Pensions

2

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  • Goldie146
    Goldie146 Club Member Posts: 2,448 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #32

    Farmers never retire.

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited March 2016 #33

    I think you're right. A farming friend of ours is 85. He was at our house grumbling that he can't get on to the fields because they are so soggy despite being at the top of a hill.

  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,427 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #34

    For once I've been lucky with the changes to the Teachers' pension scheme which changed in 2015, Due to my advanced years I'm a 'protected' member and will get my pension based on my final year's salary (or the best in the last ten years) and a lump sum.
    For others it's now a career average and no lump sum!

  • pennyandsteve
    pennyandsteve Forum Participant Posts: 92
    edited March 2016 #35

    I took early retirement ( redundancy by any other name!) at 50 with a pension of about half my salary. It did enable me to work part-time for the remainder of my working life and reduce my stress levels. Since my state pension kicked in, things haven't been
    too bad. The downside is the poor return on savings. I am surprised at the amount of bleating about mortgage costs given the low rates that people are enjoying notwithstanding housing costs.

    have to agree. We had to endure high mortgage rates and now we have non existent savings interest rates.....Don't cry

    Do not envey their mortgages though so I guess parity prevails.

     

  • pennyandsteve
    pennyandsteve Forum Participant Posts: 92
    edited March 2016 #36

    For once I've been lucky with the changes to the Teachers' pension scheme which changed in 2015, Due to my advanced years I'm a 'protected' member and will get my pension based on my final year's salary (or the best in the last ten years) and a lump sum.
    For others it's now a career average and no lump sum!

    Good  for you Cornersteady.. I believe most public service employees although having  a better than average pension cannot access their pension pots in line with the recent govt changes either?

     

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited March 2016 #37

    Just to clarify a couple of points - 

    Employees were never allowed a 'holiday' from paying into their pension fund, only employers......and so many of them did and this has been one of the reasons why the funds are often not now adequate to cover the liabiliites and why most final salary schemes
    ended.

    The changes introduced by Gordon Brown were that he removed the tax free status that pension funds used to enjoy when receiving dividends on share investments. He argued that the pension funds would make up for that by the increased  dividends as a result
    of him de-regulating the stock market. Well we all now know how well that went!

    Incidently, government employer's pension funds are topped up by the tax payer under the 'plenty more where that came from' school of thought.

  • kenexton
    kenexton Forum Participant Posts: 306
    edited March 2016 #38

    For once I've been lucky with the changes to the Teachers' pension scheme which changed in 2015, Due to my advanced years I'm a 'protected' member and will get my pension based on my final year's salary (or the best in the last ten years) and a lump sum.
    For others it's now a career average and no lump sum!

    Write your comments here..."average of the best three years in the last ten"is what I believe is in the TPS -or final year ,if greater.Check with Mowden House or your PfnlAssn.CS.

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited March 2016 #39

    Ian, the Govt employees work for the nation, we are the nation. I'm happy to contribute to their pensions, they deserve a decent pension, particularly Teachers as they educate the following generationsHappy

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #40

    Ian, the Govt employees work for the nation, we are the nation. I'm happy to contribute to their pensions, they deserve a decent pension, particularly Teachers as they educate the following generationsHappy

    And very grateful we are too! Wink

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited March 2016 #41

    Rocky.....a private sector worker, who cannot have a final salary pension, would have to pay out maybe 30% of their salary each week / month in order to obtain an annuity that paid a similar amount to a final salary pension (and therefore is unlikely to
    get anything like as good a pension as a government employee).

    Is it right that this person should then pay (via taxation) for the government worker to have that better pension?

    This is a genuine question, because Mrs H was a local government worker until she took early retirement at 53 on a good pension and I finished work at 55 and manage with my personal pension provision, so I have a foot in both camps (but still have views
    on what I thonk is fair).

  • KENNYG
    KENNYG Forum Participant Posts: 215
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    edited March 2016 #42

    Everyone who goes out to work , works for the nation we all pay our taxes. I have been a manual worker for fifty years skrimped and saved all my live, we live on just our O A P everything is paid for we are still enjoying our caravaning all the year around, enjoy what you have, not what you are given. 

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #43

    Have "public sector" workers stopped paying taxes, NI, pension contributions for some reason?

    Oh no, they pay those like everyone else don't they? Happy

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited March 2016 #44

    Ian, it's my opinion. I'm not speaking for everyone, I'm not saying the Public sector workers are special. I care not for the 'equal distribution of wealth' or the 'I'm more important than you' camps. I believe the public sector workers take some of my taxes,
    therefore I have invested in their pension & i'm happy with that. The fact others who have not invested in their own retirement is not my problem, my taxes will be going to them too, I'm happy with that alsoHappy

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited March 2016 #45

    Have "public sector" workers stopped paying taxes, NI, pension contributions for some reason?

    Oh no, they pay those like everyone else don't they? Happy

    Yes, they pay those things just like everyone else.......but they get a tax-payer funded pension (that is far better thsn anyone in the private sector gets).......was my point. Care to answer the question above, M?

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #46

    Yes! Happy

  • Molly Domino
    Molly Domino Forum Participant Posts: 161
    edited March 2016 #47

    Ian you may have been correct a while ago but the government as actually change the public sector pensions from final salary to an average. Your wife was lucky, my son as been a civil servant for 25 years, he signed a contract to have a final salary pension
    but he will get an average pay pension. You may like to look at an MPs pension and when they can claim it. My sons contract was changed without agreement and he cannot get his pension till he retires not as it once was at 55 

  • Molly Domino
    Molly Domino Forum Participant Posts: 161
    edited March 2016 #48

    Ian you may like to compare salaries of a private sector employee and a civil servant of the same standing, the private sector employee gets a larger salary, much larger.

  • peegeenine
    peegeenine Forum Participant Posts: 548
    edited March 2016 #49

    The gov department I worked for closed its final salary pension scheme about12 years ago. The new scheme meant paying in more money and getting less out and the retirement age went up 5 years. They tried to get us old uns to transfer to the new scheme but
    hardly anyone did but we new it would eventually be forced on us. Thats the reason I took it and ran as soon as I could. When I received my state pension my civil service pension was taxed so, you could say, I am still contributing.

  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,427 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #50

    For once I've been lucky with the changes to the Teachers' pension scheme which changed in 2015, Due to my advanced years I'm a 'protected' member and will get my pension based on my final year's salary (or the best in the last ten years) and a lump sum. For others it's now a career average and no lump sum!

    Write your comments here..."average of the best three years in the last ten"is what I believe is in the TPS -or final year ,if greater.Check with Mowden House or your PfnlAssn.CS.

    quite correct, I'm still more than happy as my final year will be bigger anyway

    Oh and thanks to all you taxpayers by the way, I will enjoy my pension thinking of you!Wink (on a club site of course)

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #51

    Don't get too excited Corners, with a decent pension you'll still be a taxpayer.Happy

  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,427 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #52

    Don't get too excited Corners, with a decent pension you'll still be a taxpayer.Happy

    very very true and I'll happily pay them for the benefit of othersSmile

  • moulesy
    moulesy Forum Participant Posts: 9,402 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #53

    Hey - let's not start that "it's just not fair, those lucky teachers have it so cushy" debate again. You'll wake my old mate Kennine up from his current slumbers ( which I, for one, am really appreciating! )   InnocentLaughing

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited March 2016 #54

    Frankly, whilst I'm perfectly happy with my own situation, I find this crowing about how well off some people will be with a tax payer funded pension, while others who have paid for it, but have so little themselves, to be quite nauseating and unnecessary.......

  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,427 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #55

    Hey - let's not start that "it's just not fair, those lucky teachers have it so cushy" debate again. You'll wake my old mate Kennine up from his current slumbers ( which I, for one, am really appreciating! )   InnocentLaughing

    good point Mr M, anyone could become a teacher, or could have become a teacher (with some qualifications), it is open to all, it's not a closed club or order where only a few select are chosen. You (or one) make a choice weather to become a teacher (or any
    other good job) and you reap the rewards of that job later in life.

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,142 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #56

    Frankly, whilst I'm perfectly happy with my own situation, I find this
    crowing
    about how well off some people will be with a tax payer funded pension, while others who have paid for it, but have so little themselves, to be quite nauseating and unnecessary.......

    Really? I must have missed that bit.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,860 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2016 #57

    Frankly, whilst I'm perfectly happy with my own situation, I find this crowing about how well off some people will be with a tax payer funded pension, while others who have paid for it, but have so little themselves, to be quite nauseating and unnecessary.......

    But is it really a tax payer funded pension? Don't people in the public sector pay a substantual contribution into their pensions? When my son was in the public sector he was paying something like 7-8% of his salary. Councils/NHS etc are only contributing
    the same as many private companies do. If they wish to remain competitive in the jobs market they also have to compete in terms of pensions. Even the public sector is changing with either smaller pensions ot having to wait longer before they get it.

    David

  • Molly Domino
    Molly Domino Forum Participant Posts: 161
    edited March 2016 #58

    Quite right David, private sector and public sector alike employees in both sectors contribute to their pensions. My pension would have been probably more if successive governments hadnt taken billions from it over the years. As I said earlier look at MPs
    pensions, if you become an MP at 50 you are in office for five years, if after that time you are not re elected you can take your pension. It would be interesting to know how much that pension would be worth.

  • pennyandsteve
    pennyandsteve Forum Participant Posts: 92
    edited March 2016 #59

    Whether a pauper or a millionaire we all receive the State Pension and i believe that to be fair but I fear that the day will arrive when that too will be means tested.....

    IMO also many people are not contributing to their NI for the the requisite term so something must giveSealed

  • IanH
    IanH Forum Participant Posts: 4,708
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    edited March 2016 #60

    Frankly, whilst I'm perfectly happy with my own situation, I find this crowing about how well off some people will be with a tax payer funded pension, while others who have paid for it, but have so little themselves, to be quite nauseating and unnecessary.......

    But is it really a tax payer funded pension? Don't people in the public sector pay a substantual contribution into their pensions? When my son was in the public sector he was paying something like 7-8% of his salary. Councils/NHS etc are only contributing
    the same as many private companies do. If they wish to remain competitive in the jobs market they also have to compete in terms of pensions. Even the public sector is changing with either smaller pensions ot having to wait longer before they get it.

    David

    Yes David, but people in the private sector can pay the same, if not more. And because they don't have the council / NHS / government topping it up substantially, they cannot have the same lucrative final salary pension. For the same contribution, they end
    up with about a quarter of the pension.

  • volvoman9
    volvoman9 Forum Participant Posts: 1,053
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    edited March 2016 #61

    From today i,m on the state pension Happy

    v9