To think public sector pensions should be slashed?

And actually. If someone earning a career average of 65k saved 29% of their salary (the amount the civil service pay), which would bring them down to 46k so not far off the “total package” including pension of the civil servant. They would have £1.5m in their pot at the civil service retirement age (68).

I agree, maybe I’ve gone too far there. But pay a salary such that for your average, law grad, weighing up private sector, where they might earn c.£70-80k, vs public sector where they might earn £40-£50k, but with a DB pension scheme. Take that incentive away. The system currently encourages our ‘best’ grads away from public sector - because they need money now, to buy a house etc.

They don’t get final salary pensions anymore. They’ve had a real terms pay decrease since 2010, year on year. My focus is on those who have enriched themselves in both the public and private sector over the last 14 years or so, and and remain unaccountable. Its really not the public sector workers, even with their pensions.

But that's the point. The public sector pension is basically deferred pay.

The private sector equivalent gets that money during their working life. The public sector person gets it after retirement.

And do you realise how much of a pot a DC pension member would need to build to buy a £12k a year annuity? It’s about £500k. That’s far beyond the reach of most private sector employees.

What a really depressing statistic.

I’m in my 50s with a PhD. The only way I can make my £60k salary work is by compressing my full time hours into four days and consulting on the fifth.

Experienced (including training junior devs) software developer in London - 38k (you always start on the bottom of the band). With the civil service pension this works out to about 49k total package.

The median software developer salary in London is 65k.

https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=cGFnZWFjdGlvbj12aWV3dmFjYnlqb2JsaXN0JnVzZXJzZWFyY2hjb250ZXh0PTEwNTMzNDAwOCZzZWFyY2hwYWdlPTEmb3duZXJ0eXBlPWZhaXImcGFnZWNsYXNzPUpvYnMmb3duZXI9NTA3MDAwMCZzZWFyY2hzb3J0PXNjb3JlJmpvYmxpc3Rfdmlld192YWM9MTkyOTE0MCZyZXFzaWc9MTczMTYxODAyNi05ODQ4YjNiMGRhOTMyYzAxZTNkMjRkMDY5M2QzMzg2MDE1ZGM1MDk1

Most solicitors earn far less than those in Magic Circle law firms. It’s not a reasonable
comparitor. I’m not saying that salaries shouldn’t be higher, but not Magic Circle level.

As a public sector worker and taxpayer, I don't agree that pensions are the biggest problem. The biggest waste is due to private businesses creaming off vast profits from publicly-funded education, health and care systems. The academy system, private care homes, and NHS-outsourced healthcare taking place in private hospitals all incur colossal expense. As a taxpayer, I also begrudge the billions spent on bailing out poorly-regulated banks, and the privatised utility and transport companies- all of these have paid massive dividends to shareholders but come begging to the government to actually fulfil their role.

Can you explain why a nurse who has saved lives for poor pay for 40 years should be expected to live in poverty as a pensioner, while the government pays the fat cat salaries of the bosses of failed privatised businesses?

Just imagine, if the public sector, paid wages comparable to the private sector. So all those super bright, ambitious grads, who go off to Google/investment banks/magic circle law firms/build space rockets/find a cure for cancer, instead choose a CS career for a comparable salary, but they had to pay into their own DC pension scheme.

How much more efficient would our public services be, if a public sector career, offered exactly the same financial compensation as the private sector?

Quick google of Planning lawyer jobs not London 5 and 8 years PQE £100,000 plus package. Senior planning lawyer local government is on £45-50,000. If you look on public law jobs pretty much every council is trying to recruit this role, no wonder they can’t.

I work for the CS and my pay is shite (not far off minimum wage) - and my job is quite highly skilled. The pension makes this crappily paid job worthwhile.

“Regular inflation based pay rises in the public sector”????

Get fecked. I’m earning the equivalent of 80% of a decade ago due to zero or below-inflation pay rises.

My friend, a private sector solicitor, just had a 20% pay rise this year.

Literally the only thing keeping me in teaching (and believe me, you need teachers with my experience) is the pension. Which, having just checked my statement, currently accounts to a princely and generous GOLDEN PLATED £12k a year and a lump sum of about £30k IF I retire at the age of 67.

I’m mortgaged past retirement age, because it’s the only way I could afford the repayments.

FUCK OFF AND THEN FUCK OFF SOME MORE is my current thought on that.

I don't know why people think private sector jobs are well paid. Some might be but many in hospitality and retail are not.

DH works in hospitality in a low paid job with a whopping 3% pension contribution. I work for a charity where pay is also low and 3% pension contributions are also common.

Department for Exiting the European Union has closed.
The Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) was a ministerial department from 14 July 2016 to 31 January 2020. It was responsible for overseeing negotiations to leave the EU.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-exiting-the-european-union

So now it is the civil service's fault that the great British public voted for Brexit and the resulting rewriting of laws.

Contrary to belief they belong to the people investing in them.
Not the taxpayer nor the government.

Government vets. The civil service agency I work for pays vets less than £40k. No surprises we can only recruit newly qualified vets who then go off and double their salaries after a few years. It means we can’t build valuable experience and spend a fortune recruiting and inducting new staff constantly.

Hi @Monwmum
The Local government pension scheme is a ‘funded’ scheme. This means that the scheme aims to achieve solvency, that is, they are required to hold assets to cover the cost of the benefits (liabilities). It is also worth noting that LGPS is funded at local and employer level.
So the taxpayer is not funding it. They are self funded and are contributory pensions.

Where are these “mainly regular inflation based pay increases in the public sector”? 🤨 We wish 😂

Lawyers, engineers, procurement professionals, communications specialists.

I've seen colleagues in all these professions leave to much more highly paid posts in industry. in one case the salary doubled with a move to private sector.

There may be more general posts where salaries aren't so bad (and people may be more likely to get real living wage rather than national minimum wage etc), but posts which need professional qualifications/chaterships etc the salaries are just nowhere near.

Lower level senior civil service pay is also really low for the level of responsibility and demands placed on people (i dont know what the pay bands look like beyond deputy director level). There's no way I'd consider that bottom end of the senior civil service to be financially viable compared with leaving the public sector- it really is a labour of love/act of service for people who are in these roles.

Hi - so I’m a local government solicitor. I also have managerial responsibilities. I earn less than £50k.

I qualified nearly 20 years ago on a salary of £37.5k. I worked in the private sector for a few years and took a £5k pay cut to move into local government. The people I trained with who have stayed in law earn around £100k. I have been offered £105k to move back into private practice in the same city.

I stay because I enjoy making a difference and until recently, the work life balance made it worthwhile. The pension is also a factor.

And you would also think it was a free handout of ‘taxpayer's money’ not wages for doing a job! Some people seem to think public sector workers should do it for the love of the job! Maybe the govt should provide dormitories for us all to sleep in & provide food then they won’t have to waste taxpayers money on paying us wages 🙄🙄

No they are not.
Local authority pensions are funded by the employees.

Posts like these baffle me. Yes it’s public money. But good luck getting anything done without civil servants. They help the country function, all the while being endlessly criticised for poor service which is only a direct result of departments being underfunded. Sure go ahead, take the pension, keep paying them peanuts. Then stop moaning that they don’t have enough staff to process your passport applications or benefit applications. For goodness sake.

@Katypp

One of the biggest game changers for most people financially is repaying your mortgage
My pension will be significantly less than my salary, however as I'm no longer forking out £800 a month for mortgage, I imagine my standard of living will pretty much stay the same, if not be better.
I imagine your neighbours have paid their mortgages off.