aibu to be worried at how much these strikes are going to cost me financially?

[watchoutforthatsnail]

I'm a lone working parent, part time work, low wage.
I have noone that can look after dd. All annual leave is being refused.
I have found childcare at a cost of £30, which I can't really afford, least of all right now.

The news is reporting that this will be the first of many, and I'm sure I can't be the only one in this situation.

What am I meant to do?

If your annual leave is 'officially' being refused because you also are a civil/public servant (cos you can't have A/L unless you booked it before the strike was announced) - you need to push it with HR because you can still take A/L or Flexi leave for childcare if schools are closed. I am a civil sevant and in same position as you as school is closed and I'm not striking.

Astounded to read about my marvelous £900 plus pension, given that at no point did I mention "my pension". in my comments about pensions.

Infact, as I said, I no longer work in the public sector and so have an incomplete bit of pension lying untouchable until I retire, if I live that long. Because if they get away with raiding pensions now, they wont stop at putting retirement age up a couple of years, they will keep moving it up and up until we barely live long enough to collect it.

My pension, will be worth Jack Shit actually, but I cannot pull my money money out of it, even although they have completely changed the legal terms and conditions I signed up to when I handed my money over. If it had been a shit scheme I wouldnt have joined it. How can they justify persuading millions of people to hand over cash on the basis of it being a "good scheme" , and then after decades say, "oh by the way, we've collected all your money now, and have decided just to have a shit scheme instead, hey ho"

£900 is not incidentally a huge pension if somebody has worked their way up over 40 years to a good but not massive salary. They will also have paid in more as a precentage of their wages, they arent just being given more. The comments about my fictious pension being more than somebody elses salary......so what? Thats the job market. Just because a person earned a higher salary in their working life and accrued a higher pension, whilst others are in lower paid jobs, does NOT make it ok for the government change the goal posts and nick peoples money.

As for pensioners (see that bit again, didnt mention me) losing £30 quid a day, if you tally up the thousands lost by having to work longer, the extra £100 or so a month that people are going to have to pay and the change from a final salary to an average salary scheme and you are going to see those kind of losses.

But why should we have to take enforced annual leave?

monty you should really research into how your pension plan works, because I suspect you will be surprised to learn that it is probably unfunded ie there are no assets set aside against your name and your pension will be funded out of taxes of the future workers.

sorry but under those conditions you cannot complain that "the government change the goal posts and nick peoples money" (sic).
even if it is funded, the future performance is not known in advance and therefore cannot be reasonably guaranteed. you have to start leaving with this uncertainty and plan accordingly as the rest of us do rather than "bleating" and running the country further into the ground.

even if your utterly selfish strikes result in certain concessions, future economic conditions may or rather are likely to change again... do you want to cause complete collapse of this country akin Greece??

i currently do not work and HMRC has kindly sent me a letter asking if I want to top up NI contributions to guarantee my state pension. i am pondering as in the future i expect state pension to be totally means tested, so i will end up paying for nothing... the party is over i am afraid.

"to start living with this uncertainty"

So sorry - and this is why - AS A TEACHER (but on extended and unpaid Maternity leave) - I am against the strikes. We are public servants, paid for by YOUR taxes. We currently enjoy better pensions than most and even if we accept what's on the table, will still be better off than most. It is YOU not the government whom we hurt by striking. This is why my DH and most of his teaching collegues at his school will be breaking the strike on Wednesday and going into work regardless.They will NOT leave the union as they have paid their dues over the years and will not be dictated to by a group that is PAID to be serving them (and are NOT paid to dictate to them). By striking at this time during the negotiations, many members think that this action does NOT serve them. 40% of their members voted, 80% of which balloted for a strike. You do the maths.

I'm so sorry you lose out - you're part of the reason behind our thinking on this. We're not all moneygrabbers, you know. Some of us went into our jobs as an act of public service.

And another

Whose the for Kitty?

Bemybebe, I couldnt care less how they distibute the assets, the fact is that I was talked into joining a scheme and paid in tens of thousands on the basis of the written conditions that I was provided with.

I have also paid thousands into a mortagage on the understanding that at the end of it I will own my home and not just 2 man tent because the lender felt like changing the legal terms and conditions and fancied hanging onto my house because things are a bit tight.

The whole thing annoys me on principal, not because of the monetary consequences for me personally. My public sector pension was always going to be crap given my incomplete years of service, its now going to be a bit more crap but thats neither here nor there as I had to make other arrangements anyway when I chose to become self employed. I have infact dealt with uncertainty like everyone else,and I have made good provision for retirement outwith any scheme. I would have made even better provision had I retained under my control, the funds which I paid into the pension scheme.

When I went into the public sector, I was actually very heavily canvassed by the pension administrators to the effect that i would be practically insane not to join the scheme. This pressure, I assumed was because the more "well off" superannuated pensioners you generate, the fewer poor pensioners relying on top up benefits you have.

Infact, it was generating money that the government can dip into at will under the guise of a pension scheme.

The amazing thing is that the country can afford a day off for the Royal Wedding, and the Queen's thing next year, yet the strikes will cost us a fortune we can't afford.

Ps: when Maxwell plundered his employees' pension funds he was villified...

Ninkynonker - where there much expensive childcare problems caused by the additional bank holidays? In the same line you could argue that the country can afford sundays.

No no, I'm not getting at the OP, just commenting that the government are ranting on about how much this day is going to cost the economy, the same could be said for enforced extra bank hols.

www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/oct/07/retired-teachers-pension-cuts The comments thread makes particularly informative/ interesting reading.

as does this.

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

Perhaps Kitty would like some to go with her [biscuits] whilst she reads it?

But Op the strike has been on the cards for weeks/months. should have bugeted for childminder. What about father of child looking after him/her

A few thoughts

What about the minimum number of days' worth of education children are entitled to? You know, the argument that INSET days threads always end up with - does the strike day come off the teachers' holiday time or their teaching time, and if from the teaching time why are they allowed to have it this way round when it suits and then the other if not? Same question about election days actually.

Bank hols are a bit different in that the majority of working adults also get the day off. Not like the OP who was meant to be working. They're also notified in advance.

If childcare has to be instantly available in the event of strikes etc how does that tally up with lone parents being told they have to find work once their youngest reaches 7?

coccyx, The strike may have been 'on the cards' but confirmation has only come from schools very late in the day. As I said up the thread, my DD's school only gave 3 working days' notice. If the school knew it was 'on the cards' why didn't the school make an earlier announcement?

Would that be because the Head Teacher was waiting for actual information from the school's union members - who knew damn well already whether they would be striking or not, but chose to keep it under their hats until maximum-disruption-for-working-parents-time?

I appreciate that the strike is about maximum disruption through withdrawal of labour, but no-one's winning here.

I also wonder how many kids are going be left 'home alone' because their single working parent can't get leave, and daren't risk pissing off their boss.

Can you either take your child into work or have them go to a schoolfriend's house to play that day (if nec, sharing with another mum or two, so that next time there's a strike, you'll take the annual leave etc)?

It does seem hard on you, OP, but the right to strike is a basic right.

I'm afraid that a lot of those moaning about public sector workers striking are exactly the same people who moan about all public sector workers being lazy layabouts who do non-jobs. The point of the strike is to show people that actually public sector workers do a whole load of really vital, important jobs, that we all rely on, like teachers, nurses, even border agency staff (!) and that therefore they should be paid accordingly (including their pensions).

You can't have it both ways - if public sector workers stopping work bothers you and inconveniences you, then it demonstrates that they do actually do real jobs that deserve to be paid accordingly.

I get where you are coming from OP. I am terrified I go into labour on Wednesday and I can't get to hospital in time due to there being a lot of disruption.

I'm not crossing a picket line or taking my Dcs across one.

My concern is that schools are not informing working parents of closures until it is to late to take the same schools' [cynical] advice to 'make other arrangements'.

My DS's school is closed on Wednesday despite over half of the teachers disagreeing with the strike. I just wonder how much money this strike and the ones talked about for the future are going to cost the economy?

Yep, I do sympathise with you OP, you are not BU. I am a public sector worker on a low income. I am in UNISON, and we are expected to be out on strike. Normally the union offers financial help to members who would suffer hardship from losing pay by striking, only we have just yesterday been told that as it is likely to be an ongoing campaign, there is no guarrantee this time that we will.

Many of us are wondering seriously if we can afford to be out on strike and there is talk of us having to go into work to sign in, and sit around on our arses with nothing to do as the school will be closed (we are TAs). However, my DS's school is also closed, so what will I do with him??? The right to self certificate for sickness has been withdrawn, if we are ill we are expected to pay for a doctor's note.

I still support the strike, but it is a PITA.