I’m jealous that my cousin retired at 55 on a police final salary pension scheme

[Neapolitanicecream]

Just that really. I’m jealous of everyone that has retired on a police final salary scheme from 55 years and I have to work till 67 and not sure what I will get.

I just wish I hadn’t bothered with my degree and never earned much over average. I’d have been much better off joining the force or even a council job apperently.

Have you seen the PTSD and mental health rates in the police, I'd take working until 68 over what they put up with, all day long.

Yabvu Police officers have to be very physically fit to do the job they do most 67 year olds wouldn't be able to do it. I also don't think you understand how challenging being a police officer is and what they have to face. I couldn't do it.

Don't be jealous. I retired from the police at 55 recently. Police Officers pay quite a lot per month of our salary (11%) into our pension, but to be honest if I had my time again I wouldn't have joined. Horrible things you see almost daily that even the strongest person would struggle with. Once seen you cant unsee them. Fatal road accidents, people taking their own lifes. Being on your own at violent incidents with no back up because there is no one to come and help you. I was once half strangled in a court by a defendant high on drugs. The pay is actually rubbish for the amount of danger and hours you do, the effect on your health of shift work,Cancelled rest days - having to work double shifts with no notice, having to do a running bleep test at 55 alongside a 20 year old, missing family functions, being tired from night shifts. You can actually earn more now as a Police Community Support officer.

I thought about leaving a few times for my health but stayed as I worked in child protection and domestic abuse and wanted to help people and I worked with the best of colleagues.

I feel they risk their lives everyday to do their job. I wouldn’t want to do it. The stress of the job means they can retire from 55. A lot of officers join as a second career therefore I expect they don’t have enough pension to retire at 55. Personally I wouldn’t want to retire young….
Also worked for Local government, pension pretty good not so much the pay!

You should've joined the police then and you'd be able to do the same. You didn't to you can't hold it against those that did. Although your opening statement suggests you think police of council work is beneath you since you have a degree.

I work along side police officers. They pay over 14% personal contributions and their wages are pretty poor to begin with.

They work long unsociable shifts and they work until the job is done so often they're held on for hours
They're verbally and physically abused daily. They deal with the absolute worst of society. They're expected to be mental health specialists, social workers, medical staff etc etc
The quite often miss out on social events and family life because of their shifts.
They see people at their very very worst then in the next call they attend they have to put it all behind them and get on with the next call.

I for one don't begrudge them retiring at 55 with a full pension, they've worked bloody hard for it and deserve it.

Ps. Request a pension statement then you'll know what to expect.

DH is a special, he does the same as any other police officer but for free. But he can choose when yo work, he doesn’t have to deal with it day in and day out. Even so, The things he’s had to deal with and the complete dregs of society attacking him at 3am you just can’t imagine, The abuse hurled. The complete disrespect.

police deserve every penny they get (and a hell of a lot more)

It's not just police and local authority workers, but teachers, civil servants, (long standing) utility and rail employees etc.

Im contract ar mo in the civil service and 27% of their salary goes into their final salaray pension.

Pay is poor compared to standard corporates (c£20k for middle/managers), but honestly I think the pension makes up for that. So if you could take a pay cut, it might be worth switching as pension is based on average earnings in last x years of working life.

YABU I couldn't do that job and they pay a lot into their pension scheme. I do a job I largely enjoy and can't see me wanting to retire in 17 years, it seems to young to retire

@Neapolitanicecream Were you jealous of them putting their life in danger? Jealous of working night shift and having to miss out on time with family because you’re pretty much expected to put the job first in the police? Were you jealous when they were assaulted, spat at, shouted abuse at? How about when they went to a sudden death when a body had been lying there for weeks? When they went to a post mortem of a child? Or when they had to go deliver a death message to a distraught family? How about getting annual leave cancelled and having to return from a family holiday early to appear as a police witness in court?

if so, too bad you didn’t join up and do 25 years in the police!

I think the rules changed some years ago that Police officers can’t claim their pensions until they are 60.
This would only apply to people who joined after such a date, not for people on the old terms and conditions.

Dont forget that Police officers have to work birthdays, Christmas, New Year. They can have their leave cancelled and generally work anti social hours.

So think how much time your cousin has sacrificed, to gain that pension.

My friend's in the fire service and had to deal with three teenager who passed away in a car crash, I don't begrudge them a penny of their pension. You made crap choices so only yourself to blame.

Well you should have joined the Police then.

Police officers pay, I believe 11 per cent into their pension. They also actually on average don’t live long after retirement compared to other professions…probably a result of the shift work and stress levels have on their health.

NHS pensions are complicated!

But anyone working now is accruing pension in a scheme that is linked to state pension age - so 67/ 68. If state pension age increases they will wait longer for their NHS pension.

Those that joined in the NHS before 2022 may have accrued pension rights in previous schemes that allowed retirement at 60 or 65 depending on which scheme they were a member of.

A lot of people have made contributions under more than one scheme so will be able to claim different elements of their pension at different ages.

How bitter and sad

Focus on your own story and making the best of it.

There is absolutely no point in being jealous it is what it is my parents both retired at 55 they both worked for the Gas board as it was then and when it was privatised they were offered an extremely good redundancy they were both 54 at th time they also got shares which the sold and make a tidy profit and took their pension at 55 they will be 81 this year ( there is only four weeks between their birth days ) who wouldn't take it if it was offered and made financial sense!

Well yes, you would have been if your aim was to get a good pension at 55.
But that's not the choice you made.
Nor did you choose to set up a good private pension that would enable you to do it.
You're kicking yourself now for the choices you made but there's nothing you can do about that now so you have to make the best of it.

As someone who is married to one (who retired at 52 with a lump sum and a decent pension) yes agree with all this. Remember a holiday being nearly cancelled as some drug addled detainee had decided to bite down on my other halfs finger as he took the handcuffs off and just would not let go - waiting to see if he'd got anything nasty from that was a good time I can tell you.

Added to that the cancelled rest days say for example for a high profile football match and being told by the midwife that I was not to agree to go on the ward after having a baby I needed to get my own room because of his job just in case one of the women on the ward or their partners recognised him.

My 54 year old colleague in the nhs will be retiring in a few months time - he gets a special mental health dispensation that I don’t fully understand.

It's Mental Health Officer status meaning that when he start drugs were not as efficient and it was an even more physically demanding and potentially dangerous job. My DMIL had it and I don't begrudge her one year of her 'early' retirement, she couldn't do the job she was doing at her age now.

Police get a good pension because they pay over 12.5% pension contributions. That’s a big chunk out their monthly pay.

The strain and toughness of the job is why they’re considered to have completed their service after 35 years. Wouldn’t fancy being in my late 60s and rolling around having a scrap with a strapping 20 something year old and a knife.

He has mental health officer status which mean,s his pension scheme started doubling up.after 20 years so he was a full pension after 30,years I missed by about two years yes it doesn't seem fair to al! Those of us who stated working in the nhs,after but it is what it is and of course he will take advantage of it would wouldn't ?

This.

A large amount of police don't live into old age. The shift work is catastrophic for health.

They also pay into their pension. It's not just free money!
Christmas day, birthdays, weekends at workaway from family.
Cutting a teenager down from a barn roof and then coming home and pretending all is OK.

Yes they can retire early but rightly so.

It's understandable, but c'mon, the police do a VERY tough job, and I agree with this from a pp
Be annoyed about the likes of Michelle Moone and others taking money, than police officers.
Save your ire for the wealthy at the top who are screwing us all over!