Lets hope you do pay more; after all it’s the pure greed of the private sector that has caused all this mess. Perhaps you would consider selling your second property to beef up your poor pension or stopping your firms car or perhaps saying no to your free BUPA account etc. etc.

P.S. No bleat’s about my public pension whatsoever. It was worked for.

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No one hides the rules of public sector pension schemes nor public sector salaries – all are publicly available if you can draw yourself away from the tabloid propaganda.

In the Civil Service, before the changes made by the last goverment, which reduced the value of the pension and increased both contributions and the age at which it fully matured, the rule was that you gained 1/80th of salary for each year worked, up to a maximum of 40/80ths – so if you retired on a final salary of £20,000 after 40 years’ service you’d have a pension of £10,000 per annum, if you had 20 years service on that salary it would be £5,000 per annum and so on.

If you examine the salary figures for someone retiring now after 40 years service on that original scheme, you would find that for almost all of those 40 years the salary in the civil service has sat behind the curve when compared with comparable private sector jobs – especially in the late 80s and early 90s when double-digit pay awards were common in the private sector but public servants got low single-figure percentage rises – so it’s swings and roundabouts over a prolonged period.

I can understand the ire of those in private sector final salary schemes who lost out – but blame your greedy employers – not public servants – it was your employer who chose to divert the cash they should have been investing in your schemes to shareholders and directors instead – and ask yourselves ‘what did I do to protest?’

To give some idea of salaries – the level that used to be known as Clerical Officer (minimum of 5 good ‘O’ levels to gain employment back in my day) would today be paid somewhere around £15k per year, junior managers (the old Exeuctive Officer grade) perhaps up to the mid £20ks over a period of time, and those on more senior grades (e.g. the old Principal or Senior Principal level, perhaps up to somewhere in the £40-45k region – obviously there are far fewer of these roles – if you were to walk into a Jobcentre, Tax office etc. you would be almost exclusively be dealing with those in the lower grades). All of these are for full time work.

Despite tabloid rumours to the contrary, public servants often work extra hours for no pay, they don’t wear bowler hats, nor do they have a tea trolley that comes around.

If you are really ‘interested’ in what the Civil Service does, and what the pay and terms and conditions are – then simply Google them – it’s all out there…!

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Roadrunner,

The maximum pension benefit under the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme was 50% (40/80ths) of salary. Since changes were made by the last government that has reduced (not increased) – and will further reduce with the changes to an average rather than final salary pension. So it’s a maximum of 50% of final salary.

So in answer to your question ‘How many officers with 40 years service do you think retire on a final salary of just £20,000?’ I would say, unequivocally ‘All of them!’

Whilst the tabloid press likes to pretend that higher levels are payable – there’s no evidence to support this – I note you’ve presented none to support your claim.

Your quotes from Waltham Forest relate to Local Government – not the Civil Service – perhaps you don’t know the difference?

As such, the Waltham Forest description of Principal Officer has no equivalence with the Civil Service Grade of Principal or Senior Principal, and is probably a more senior grade, perhaps aligned with the Assistant Secretary level in the senior parts of the Civil Service.

Posts at these levels, whether in the Civil Service or in Local Government are few and far between – and should not been seen as in any way representative of what the vast majority of public sector workers receive – no matter what nonsense your Daily Mail would have you believe.

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A Police Officer and a Firefighter pay about £300 per month into their pension, they do this for 30 years so they pay in over £100000 during their career – during which they will risk their life and do all the things that most people will not do but expect Police/Fire Officers to do at the drop of a hat whenever a member of the public dials 999.

All of the £300 per month per officer is spent on schools/roads/hospitals/bins etc every month every year so the whining tax payer is actually getting the benifit of the use of 11% of these officers salary every month,

So can anyone tell me why they are so jealous of public servants who give up 11% of their salary every month for 30 years? if the money is spent by the council rather than invest it whos fault is that? The officer? The council? or the tax payer who enjoys the benifit of all that money?

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