OK.

Well....if the Euro hits parity with the £1 or even worse, if the cost of living in Spain keeps rising, if my husband has to lose some of his already reduced Teachers' Pension (as mentioned in one or two posts here), if my son and his lodger remain on short time hours (meaning they will not be able to pay the rent on our UK house and therefore we will have to subsidise the bills and expenses, including a new boiler)......

...well those are a few of the reasons we may have to leave Spain.

I remember it. That is the one that compared dinner ladies with road-workers.
I do not wish for an argument. My point was much narrower than you are making it. Of course I agree that many women get a raw deal. But so do at least as many men.

I concur. Anyone want to take a discussion on inequality for the sexes (/ages/races/...) in the workplace to TIO & leave the question of leaving Spain to revert to a purer thread?

Hi Scampicat,

Take some advice about moving our pension to a SIPP or a QROP. It could be a good move. I converted my Teachers' Pension to a SIPP 3 years ago and haven't regretted it. I'm thinking, now, of converting it into a QROP because that is more flexible.

Hope this info is of some use.

My G/F will look into working for the council. I did have a word with her about what was said on here and she agrees although she did say that this happens in a lot of places anyway(work offered to those working internally already). She used to work for Lloyds TSB(not in the bank but on the insurance side of things) down in Wales and they are the same but it's not to say that they don't hire people from the outside.

My G/F'd dad who is 60 now got a job with the Newcastle council at 56 years old. They work on the street,ie picking up rubbish, doing the odd house clearance and painting fences etc. It's not the best job in the world but the pay is good and he works a mile from his house plus he gets sat and sun off to watch the football and relax. And he was 56 when he applied for that!!
He doesn't drive but one of his work mates does and he gets to work the gritters in the winter.

I have spoken to my dad last night and my cousin actually works for the Wakefield council. He is about 48 now.(i thought it was the Leeds council) and he got a job on the bins 4 years ago. They get paid well. It is a mucky job but we all know that they do look after them.

Anyway my point is my g/f's dad and my cousin both got jobs working for the council and neither of them had connections or family who worked internally so surely this is one example that jobs like this can be applied for and it proves that an outsider does stand a chance.


Another option is maybe trying for the FIRSTBUS group. I think Firstbus now covers most areas in the uk and with the government trying to stop you from using your car in the cities(ie manchester and London charges) then more and more people are using the bus or train nowadays.. It says online that they put you through your PCV training and the wage is close to £8p.h on a 37hr week.


Any thoughts on this?

Reading this is making me a bit homesick. My job, as far as i know, is ok for the moment but god knows what we would do if i got paid off Sometimes i feel like i could jump on a plane tomorrow.

That's the thing. I guess you also have to think about what you would do if the worst happened.
The only type of job I could do here in Benidorm is Hotel work or bar work and because im in my 30's I have to decide whether I want to do this forever? Ive done Hotel entertainment for 8 years already and if I decide to do it for another 8 years then I will be in my 40's. At the moment iam still young enough to try and get a decent career behind me and do something with my life.
Even with 2 full time wages in Benidorm we could never bring a child into the world or own our own home cos the wages simply are not good enough. I know that if I move back it will be the right choice, in the long run I mean and Ive more chance of doing what I want to do back in England.

My girlfriend over here works for a transport company who deal with transfers to and from airports all over the world and she comes out with less than 1,000 euros and she gets paid way under the minimum wage that is set in the uk.
Even if she left her job there is physically no better paid job around.

I thought about getting the PSV (is that the bus drivers' licence?) a few years back; but my poor eyesight meant it was a poor starter. Around Oxford (which is a very expensive place to live, even in places like Cowley and Blackbird Leys) the bus companies are always advertising for drivers, quoting earnings of 20k. So yes, if you can get in I imagine you'll have a fairly secure job. However National Express recently announced they were cutting staff, so it's not all roses. As with all industries, it's going to be more difficult at the moment simply because more people are losing their jobs and having to apply for another job. There's going to be extremely strong competition for any job you go for. Best of luck.

NB. The business park where I currently work seems to be still fairly busy, judging by the queues in and out at rush hour. A good business often seems to be these mobile sandwich/snack vans that supply the workers with good value lunch. If you do your research right (ie scout around business parks and find out which ones are busy) this may be something to target. If not sandwiches for the workers, you could offer cleaning services for the companies concerned. Worth thinking about if you find there are too many applicants for the jobs you apply for.

Another thought - may be worth checking out the casinos. I imagine work as a croupier doesn't pay a fortune, but you may be able to work yourself up in the establishment. Same goes for working in the betting shops. They often seem to be advertising for staff. I suspect it's an industry that doesn't go away in hard times.

yeah that's true. Im exploring all angles.
There are a few HGV jobs too. I understand that it's long hours and sometimes night work but you have to take the rough with the smooth.
Most pay upto £12.ph. I did my theory exam l;ast november so if I decide to do the practical then its just a case of booking in and doing it.

I agree. And I apologise.
Perhaps it might have been more appropriate to Why people are leaving the UK?

I can see why people are leaving, it was the same when I lived out there, tough times caused so many to leave and it created a massive vacuum in their place, clubs, pubs and bars closed, whole Urbs became ghost towns and it created a real glutt of houses and a massive shortage of jobs, but a funny thing happened...

Because the Spanish had always felt excluded from many of the expat areas now they were turning in to ghost towns the Spanish became interested in them and slowly they began to fill up... I never once found myself out of work, but that was for one reason and one alone, because I was able to turn my hand at pretty much anything, I could turn my hand to almost anything I was asked, and that, at times of hardship and financial issues is the real key to survival.

Its the people who specialise that suffer, the guys that can only do one thing or are tied to one industry, the people who are maybe too stubborn or inflexible that suffer at times like these. I do think that an old poster on here put it perfectly when he said about the skills plane, people board it, and arrive in Spain as anything, they are an expert at it and have been there, done it and bought the T-shirt.....

I commend anyone who wants to retrain or take a career break to do something different, but don't think that it will line you up for anything great, even with what I have done in my life and with a masters behind me in two separate areas of learning I find myself spending almost all my time putting fences up for money......

One last thought - Breweries are desperate for landlords who can keep their pubs profitable (unfortunately very hard in the current climate - a large number of pubs are closing). If (and it's a big if) you can take over a pub in the right location, and attract your clientele (quiz nights, gigs, maybe even bingo nights?) you can benefit from the restricted competition. Although, thinking more about this, maybe a better bet would be to start with Weatherspoons - who still seem to be recruiting.

most the reply here about heading back is all about pension been got in spain via the uk pound and that rate very bad , wagesinspain have never been good unless you own somethink here and then can pull what every you want , looking back in the 80s 90s and now wages where all was bad in spain .unless you where commision based ie real estate but we know thats dryed up now . ha there good side , many be we get few cheap house with some moving back dont for get back in the 60/70s when the farmer was dividing up land the eldest son got the land and outher got bit beide the beach , then tourism happen in spain , hotels where builted , for spain to com on line whats happen more good deals want to be done this year and up 2010 , now with Aerlingus , irish carrer there start flight from Gatwick to Alicante and Malaga this 09

More looking for deals from food cars house ,and travel

last night i dj a latenight pub in ireland and wont know the slow down was on , but jan going to be quit this 09 coming

dont for get it not the dream land here in spain its all hard work , do fill sorry for people living on pension from uk
but people that work here for some where eles try make good life in spain , less jobs but that going on every where eles aswell so if not spain it uk , ireland germany and so on

Thankyou, I have taken some advice from a financial forum that I visit and the Teachers' Pension cannot be moved as it is already in payment.

But thanks anyway.