Reply to: better off in the public sector

[Freamon]

The other thing to mention...

They did some study that showed that the earlier that a civil servant retired, the sooner they died. I think it was in "The WHICH? Guide To Pensions" that I read about 12 years ago (yes I am that sad!). I think the theory is that having a job gives a person a reason to get up in the morning and stay sharp/focused (ok, public sector so maybe not that sharp!). Whereas if you're retired with nothing much to do each day... then the will to live tends to weaken.

I know a few that have taken "early retirement" on massive pensions and infuriatingly the above does not seem to have applied to them.

[Jeff Maginty]

..

[Freamon]

No man is an island.

"I am, I'm ******* Ibiza!"

[Jeff Maginty]

..

[Freamon]

eh? I thought it was still going up? Got any justification for that statement - I am very interested.

Maybe this is what I was remembering:

Life expectancy declining in many parts of US

Although a quick google shows it seems to be declining in plenty of other places too.

Though I still think penion age should be set at the average life expectancy age.

None of the other options make any sense.

[BrilloPad]

It's true to say that life expectancy in the West has peaked and is now in decline.

eh? I thought it was still going up? Got any justification for that statement - I am very interested.

Though I still think penion age should be set at the average life expectancy age.

[The Spartan]

I have to say I'm not too concerned about a pension at this point, I'm thinking I may invest my hard earned cash in another property after I've paid my current house off

[d000hg]

25 weeks where I am, increase to 30 after 2 years - most of them get flexi time still as well, 'tis why Fridays are always empty!

That doesn't sound much different to any private client I worked at.

[Freamon]

It's true to say that life expectancy in the West has peaked and is now in decline.

[AtW]

It amuses me to see people seriously think about pensions like this - unless you are about to retire tomorrow rest assured that social security system as it is in the West is a just bigger version of Maddoff's pyramid.

Even if you get to pension age you won't live enough to enjoy it - most likely you'll be out of job for 10-15 years before pension kicks in due to increased threshold and stress of those year will kill you pretty quickly before you get any meaningful payout.

This assumes the pension won't be devalued due to money printing!

[mrdonuts]

25 weeks where I am, increase to 30 after 2 years s

25 weeks its even worse than i suspected

[zara_backdog]

Not sure where you get the 8 weeks paid holiday, 5 if your lucky and then maybe a increase after working there for god knows how many years.

25 weeks where I am, increase to 30 after 2 years - most of them get flexi time still as well, 'tis why Fridays are always empty!

and they still bloody moan- 6pm in office tonight and there was 3 staff left out of a team of about 60and yes you guessed it we are all contractors

[Old Greg]

For the NHS, atleast, it still works like this, except that it is on 'reckonable' pay, rather than final salary, which is unlikely to be much different.

I am almost certain that NHS has always been x/80, not x/60, but if it's /60 I'm quids in from my NHS service.

Civil Service was always x/60 but this was to compensate for lower wages - when I've worked alongside Department of Health people, there wages have always been considerably lower than they would have been in the NHS.

[The Spartan]

I joined in 2001 and left in 2008, I remember thinking at the time how good the pension was to be able to have up to 2/3rd's of your annual income to retire on. But now I've been in the real world for a couple of years I can see that given on how much they actually contribute it's unsustainable. It's basic maths really

[TestMangler]

The way that the pension used to work was that for each year you worked you would accrue 1/60th so if you worked for 40 years you would have 40/60th's (2/3rd's) of your final salary to retire on. So if you had a decent job toward the end of your civil service career you were laughing.

When I was in the Civil Service ('79-'94) it was 80ths per year up to a maximum of half salary. I know people in certain professions got 60ths, but that was 'shorter career' stuff like fire service and police. Also, the maximum when I was there was half salary so you couldn't get more than 30/60 or 40/80 regardless of how long your service was. This was also topped off nicely with a lump sum of 3x annual pension on retirement right enough.