To leave the Civil Service due to cost of living?

[TipsyDenimViper]

I'm an AO who earns 24.8k. if we do receive this pay rise of up to 5%, I'll be around £70 a month better off.

I'm (quite low down) on a reserve list for an EO role I may or may not get.

I have an interview tomorrow for a role outside of the CS which starts on just over 30k and will increase after probation and so on.

If you want to live alone in an actual flat/house, not a tiny studio/bedsit/flat share like I have been doing, 24,800 is not a lot for a person on their own.

Yes, I could 'get by'. But I'm sick of just getting by, i'm single and have just bought my first home.
I need to be in a position where I can save each month/put some aside in case of repairs/emergencies.
Life is hard enough as it is.

Anyway, I've only been there a year, I'm nervous about giving my notice. I know the pension is a lot better, but I'm not worrying about that at this time of my life.

I've been very lucky to make 3 friends at work (and a 4th one who's left), as well as a few acquaintances.

The rest of my team are all nice, but just keep to themselves and only interested in socialising together. I've tried inviting them to things but they just aren't interested and never invite you for lunch etc. So it can be tough sometimes.
I'm just ready for a new start, should I go for this job if I get it?

@babiesonthecarpet The poster mentioning retiring at 50 isn’t talking nonsense. I could have retired at 50 ..it depends when you joined at the scheme you were on. Yes you lose money but it’s dependent upon your individual circs whether you can afford it

@pingpongding Civil servants can be made redundant. It’s v rare but it does happen.

as a CS leaver, of course YANBU to leave if other jobs suit you better. You can always reapply for a different CS role later. While the pension is good it's not the only decent one in the country - there are lots of other PS bodies that offer good pensions. Most people don't know that the CS pension is actually offered by lots of other places, not just "the" civil service.
https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/about-us/other-participants-in-the-civil-service-pension-arrangements/

If you’re able to move between departments, then I’ve found that’s a good way to move through the grades.
Don’t underestimate the pension - I’m contributing 22% of circa 100k in the private sector and that will be nowhere near a career civil service pension.

The pension isn’t as “gold plated” (hate that expression for it) as it used to be though - anyone on modernised terms won’t have that amazing a deal. It’s good but it’s not something to plan your entire career around.

Pay in the civil service has just utterly failed to keep pace with private sector pay for jobs with equivalent responsibility and that required equivalent skills and experience etc. So obviously the civil service is going to bleed good people.

The govt really has to do something about civil service pay and conditions if it wants to keep any talent in the service - or nor, and those who can leave will leave.

Civil servant pensions have been radically reduced in recent years. Final salary pensions no longer rust for the vast majority of us.

The old gold standard civil service scheme has changed like the TPS. The schemes has all moved to CARE and the days of retiring at 50 for CS & 60 for TPShave gone.

the OP needs to increase her income so I would leave CS and get a higher paid job elsewhere

It is still defined benefit though rather than defined contribution?
I joined in 2008 and then left/returned before finally leaving in 2018. Preserved pension of around £2,000 a year, which is fantastic considering short duration of service. I haven’t ruled out returning in my 50s for some pension top up

Ok I’m not in your country and have never been a civil servant but I think some things are universal to a certain extent.

Funding a pension can be done in many ways, such as your CS job. It can also be done by having more earning power and being able to contribute more a private pension.

You are right a CS pension may be great but so could a private one that you contribute to.

I think you have to be at least somewhat happy in your job…it doesn’t sound like you are atm. You also need to be happy in your private life…which again doesn’t sound like you are atm. So those two things have to be given equal weight in your decision making.

Your post can be deleted but the person will be put on redeployment. Civil servants are not made redundant though they can be offered voluntary redundancy with a package. Same with local authorities. It's part of union agreements.

And if you can't be redeployed, you can be made redundant. I've seen it. Someone went on loan long term, came back to their home department at the end of the loan, no suitable role, redundancy.

That’s not relevant at all to the OP though. Those schemes closed years and years ago.

The current scheme is still relatively good but doesn’t come close to the “gold plated” schemes which used to exist.

It’s also fairly obvious from the OP’s posts that they won’t be in a financial position to retire early on a massively reduced pension.

I’m just starting a job with the civil service (for the pension) but I’m mid forties and at a different place where I want to have decent sick pay etc. I’d take the new role and try and make more money/ have some fun/ travel.

If I was able to make do for now I would get some mentoring on the interview technique, and apply for other roles outside my team.

You could look at other organisations that are CS arms length bodies, they often have the same fantastic conditions and pension but pay and jobs are different.

This are a few posts on this thread which very much remind me of the attitude I mentioned earlier.

Apparently you should stay in a job you don’t enjoy, on rubbish pay, with little chance of progression, so that you can be as useless as you like but they won’t be able to get rid of you, and in more than three decades’ time you can claim a pension which is a bit better than the ones you get in the private sector 🤯 (although probably still not that great as you were on a low salary).

Obviously the majority of posts have been more nuanced than this but there is a hard core of people who seem to think like this and it’s so strange to me!

i don’t think you should stay just for the pension, lots of people work outside the CS and have good pensions.

But I would say do your homework into the new organisation/sector you would be going into. Is it stable? What is their redundancy background like?

if I were you I would continue trying for internal promotions, but only you know how much better the potential new job is.

£6K extra is not a lot after tax, £70 a month you say. So even if it goes up after probation, I would be asking by how much.

Go to the interview, do your best and give yourself the opportunity to have a choice. You don’t have to take it even if they offer it to you. Plus, if they do offer, try negotiating for more. Always worth a go.

Make a decision VERY quickly! You should not be attending interviews if you are not intending to take the role. Do you realise how much time and money you are wasting for the recruiting company?!

Can I give you a tip to nail this? You need to think of you answer as a story so it needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end.

The situation and task is the beginning, the action is the middle and the result is the end. Only ever talk about I and not we.

Good luck!

@babiesonthecarpet I didnt mean it was relevant to the OPs circs . You said it was absolute nonsense and I was just pointing out that it does apply to some people like me.

My husband is in exactly the same boat. He actually left a better paid role (which I thought was madness) and as he joined in his 40’s the pension isn’t much use to him really. He hates the role he has he says it’s really lonely and the just throw curveballs constantly as there are no real processes.

OP I left the Civil Service 8 years ago as I was just so bored. I'm now in the private sector and, apart from earning more, I'm challenged, have good career progression and am enjoying my career. Colleagues were horrified that I would give up the pension, but I couldn't stay for that in my early 30s! I've paid into a private pension for years and although my current pension is fairly basic, I enjoy my day to day life so much more. These years are your life too, not just the retirement years.

This is part of the reason why people get the wrong idea about the civil service though, because people keep bringing up pension schemes and terms/conditions which are ancient history for most of us. I joined the civil service over 15 years ago and even I didn’t have access to the final salary/retire at 50 schemes which some people seem to think still exist to new joiners.

Do you suffer with anxiety OP?