of radical solutions rather than The Right's (conservative) answer of cuts and tax reductions to stimulate economic growth (a fantasy (and chasing economic growth might be the big problem anyway)) and the centre left (the only current viable alternative to political leadership) tinkering at the edges of what are established and indoctrinated supply side socio-economic systems, which still gives massive bias to capital (and rentier capital particularly) over productive labour.
 
Let's really tax younger people to the hilt that willpay for pension rise. How do you all like that if the shoe was on the other foot.
 
todayistheday said:
For those who dont undertand the ins/outs of pensions or want advice on them, it would best to seek a good finacial advisor. Fully regulated by the FCA. I will be asking for advice off Earnshaws of Poulton, (think the owner posts on here) in a couple of years, have a few work pensions and a personal one. See what perks I have gained in working hard graft for many years.
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Thanks for that but if I do need any advice I'll just ask Wiz and/or LALA.
 
Jaffa_The_Hut said:
Well done Mr Chancellor.

8.5% state pension rise from next April plus my annual 3.5% BAES pension rise so a 12% rise early next year whopeeeeeeeeeee I didn’t get a rise like that in 40 years of working in industry.

All of a sudden I feel like I'm on a train drivers salary. 👏

And that’s from a Labour supporter.
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Jeez. You can't add 2 percentages together and say that is the percentage rise you are getting on your total percentage. The percentage rise on your total pension will be somewhere between 3.5 % and 8.5 %.
 
bollieboy said:
Jeez. You can't add 2 percentages together and say that is the percentage rise you are getting on your total percentage. The percentage rise on your total pension will be somewhere between 3.5 % and 8.5 %.
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Yes I’m fully aware of that it was a tongue in cheek statement.

Just making a positive point about ‘us’ pensioners finally getting a decent pay rise.

Let’s hope it continues under the next labour government. 👍
 
Wizaard said:
Been on partial retirement for nearly two years now. Best thing I've done in ages. Like @Lala Im better off with no NI conts on the pension element.

Wrote off this morning with formal notice to retire from April. No point in going when the weather is crap 😉
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Wizz dont you mean 30 years 🤣
 
Old codgers spent years dealing in cash not paying tax, making a load of dough off their houses, now they’re getting pension increases and they’ll live too bloody long!

No wonder life expectancy is going down with you lot draining the life out of next generations 😉
 
An update on my personal case.
I waited 4 weeks after pointing out that they had actuarily reduced my classic (preserved) pension, despite me claiming it from my retirement age of 60.
Rang the CSP call centre and was told that they would raise this to an escalation manager who would respond within 3 working days.
They did,but with a generic email saying g that they would look in to it and contact me when it's resolved. I emailed back to this email asking if they had a target date for resolution, and to date still never heard backcl off this person. Christmas came and went, I rang again asking if there was any update. The issue with this is that you cannot get back in touch with the people who send you anything and that you end up at this generic call centre.
I was told that they would raise my case to the escalation team, again.
Got the obligatory email.the next day, however this time it had the magic wording, " I will contact you by this Friday with an update". 4 weeks ago, still never heard off that escalation manager either.
Rang yet again 2 weeks ago. Explained that of it was sorted shortly I wouldn't receive it until end of Feb which would be 3mths overdue. Helpful person on the phone who suggested I file a complaint via their website Nd she would be bringing it to her managers attention.
I filled in the contact form with a nicely worded 2000 characters max, complaint. Still not had this even acknowledged however, I gave subsequently received my revised offer.
These figures are close to what I was expecting.
I returned the paperwork 14 days ago tomorrow. Still assuming it's being processed.
and breathe......

My advice to anyone on a civil service pension, work out your own figures and query anything sent to you.
My early compensation and pension figures (if commuted to lump sum) would have equated to a difference of £124k, and not in my favour...
 
Lala said:
Increase national insurance contributions maybe. Which they did, and then reverted back again. It wasn’t a huge increase but the extra resource in the govt coffers would be a help.

Increasing retirement age has been utilised a lot recently but I think that has to stop now. Any further increase possibly wouldn’t impact me, I’ve already had mine moved 7 years upwards from the day I started work, but I don’t think it’s fair on the next generations to keep upping it further.

Enrolment into company schemes now has to be offered as compulsory, but these are still nominal amounts for the employee and from the employer, so I would look towards encouraging the masses to look at putting more into a personal scheme. Many people don’t and it’s crazy really.
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Retirement age continues to edge upwards despite life expectancy plateauing if not dipping in swathes of the country.
 
In 1988, when I was 28 and got my first decent job and my wife was expecting our first child, my boss (who was the Assistant Treasurer responsible for the County pension fund) advised me to plough as much as I could afford into my pension, as it was tax exempt and the contribution from the employer was twice I was putting in at the time. I also made AVC contributions, even though it meant we didn't have as many new gadgets, cars and foreign holiidays as others seem to have. As my salary increased over the years so did my share of my pension contributions. The percentage doubled. All of that was a spending choice for me, but a wise one because not only would I get a good occupational pension but also good death benefits and widow's pension for my family. The earliest I could retire and take my pension was at 60, and did so because if I increased my pension fund further I would have had a sizeable tax bill.
The point I am really making is that pensions and retirement planning are a resonsibility of people as well as the state. People should not think of the state pension as the answer to a decent retirement. I am glad they have introduced auto enrolment, because the earlier people start the better and younger people don't give pensions much thought.

When I was being treated for leaukemia two years ago they advised that the average life expectancy after succeesful treatment was between 3 and 11 years (although those are increasing all rhe time with new treatments). My state pension is due in 18 months. So I might not get much benefit from it, but will enjoy it while I can!
 
bfcpete said:
In 1988, when I was 28 and got my first decent job and my wife was expecting our first child, my boss (who was the Assistant Treasurer responsible for the County pension fund) advised me to plough as much as I could afford into my pension, as it was tax exempt and the contribution from the employer was twice I was putting in at the time. I also made AVC contributions, even though it meant we didn't have as many new gadgets, cars and foreign holiidays as others seem to have. As my salary increased over the years so did my share of my pension contributions. The percentage doubled. All of that was a spending choice for me, but a wise one because not only would I get a good occupational pension but also good death benefits and widow's pension for my family. The earliest I could retire and take my pension was at 60, and did so because if I increased my pension fund further I would have had a sizeable tax bill.
The point I am really making is that pensions and retirement planning are a resonsibility of people as well as the state. People should not think of the state pension as the answer to a decent retirement. I am glad they have introduced auto enrolment, because the earlier people start the better and younger people don't give pensions much thought.

When I was being treated for leaukemia two years ago they advised that the average life expectancy after succeesful treatment was between 3 and 11 years (although those are increasing all rhe time with new treatments). My state pension is due in 18 months. So I might not get much benefit from it, but will enjoy it while I can!
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Congratulations on beating the biggest bastard of our time 🧡 and obviously hope you smash the average in a positive way. 👍

The question I have though - is how can an average be stated as between 3 and 11 years?
 
seasideone said:
Congratulations on beating the biggest bastard of our time 🧡 and obviously hope you smash the average in a positive way. 👍

The question I have though - is how can an average be stated as between 3 and 11 years?
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Thanks. You are quite right, unless it is a moving avarage? Like politicians, medics rarely commit to estimates of when things will be delivered, even though the NHS are heroes for me. ;)
 
I't wouldn't surprise me to find that the Government has special, covert killing squads, taking out old crumblies and reducing the pensionburden on the state!😉
 
Oh to be a boomer. Cheap housing, worklife balance to die for and those who were on the local govt gravy train walking out at the very latest 60 (there were huge numbers paid off at 55) with gold plated pensions. They still moan though.
 
Cut back on the number of Government Enquiries, which all cost a fortune, take ages to publish and report and are usually quite useless when published. That will save billions. As an example it is estimated that the current COVID inquiry will cost £100 million and will not be published until 2026. (Weatherspoons News) I would imagine it's odds on it will be a lot more than that. The Grenfell Tower report is another example, the fire was on 14th June 2017 and the report was published 13th June 2023, six years after the event. The financial cost of the Grenfell Tower disaster has risen to nearly £1.2bn – 4,000 times the amount that was saved by replacing fire-retardant cladding with a cheaper combustible alternative during the disastrous refurbishment. (Guardian).

I'm sure there are plenty more that could be quoted.
 
Bring back smoking adverts and tell everyone it’s good for you. The realisation that smoking was bad for you, is probably the biggest reason why we are all living longer.

So, make those cigarette companies pay.
 
Seen an article today that speculates that anyone born after April 1970 may get their govt pension at 71. I'm lucky I was born in 1969.
If true it is a bitter pill for those affected.
 
Curryman said:
Cut back on the number of Government Enquiries, which all cost a fortune, take ages to publish and report and are usually quite useless when published. That will save billions. As an example it is estimated that the current COVID inquiry will cost £100 million and will not be published until 2026. (Weatherspoons News) I would imagine it's odds on it will be a lot more than that. The Grenfell Tower report is another example, the fire was on 14th June 2017 and the report was published 13th June 2023, six years after the event. The financial cost of the Grenfell Tower disaster has risen to nearly £1.2bn – 4,000 times the amount that was saved by replacing fire-retardant cladding with a cheaper combustible alternative during the disastrous refurbishment. (Guardian).

I'm sure there are plenty more that could be quoted.
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There's nothing wrong with enquiries if they're acted on. Lessons learned, and all that.

Too often we ignore them and then have the same issues.

Then it's in the gift of the PM to suppress them. Funny how we've never heard the outcome of the Russia enquiry into funding from oligarchs...
 
Wizaard said:
There's nothing wrong with enquiries if they're acted on. Lessons learned, and all that.

Too often we ignore them and then have the same issues.

Then it's in the gift of the PM to suppress them. Funny how we've never heard the outcome of the Russia enquiry into funding from oligarchs...
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And the report into Therese Coffey's department's handling of claimants. And the real enquiry into Teeside FEZ, et al, at al
 
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