to say this to all the teachers who are striking next week

[Memoo]

As a parent I am 100 % behind you.

I really appreciate that you put your life and soul into your job and im sorry more people don't get just how hard you work for the benefit of our children.

Don't let the bastards grind you down!

Payments to retirees in the unfunded public sector pension schemes and how these are met. page 23 of report, not pasted well:

Year
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09 (estimated)
2009-10 (projected)
2010-11 (projected)

Pensions in
payment, £m
16,080
16,377
17,641
19,080
21,356
22,562
24,151
25,286

Of which employer and
employee contributions, £m
14,279
15,119
17,368
17,934
19,066
19,500
20,033
20,684

Balancing Treasury
contribution, £m
1,801
1,258
274
1,147
2,290
3,062
4,118
4,602

Please think of this in a table the first number for each of "Pensions in
payment, £m", "Of which employer and employee contributions, £m" and "Balancing Treasury contribution, £m" corresponds to years 2003-2004, the second number in the column corresponds to year 2004-2005 and so on.

Please note of the employee and employer contributions 6.4% is employee (for teacher) 14.1% is the employer (ie the state as well).

refering to these costs the report adds:

"The underlying picture, however, is worse than this. The contributions being paid by employers do not
represent the full balance of cost between the proper value of the benefits provided to employees each year
and the contributions paid by the employees. It is the value of benefits that we promise to current employees
that should be costed each year, not the benefits that we are paying out today as a result of past decisions.
This is basic to all sound accounting processes. So there is a further hidden cost which will only appear as a
future increase in balancing Treasury contributions when those employees retire."

from report:
"Estimates of outstanding
liabilities range from £770 billion to £1,176 billion ? between 53 per cent and 81 per cent of 2008 GDP and
between £36,000 and £45,000 per household in the UK."
Our kids will love us....................

And your point is?

How completely unaffordable public sector pensions are. In failing to address the problem we do not look good for investment from Russia, China , Japan.... If we lose our credit rating the interest on our debt escalates so we pay back more.

More debt, more interest, more tax from our children to pay for these pensions and interest on the debts incurred.

page 34 and 35 o fthe report make interesting reading.

www.public-sector-pensions-commission.org.uk/wp-content/themes/pspc/images/Public-Sector-Pensions-Commission-Report.pdf

It includes:

?At the moment the Government asks employees for a contribution, on average, of 6 per cent of pay and employers for an additional 14 per cent in order to help meet the pension promises it has made, i.e. 20 per cent of total employee pay. But over 40 years a typical public sector worker needs to have 48 per cent of his salary paid into his scheme in every year of his career in order to pay for the pension payouts at the end of it. The Treasury covers this annual 28 per cent gap. Even taking into account people who take career breaks and do not stay for long in the public sector, the whole public pension system requires annual contributions of 35 per cent of pay each year to fully cover the cost of new pension promises?

page 52 good for different investment scenarios. Really emphasise the unrealistic assumptions of past reports.

Memoo YADNBU I also support the teachers right to strike.

page 72 of Public Sector Pensions Commission Report.

To get pensions to "only" be worth 20% of wage (still allowing for very generous employer contributions eg 14.1% of wage).

options would be either:

Up retirement to 79 for NHS and teachers (80 for civil sevants)

benefit accrual (currently 1/80 with lump sum pre reform, or 1/65-1/60) here need to change to 1/80, 1/105 or 1/105 for civil service, NHS or teachers respectively.

Change to pensions based on career average rather than final salary: 1/80, 1/80, 1/80 of accrual rates for civil servants, teachers, NHS.

The report mentions that just choosing one of the options is understandably not possible but mentions introduction of other limits (eg limiting pensionable earnings to £75,000 and RPI/CPI increases to 2.5%.

I do think key to all this is.......

"The total (public sector) pay package could also be valued explicitly, to enhance transparency for employees and employers
in the public sector"

ie show public sector workers how great unaffordable their pension is.

Which our children will pay for

Here's a crazy idea.

We could elect an actual Government that will take from the rich to pay the poor.

Oh, hang on ... most of the teachers I know voted Conservative last year.

I don't know many teachers who vote conservative, rather like turkeys voting for Christmas,

Posted earlier how government is working on reducing tax relief on pension contributions from high earners:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11605558

The thing is when other countries look to invest government liabilities eg state funded pensions etc are really scrutinized:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14134847

Show we have over £1 trillion in unfunded public sector pensions alone

OPPS posting as links:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11605558

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14134847

I reiterate that I have not criticised any public sector workers. My DH is public sector (NOT striking). I think a strike can be for conditions of work etc (a redundancy or unfilled post to far). But in my mind not for an unaffordable pension scheme.

Not arguing Pros and Cons but the pensions pillage is already happening. A recently 'retired' family member has seen his promised pension more than halved by his university employers six months before retiring and now cannot retire fully and is having to stay on part time to make up. He is 67, and in poor health. He worked for them since his twenties and put off retirement at their request last year. Ironically had he retired then he would have been on his original promised pension.

On the other hand, the strike also means to me-
-DD missing her 1 to 1 support as it is on a Wednesday, it isn't something that they can reschedule.
-Hubby unable to get to meeting overseas as previously planned so trip now 3 days instead of 1, extending his usual 60 hour working week yet further, and having to loose the holiday he had booked so he can do that.
-No refuse collection- delayed by 2 days. Selfish of me but it has baggies of dog poop I just want rid of it.

My main concern is the lack of confirmation about which services are running/schools closing etc as my elderly housebound gran has not had confirmation that her home carer and meals service will be there and may not get it until Tuesday evening- so we may be driving 300 miles to look after her for the day. I am already on standby to have friends children over so they can still go to work. But I cannot do both! And who do you let down on Tuesday night- the single parent who faces an unpaid day off work, or a 95 year old blind woman?

If the actual time people put into their work was recognised and appreciated and paid fairly then this wouldn't have turned into the size of problem it is. Your income and benefits have to reflect the reality of the market in which you work. But unilateral change without allowance for lifestage and level of experience etc is stupid, short sighted and will effect everyone in this country in some way no matter who they support/ their stand on this issue.

If we don't improve the pension situation for the professionals to serve the community in the public sector like teachers, physios and nurses, etc, very soon our teachers will indeed come from Russia and China - because they'll be the only ones who won't mind working such low pay and then heading off home along with the rest of the brain drain. No problem with suitably qualified staff doing the job, but I'd be a bit nervous about schoolchildren being taught English with a Chinese accent and French with a Russian accent.....

We get inconvenienced by snow and "leaves on the line" all the time....we can cope with this. Let's hope everyone can organise plenty of back up help for elderly and children - we have been given adequate notice after all. I guess there'll be young ones accompanying me on the Christmas shopping then!

fine - we know you're striking! Pretty sure we won't notice though

I 100% support everyone striking, and I also strongly support the right to strike. The government are having a good moan about the lost revenue etc caused by the strike, yet I didn't hear them moaning during the last unplanned day off... what was it again, oh yeah, the Royal Wedding. Funny how it was perfectly fine to close up schools/workplaces that day, and yet when it comes to the staff having legitimate reason to stroke/work to rule the government comes over all wobbly and tries to strike fear into everyone else...

legitimate reason to strike*, not stroke... One of those nights...

VERY unreasonable OP.

Oh and I accept the right to strike if for a good cause.

I used to Home Ed my two for over four years but now they are in school (one went back to do GCSEs and the other to start in yr 7) it is a real treat to have them at home! We will have a lovely day.

As a teacher I am striking.

For me it is not so much the pension that irks me (although it is out of order) but the dire salary considering teachers do a tough, amazing job.

If the goverment wants to attract the brightest graduates it needs to increase the salary otherwise they are going to go into law, business or medicine instead. The profession needs an image overhaul.