to not give a fig about my pension and just be grateful for having a job?

[nevergoogle]

arf at fig

public sector strikes brewing.

what do you think? what's actually going on?

gosh - one subject - soooo many threads

I have no pension - I am still striking - look at the other many threads for more detail

We're fucked and will have to work until we are 80 if physically able. if not (because our backs are fucked) we'll be on income support.

and if we pay £££££ into our pensions by the time we are 80 (40 years hence) the rules will have changed so many times we'll have paid out £££££££ and get pennies back.

So we are fucked either way.

And by the time we are 80 there will be compulsory euthanasia for all personages not actively paying into society so we'll all be dead anyway.

We won't need pensions. We'll be dead before we get to retire and the country will be full of young, fit, unemployed people.

yup, i don't get it. only twats would be banking on a pension from the nhs.

so can i ask for the money i've paid in back?

Yep, heaven forbid people stand up and fight for what they were promised.

YABU
that kind of attitude gets us all get fucked in the ass by our employers over and over. Why should I be grateful that I have a job? Yes, it's public sector but I do an essential job and I get paid a fairly crap amount for it. Why would I refuse to stand up for myself? Fear? Pah. I am striking and proud to be.

\You can cancel your pension plan, I'm not sure if you can get 100% back but be careful as you may not be able to get back in if you want to in the future.

Yanbu for not caring about your pension - agree with earlier posts - I am cancelling my contributions with the nhs so that I can afford to live now !

I'd actually settle at this rate for a simple lump sum payout of all I'd put in!

say it's on average £200 a month, £2400 a year, over 40 years that's £96,000 without employer contributions. At this rate there's no way i'll get that back in how long I'm expected to live after retirement on the amount I'll get per year.

I too am a public sector worker, and have in over 22 years service, i have never crossed a Nalgo/Unison picket line at my place of work. I have stood on that picket line at every strike we have had, even when my DD was little, or the strike was on a day i didnt work.

I get crappy pay for an extremely sensitive and confidential job, but despite the fact that it will cause hardship to my family for me to lose my days pay, i am going to strike. My wonderful DH, despite having never been part of a union in his life, is actively encourgaing me to do what i feel is right, not necessarily what is the best thing for our family, with regards to this industrial action.

How mant times will they try and move the goalposts in the future, if we agree to this now?

I work in Local authority, btw, not NHS.

Mindset of local authority workers can differ hugely to that of nurses etc who historically find it very difficult to strike . Regardless of that- I still don't care about my pension at the moment .it's pointless , think it through. To echo previous posts. . The words null and void spring to mind !

I'm not bothered about a pension. No savings so I'd get Pension Credit, which would actually make me better off than I am now with all the free travel and discounts that pensioners get.

I dont know what you mean about mindset of local authority workers - i dont find it easy to strike at all!! It really does depend on what the strike is about as to how i feel about it. I have voted no to strike action on more than one occasion in the past, but i have gone with whatever the majority vote was.

I appreciate how difficult it is for nurses to strike (was a student nurse in my younger days, and damaged my back seriously enough for me not to be able to complete my training - story for another time) - and am one of those who completely understand this.

I think nurses these days are particularly badly paid for the work they have to do and the aggravation they face from patients and their families, and the level of responsibility they have to take. You have my utmost respect - along with all other members of vital services, including policemen/women, firefighters and members of the our armed forces etc.

What will happen if all the nurses in the union walk out on that day?

YABU (and rather foolhardy) to not give a fig about your pension.

Kittenunderbed - is there anything stopping you doing that? I mean I know you can't necessarily join again if you leave so you should think carefully but is there anything to stop people withdrawing their funds after 30 odd years and doing something else with it? Can you do that, or is there a limit to how many years you can get paid back to you?

i don't believe for a second that the nhs will exist in the same form when i am 65. how can it be sustainable, really. expecting the goverment to continue paying you after you've left just doesn't add up.
there's no money. get a private pension.

Oooh yes, private pensions. Those marvellous things that make investment bankers very, very rich and pay out jack shit to those who are actually paying in because everything is creamed off in charges.

We should be picketing outside the offices of the providers of these monstrosities who are fleecing private sector workers left, right and centre instead of constantly bashing public sector workers - but between them the right wing media, the government and the bankers have done a very nice job of divide and rule.

We should have decent pensions for all.

YABU not to care about having something to live on when you retire.

YANBU to be grateful for having a job, whether or not it has a gold-plated pension.

Well if my pension contributions were potentially going up by £100 a month our family finances would be shot. They should get the option - pay increased contributions for the same pension, or keep the same contributions for a poorer pension.

The taxpayer employs public sector workers and therefore has a responsibility to them. People seem to have some difficulty grasping that. Save your bad feelings for the large private sector employers who could provide a pension for their employees but choose to line their own pockets instead. Remember those 50% pay increases?

Also, as local authority workers have been picked on, the local authority pension scheme is funded. It is not paid for by the taxpayer except for the employer's contributions which, as the taxpayer is the employer, are rightly unavoidable. If I was a LA worker in England I would be spitting feathers at being made to pay extra into my pension when it was already adequately funded, simply to satisfy the Government's warped ideology and help them avoid taxing the rich.

all pensions are pointless.

oh unless you happen to have a time machine and can go back to a time when such things were possible in the public sector.