To think this is appalling? (Civil Service salary)

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Having a clear out the other day, I found some old payslips from 2001 when I was an HEO in the civil service. I was earning just over £27,000. I thought I would have a look and see what an HEO earns today. Outside London, the starting salary is £27,150, with those in London getting £30,388. So virtually no rise in 20 years!

The economy is fucked with little growth since 08. People talk about cycles but we never recovered from that one just relied on cheap credit.

I worked in a shop alongside uni in the early 00s, the salary has hardly changed.

Plus now those same salaries with hardly any growth will be losing more in tax.

My lump sum is 13k if I retire at 68 (DWP SEO grade) with 34 years in the CS so I am astonished at your figure. Are you SCS?

AO in the DWP here, on less than £22,000.
I am still earning about 2 and half grand less than I was in the private sector 4 years ago. I really am only staying for the pension as I retire in 5 years.
I am not a union person, but I voted to strike in the recent ballot, doubt if anything will change though.

When I left uni 70k was considered a good salary for a manager position in many industries. That's barely changed.

@RandomMess quite - I have many very experienced colleagues who have stayed at HEO because they didn't want to put themselves through the song and dance that passes for the application process here. They all joined when progression was still a thing, so are all on much more than me, but that in itself causes resentment because no matter how much experience I get, I will never progress up the banding. Then the old timers grumble that those recruited at SEO level don't have the knowledge or experience necessary for the job.

The whole system needs an overhaul but it's not going to happen under Austerity Round 2.

The full time salary for my job has gone up by roughly £4.5k in 15 years. Back then we (I was still with my ex) could have run our house comfortably on just my pay if I'd been full time but now it would not be enough. People always assume I earn far more than I do too for some reason.

Have you got that figure from the pension modeller? No way you’ll get that low lump sum as an SEO. I’m a G7

I’m media too, my salary decreases every time I’m made redundant and need to find a new role. I don’t even know what the point is any more.

I work for a university and earn just over £2k more a year now than I did when i started in 2001. Added to that, I now have to manage people for that salary due to staffing cuts.

All down to austerity, wage stagnation and pay freezes even though sector has been booming over the last 20 years (not any more)

@Zanatdy is that same scheme available to newer entrants?

Yes it was on my last pension benefit statement. 13k lump sum plus around 20k pension if I retire in 2035. I havent always been an SEO though and it,s based on career average I understand (was a part time EO when kids were small for example)

I joined over 10 years before you so have over 25 years in Classic. My lump sum is still only 3 x my pension

Classic was 1/80 of pensionable pay (final salary) x reckonable service = annual pension
lump sum = 3 x pension

reckonable service used to be capped at 40 years which is why folks think we retire on half salary…but that was the max we could get after a full 40 years

Your original post says £150k lump sum! That’s what has us questioning your figures

Thinking about it, I looked at salaries in my old career (publishing) and for the role I had the salary has barely gone up, yet rents have doubled. I mean, there's no way I'd go back to London anyway but even if I wanted to there's no chance, I simply couldn't afford to live, even in a shared house.

No it was someone else who said 150k I was questioning it as mine is only 13k

Sorry my last post was for Zanatdy

I’ve just rechecked it and these are the figures: these are all taking 100% lump sum
age: 65 - 133k lump sum, 19k a year
age 66 - 143k lump sum, 21k a year
age 67 - 153k lump sum, 23k a year
age 68 - 165k lump sum, 24k a year

for anyone using their annual benefit statements to predict their pension that’s based on right NOW, not when you’re 65 etc. Use the CSP retirement modeller on their website for accurate info. You can play around with it, all the above is taking 100% lump sum but if I took 50% lump sum I’d get more per year. Lump sum is tax free though, annual is not

@Guitarbar sorry, I quoted the wrong post! It was actually replying to JoanOgden, that civil service pensions are still better than private ones. If I earned about £20000 in the private sector doing a basic admin role I would have nowhere near the the pension I do now.

To add to your post though: we had a lot of people start over the last few years in HEO equivalent roles which require a degree. Their colleagues who have been in the CS years where really shocked that they had been working in bars etc before this role rather than getting a degree and walking into a well paid job.

We struggle to recruit people into some of the more specialist roles as they can earn so much more in the private sector.

See new post, I’ve rechecked my figures

That’s where you’re going wrong as the statement is based on right now, not when you retire. Use the CSP retirement modeller. I haven’t always been a G7, only recent, I was an SEO over 15yrs, HEO 3yrs and then EO

I was an AO outside of London and I left in 2014 on 19.5k or thereabouts. Took an initial paycut to change career paths and I'm now on 28k, surpassing anything I could have earned in the CS given my part time hours / location / caring responsibilities. I still look at CS jobs but I couldn't afford to return now.

Local government is the same. I left ten years ago and salaries have barely moved since.

This is the best time to fight for more money due to inflation & tight labour market however freezing the tax bands makes it redundant. And the squeeze on income will increase unemployment.

Ah ok so you are surrendering pension for an additional lump sum rather than the basic lump sum that comes with Classic?

I need a guaranteed income to live on so I won’t be taking a higher lump sum

In the private sector. My salary from 2010 for the job I did is exactly the same as if someone was hired in to do it today. I know this because I’m now higher up in the same organisation. Interestingly (or not!), if my salary from 2010 had kept up with inflation it would now be the same as a mid band level in 2 grades above! So I was technically much better off in 2010. It’s just so disheartening.