that the police get such massive pensions...

[TakenYears]

....and from the age of 50.

Other public sectar workers get nothing remotely resembling that.

Taxpayers subsidise your pension too. Do you want all public sector workers to get the same? Do you think we all deserve the same? If so I'll have what you're going to get 'cos it's better than mine.

Did you read Lougle's post?

Taken my dads best friend died 3 days after retiring. He was extremely fit. Don't want to scare you, but out my dads circle of friends (7 of them) 4 have died within 3 years, 1 died before he retired. Dad considers himself to be doing well as he has been retired 13 months. Officers do have a shorter life expectancy, so nurses? Is you job that hard it shortens you life?

"Do you want all public sector workers to get the same"

I think the police deserve incentives and perks for what they do.

Is this still going on? Taken, seriously.

I think the question has been answered. YABU.

In the words of the cliched Police Officer:

Move along please; nothing to see.

"Taken my dads best friend died 3 days after retiring"

Aw, that's awful.

Sadly OP many Officers do die in 7 years or less. We have a part of our intranet which has news on it. One section tells you of deaths of serving or retired Officers. A vast proportion die very quickly after retirement. Many don't make it to retirement. I have to admit though when I read one where someone got 50 years out of their pension I was like this .

many Officers

But is it actually true that average life expectancy is 7 years after retirement? And this is including those who retire relatively young?

If so I would expect Life Assurance rates to be very high for police officers, and retirement annuity rates to be very very high.

Where did you see these statistics?

DeepPurple - I'd no idea the stress of the job was prematurely killing off the police force - around retirement age,.

Taken,
I honestly think that a bit of sensationalism is affecting your view on this. Why don't you try to find out some hard facts on contribution levels compared to other public sectors? The Government Actuary Department can provide you with information if you ask - for example find out exactly how much public funding goes into police pensions annually, compared to other public sector areas, for example medical profession, teachers, military.

I also think that you need to get a bit of advice on your own pension arrangements with regard to how much you are actually paying, and getting an accurate pension forecast. 12% contributions resulting in a £5k pension after 47 years doesn't sound accurate.

You've taken ('scuse the pun) a lot of flack on this thread, but I think it because of your persistence in the lack of informed evidence - I'm honestly not having a go at you.

Thanks Beryl.

Piglet, I got my information from the Govt Actuary Dept - so it is accurate. Average age of death for female officers is 60 years old.

I didn't realize that policemen and women were dying prematurely around retirement age. If that's the case then i'm sorry, and sorry for starting this thread.

I just read 58 but pc crashed and can't find site I was on. I was told 7 years by many sources when starting in the job, such as the occ health people etc.

Many will not retire until 55-60 now so many won't make it to retirement

Taken - thanks. It was awful, he went on a cruise and collapsed the first day. Its devastating. I am glad dad retired, but am worried as well.

Great ! DH retires in two years !

Was there not a report recently that suggested that doing night shifts could shorten your life. Add to that the physical exertion of the job I'm not really surprised about the life expectancy. They're stab vest and equipment belt look heavy for a start.

I can't believe this thread is still going & the same points still being repeated. Taken, the comments re: life expectancy were first mooted yesterday morning (11:35) so the thread should surely have stopped then?

DH confirms that if he should die when he is in retirement then I get widows pension - not sure what % of his full pension that would be . Well at least the lump sum would have paid the mortgage off.

Hello Beryl

Have you got a link to your source?

But let's just say that the police need no qualifications and many have pretty much that...FACT.

When I became a police officer I did 15 weeks residential training where we did 8 hours a day in the classroom with enormous amounts of work to do after. We did military drills. We learnt lifesaving. We learnt restraint techniques, psychology of interviewing people (suspects and witnesses). We learnt traffic law, criminal law, civil law, human rights law, race and diversity law. In fact when I looked into doing a law degree my police training would have credited me the first two years of the criminal element and "legal system" of a law degree. After that I did a further 6 weeks intensive classroom based learning at our HQ in more specialised areas such as child protection, sexual offences. Then chuck in 2 weeks of self defence training concluding with a physical test. And within all of this regular fitness tests that had to be passed or you were backcoursed. All of that was just to start as a bog-standard response officer

My husband is a detective. He attended a further 3 month specialist training programme which is just to get detective status. To get onto that training course he had to pass a very difficult exam in which the multiple choice questions are designed to confuse you and sort the wheat that know their law inside out from the chaff that only know it enough. He then completed a 3 weeks residential course in advanced interviewing techniques. If he wanted to go on a specialist unit, eg. CPT he would have to do a whole lot more training.

But no, we require no qualifications and we're all stupid. FACT.

Yabvvvvu actually.

If dh didnt pay his pension we would be fairly well off. I am a public sector worker and pay only a fraction of the pension contribitions he does.

He will not be retiring at 50 btw and also dont forget all the times away from his family.Lots of weekends and evenings etc. Having shift patterns changed with no consultation or regard for childcare. Having days off cancelled at the drop of a hat and having to go in Having to attend court on days off.
We cant even have any time as afamily this summer cos all leave is cancelled due to the olympics,he got called in for the riots at very short notice and a few years ago wehen we had no water or power and i was left with 4 dc and a full time job collecting water from the emergency bowsers late at night whilst he was protecting them from sabbotage by morons and handing out bottled water in supermarket carparks.

If you are so bothered why not sign up?

Yeah no summer hols for us this year !

Piglet, I don't have a link - it was sent to me by e-mail as a result of a request.

ohdearNigel my husband did exactly the same training as yourself- obviously with where we are he has to carry a gun so he also did intensive firearms training which has to be constantly updated and checked and the driving courses, public order courses and he also did a 6 week course in an additional language and that was all before he could pass so to speak - piece of piss

Oh yes, I forgot all that. But clearly being a police officer is nothing like as difficult or dangerous as nursing