I get locked down. Tiers go up again.

[Cismyfatarse]

New Fred.

@WouldBeGood

Interestingly, this also led me to discover that Blackford’s business is registered in filthy England

Can you please not write 'filthy England '. It's not really needed, is it?

@StarryEyeSurprise it was a joke

@kurtrussellsbeard I think it once again demonstrates the conflict of being in business and in politics. Politicians in my view should be held to a higher standard as they are supposed to be acting in the public interest, not their own.

As also seen in all parties.

Re the National 's poor headline, I saw this the other day. Really annoyed me.

@WouldBeGood I agree with you there. There are many politicians with morally dubious business portfolios and it's very concerning.

Whoever posted first about this however was clearly exaggerating for effect or deliberately misinterpreting what they had read. We're allowed differing opinions but shit like that just gets folk's backs up.

@StarryEyeSurprise another horrible headline! Also a fact though. These things are of interest.

There might be more to it, that’s just what I found.

Dunno.

Time for anarchy I think 😃

It annoyed me as the pension amount is so low in the UK and such a high age to receive it that a lot don't so it just goes back to the Government.

• even in normal times I mean

How does the pension age / amount compare to the rest of Europe?

One thing I can't get my head round with pensions and pensions age. The UK has a lot of unemployed.

If you have say 80 jobs for every 100 people.

Of those 100 people, some will be young needing to gain experience, some will have children who need supported, some will be older paid off their mortgage, kids grown up and lining their nest. The government need to support the 20 who aren't in one of those 80 jobs.

Surely it's cheaper to have the older people retired than it is to be supporting the young people with kids?

Very simplistic way of looking at it and not everyone will want to retire but it doesn't make sense to me to keep old people in work while paying for younger fitter more expensive people on benefits.

As old retired younger people come up and it creates as space at the bottom.

www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-countries-pension-plans/

starry will annoy you even more if you stop to realise that Scotland's lower life expectancy means we cost the UK coffers much less per head already. Same true for housing benefit because house prices and rents are so much lower.

Neither of these are properly considered in all the sound and fury about GERs etc.

Cross country pension payment analysis is incredibly difficult because it is very difficult to adjust for dovetailing with rest of benefit system, degree of compulsion in subsidiary private pension contribution etc etc. Even looking at the UK the impact of phasing out of SERPs is never properly analysed. The biggest elephant in the room for me is all the people with incomplete employment records (mostly women) who are unaware they need 35 years full NI contributions and can no longer rely on their partner's contributions. This is a massive change. My DM retired in her early 60s 15 years ago and could claim on part of my deceased DF's contributions despite having been divorced from him since she was 35. The position today is completely different.

Dinna I do realise it. My FIL worked his backside off and sadly died from cancer in his mid 50s. Never smoked and drank maybe twice a year.
I know we're talking about Gov pensions but who gets the thousands from his company pension that he paid into? I'm sure my mil doesn't get the full pension he'd be due if he was living.

I’ve been a busy bee! Organising remaining stuff after a huge declutter and collected some click and collect bits to finish off my storage. Shops were pleasant and helpful staff. Getting out, even for dull stuff, is very cheering. Think it’s time for a glass of wine now

And yet, as a Scottish teacher, my pension was changed. And this was something Scot Gov could have chosen to do something about, but they didn't. And I pay more income tax than I would in England.

And benefits are now devolved but Scot Gov wasn't ready so has delayed.

What do you mean cis? Are you referring to final salary?

@Cismyfatarse don't we get paid more than teachers in England? I don't actually know for sure but there was a thread recently which asked teachers how long they'd worked and how much they earned and so many earned quite a bit less than me but had been teaching a lot longer. I was surprised!

No longer final salary but career average. Pay more in than we did.

Now I am very aware that this type of pension is unsustainable long term but it was something Scot Gov could have decided not to do and they went ahead and did it anyway. When I moved here, I moved my pension (the schemes are different but easy to move between) so I have a pension in Scotland administered by a branch of government.

I just hate this narrative that we get bountiful cash from NS all the time and no cuts. There was a cut. And a tax rise.

@kurtrussellsbeard I think we may have but their system is so complex that I don't really understand it. I think academies there can set their own pay scales to.

An ex pupil went to do Teach First. His Mum, a colleague, was a point 4 PT and he was out earning her by the middle of his 3rd year teaching in an English academy in a deprived area where they paid to attract teachers.

But overall, not sure.

Is that really the pervasive narrative? That being said I think that we are well paid and our pension is good. Teachers really aren't hard done by in terms of finances. Workload maybe. A final salary pension is not something that was ever going to be available to me though so I appreciate it's easy for me not to feel bitter about it.

Yes Kurt we get paid more and a lot more than some employed as 'teachers' down South . One reason why the internal market bill and having a UK Minister in charge of education makes me worried.
Cis out of interest, how much more tax do you pay here than you did in England? What did you make in England?

@kurtrussellsbeard

Is that really the pervasive narrative? That being said I think that we are well paid and our pension is good. Teachers really aren't hard done by in terms of finances. Workload maybe. A final salary pension is not something that was ever going to be available to me though so I appreciate it's easy for me not to feel bitter about it.

I also feel that teachers are well paid in Scotland. I had a previous career and never had to put into a pension so it was different for me at first however the teacher's pension does seem to be good. I can't imagine teaching in my 60s so it needs to be!

Also final salary pensions don't really exist anywhere anymore.

Anyway my long term plan is a lotto win. I can no longer cope staring at all the wee silent circles during live lessons. Hello fifth year? Is anyone there? Can anyone tell me why Duror feels as he does toward LRC? Anyone? Anyone? Okay next slide then fifth year.

Lotto win. It's the only way.

I wouldn't even be too greedy. I would take 500,000. Doesn't need to be millions.