Rosemary

Governments do not care about your feelings or usefulness they need to save the money for their expenses.
Many a true word spoken in jest.

Graham

Domino

why get the right to retire 10yrs early ??

why not take those old clapped out old bangers and recycle them in admin jobs, training, coaching, using those years of chalk face experience to pass on to others, not just in the school environment but in the public sector as well.
not everyone can prepare a lesson then stand up and present the subject so why not more use of those who have and can ?

I have come across people who have been made redundant at 64 and the jobcentre expects them to go out and get a job, why can't the nation ask teachers to do the same, not teaching but admin work or in a factory but WORK !!
Retiring on £23k gold plated pension at 55 should not be an option when that is the national average wage and more than many many other people...

what do you think you are - a politician ?

anna58

I agree with both of you, dealing with children at 68 would be very difficult and more flexibility about post teaching jobs would be a great use of skills. I left teaching at 45 and at that time all my 50 year old friends were being retired at 50 with 10 years enhancement! What was all that about? I was nearly tempted to stay another 5 years as that would have given me 15 years more pension. Five years later they weren't giving the enhancement, they were doing all sorts to recruit teachers

Rosemary

I can see your point Domino but the problem is that there are not enough jobs to go round as it is and really it is the youngsters, especially the ones trying to start or bring up a family, that need them.
The whole pension system is a disaster with governments moving money from here to there and sometimes back again but also constantly moving the goalposts. I see that a new survey published is stating that 8% of workers now think that they will not be able to afford to retire. A second suvey states that the directors of the top 100 FTSE companies had salary inreases of 50% this last year. The whole system is a disgrace.

Graham

Domino

Graham, one of the reasons for there not being enough jobs to go round is that someone has to fund so many early retirees on salaries of 2/3rds of salary when working.
I am not arguing that is what they signed up for etc. but it isnt sustainable.
But we should be retaining more teachers to go with the youngsters to even out the knowledge and experience whilst reducing class sizes to a point where the teacher has more control. (One of the industrial training institutes says a class should be 8, but not more than 10)

the idea of works pensions has only been round for probably about 60 years and look at how many different schemes have been foisted on us.
when my pension scheme wanted to change for 60ths to 80ths we had no option. At the same time as our chief exec's pension payment received a larger annual increase than my annual salary.

anna58

To get back on track Fuel Poverty is when heating costs are 10% or more of income, even here I should think that many of us qualify...... even with state and public sector pensions! Apparently the Queen does too with all those castles to heat!

casa del sol

...people should be thankful they got a pension at 60 or 65...the way things are going most will be lucky to get anything until they reach ages 68 to 70.


I know of people that have lived years longer on their old age pension than they ever did doing years of work....but they still insist they paid for it.

megmet

Why on earth should we feel thankful?

I used to work after school five days a week and all day Saturday from age twelve, as many of us did in the years following the war when times really were hard.
I left school at fifteen and paid into the NI at full rate for forty five years.

Those now being told they will have to work until they are older left school later and they will be entitled to a full pension after only 30 years of paying NI contributions....that's 15 years less than me!

I had no choice in the matter, I still had to pay NI even after passing the qualifying number (at the time 38) with no increased benefit to myself for doing so.

That's not what I call lucky and not something I should feel thankful about!

The deal was that one generation paid for the one before, my generation don't begrudge the elderly now getting a pension and are happy for them in their longevity.
Lets hope that the next generation who will pay for your pension have a more benevolent attitude than you obviously have.

Domino

they would surely be too old, and be on the severely restricted pensions for those currently in their 80's and 90's, but think they still get the topups to meet the lower income requirements......
assuming they have applied for them, which some haven't as they see it as charity - oh how things have changed

jdr

Same as me, I paid 45 years when only 38 was required and I also lost 5 years credits because I left the UK when I was sixty, if I had stayed in the UK till I was sixty five I would of got a full pension, WTF is going on there ?

Rosemary

Very good point.

Graham

JLFS

And unfair

casa del sol

I don't begrudge the elderly getting a pension, what I am saying is the youngsters will be having to wait/work for longer before they get one, leave education with £40k plus of debt plus most will find it much harder to save a deposit to buy a house let alone borrow the money to buy one.....what will £140 be worth when they retire?...maybe they should do away with pensions, then we all would have to provide for our own old age.

steviedeluxe

This is a very serious issue. One thing that people haven't realised regarding the latest Greek debt write-off is that pension funds put money into these bonds. This money has now been cut by 50%. Some people may be receiving a lot less pension than they anticipated.

jackytoo

Yeah, the Greeks for a start