If you are sacked you cannot lose your pension

[ineedastrongercoffee]

Why do people think that if you are sacked then you automatically lose your pension? That’s money that you have paid as part of your salary sacrifice. No matter what heinous crime you have committed if you have a pension it is yours. Full stop.

imagine how it would be used by unscrupulous employees to bully their staff with the threat of sack and losing their pension on top

in the police you can in certain circumstances like abuse of power I think. And I suspect it happens more in the USA. Which probably results in misconceptions.

The police can lose their pension if convicted of an offence that’s an abuse of their power or that brings the service into disrepute.

There have been some high profile cases recently where I assume the convicted will of been stripped of police pension.

I've just seen on the news that the copper found guilty of multiple rapes and sexual offences is being stripped of his pension.

I think they can lose it in the military too depending on the type of dishonourable discharge?? (Not certain) but military pensions are non contributory. Considering public sector pensions are heavily subsidised by public money, I can't say I disagree with them having some conditions attached...like not abusing your position to enable you to rape and torture scores of women.....

@user8545
I pay £400 a month into my NHS pension. Where's the subsidy? Plus you do realise public service employees also pay tax, don't you?

Going to prison and then losing a pension you have been paying into for years seems like a double punishment. I could understand it being reduced so that you only get the benefit of your own contributions.

You know the NHS pays into your pension too?

You do know I pay taxes and so fund the NHS don't you?

But this man and the other men who have been in the news about this will stay in prison throughout their retirement anyway.

I do think that is particularly unfair on their wives who have had nothing to do with the crime.

@Spidey66 I have a public sector pension too, yes you pay into it, but so does your employer...at quite a decent rate.

It wasn't a criticism by the way, I'm holding myself to the same bar! If I used my position at work to commit heinous crimes, I don't think I'd be deserving of my above average pension!!

Your question was ‘where’s the subsidy?’

If I pay taxes but don't work for the NHS do you think they pay into my pension?
They do not. There is an employer contribution.

Is OP talking about defined contribution plans rather than defined benefit which have many more conditions attached

Do you think you should lose what you have paid in? That doesn't seem fair to me, so not black and white but somewhere in the middle if that makes sense.

It's quite a specific situation. In roles where you earn an enhanced pension, and it later turns out you weren't doing your role as it should be done- you were abusing your role- then it's not wrong that you are disqualified from the enhancement. It's like a bonus that it turns out you didn't earn because you behaved appallingly.

If you have a defined benefit pension in certain services, under certain circumstances you can lose your pension. Full stop.

Many many people pay taxes that fund the NHS and other public services. But they don't get large amounts of it back, paid into their pensions.

Personally I think that police etc should receive the amount that they paid into their pensions from their salaries, but not the amount that the govt paid in, in situations like this.

👍

I think this is the most sensible - I really don’t want to type his name but police committing crimes should not have
their enhanced entitlement but they should retain what they have paid in themselves.

my point was there seems to be a general misconception that no matter what job you do if you get sacked then you lose your pension

Argh meant to quote @Spidey66

Do you think you should lose what you have paid in? That doesn't seem fair to me, so not black and white but somewhere in the middle if that makes sense.

No probably not, though not sure how that would work with a defined scheme.

*defined benefit that should say

With defined benefit companies have much more say about the pension, with defined contribution it's more like a savings account that belongs to you so that wouldn't be taken away

I'm surprised to hear that's a general misconception, admittedly I don't think I've had many conversations on the subject but I don't remember anyone ever expressing that view. People are stacked everyday for all kinds of reasons, who thinks they all lose their pensions?