raising pension age

Dinahmo, of course not! There are lots of professions that require huge working hours, commitment and dedication. Nurses for one, who I have eternal respect for.

Marking is an essental, not for now, but for a guaranteed income when I physically can't teach anymore since I have no pension until 67. Not that I mind needing to work, as long as it doesn't wreck my health (part of the Tory nazis intention, kill off the elderly working classes). It'll keep my brain sharp.

I'm in the exact same position as Paddyann, 65 and still no pension. angry

I am another Chewbacca. I join you and Paddyannin feeling cheated, given friends not so much older already have their state pensions and the bus pass. I feel angry given I worked so hard over the years. Waspi women still have a case.

I fear for my children, in their 20s and 30s, who like many young people do not (right now) really appreciate what it is like to live on a much -reduced income when working life ends. They pay into private pension schemes now but I am beginning to feel the state pension may be phased out altogether in the future, or they will not live long enough to ever claim it if the pension age continues to rise.

There is never a sensible discussion on the issue of pensions and when the state pension should start.

When the whole system was put onto a sensible basis, in the immediate post-war period, 85% of people started work at the age of 14. Women's retirement age was set at 60, with a life expectancy of 70, the retirement age for men was 65 with a life expectancy of 67. Using the male it was assumed that they would work 51 to gain a pension. Today children are in education until they are 18 years old but over 50% stay on for uni etc. So a reasonable start age of work could be taken to be 21years. 21 plus the original 51 years means a pension start could be argued to be 72 years of age

However the above takes no account of how many years of pension the average person will collect. Originally it was 10 years for women and 2 years for men, an average of 6 years the current life expectancy is 81. 81 less 6 gives a retirement age of 75.

Based upon the above information the retirement age should be somewhere between 72 and 75 years of age for those currently in the education system.

Oh my goodness, I got that wrong, its not 88 its 82.3 for females, even worse. How can they raise the pension age to 75 with these statistics.

My worry is if the life expectancy is on average 88 and they raise the pension age to 75, well even I can do the sums and see that we aren't going to have that many years in retirement. So where is all our money going that we have paid in?

DinahMo Family member of mine marked exam papers for years so family could have a summer holiday. Other occupations work 2 jobs, teachers can't work termtime evenings, and weekend working is difficult. With £60k of student debt, problems with mortgage deposits etc, why knock it? I just admire her energy.

It’s not practical for jobs which spill over into evenings & weekends, such as teaching or the medical professions, either (I’m also a WASPI)

GagaJo. Gabriella doesn't like teachers.

Barmeyoldbat
Thanks. I knew most of that but will ask friends, if the WTD applies to them and they work overtime without remuneration, why they do so and if it impinges on their health.
They all seem healthy to me and take loads of holidays and weekends away.
Mind you, 3 work in private schools and that could explain a lighter workload.

I agree it's a poor show that many have to wait more years than expected before receiving their state pension.
I believe some heard about the new age criteria earlier than others but it was in the news many years ago.

I am finding it difficult enough trying to get to 66. I have just over 2 years to do and every day is a struggle. 70 or 75 is just too ridiculous to even think about. All this while I suppose the youngsters will be having to do voluntary work if they want something on their CV as the older folk will stopping them from getting a job. I despair of what this country is coming to!

I was a nurse from 17-22. Married and did law degree and masters via OU whilst home with children.
Anything else? Years 15-17 spent summer hols and some weekends as nanny to 3 yr old in Betws-y-coed. 8 months as trainee window dresser for JL. Bit of life modelling at Liverpool School of Art (as it was then) Few months at Red Lion petrol station in Maghull...enjoyed myself.

Teachers are not the only people to work long hours. Many professions also require long hours (accountants, solicitors and doctors). This is usually the younger staff members. I remember when I worked for a city firm that lower grades of staff could not put in overtime claims until they had worked 30 hours overtime in a week. For the higher levels there was no overtime pay - it was all part of the job. I'm aware that teachers don't get paid overtime but neither do others. And before you all start claiming that city accountants and solicitors are well paid, - they may well be but there are many in the rest of the country that aren't.

The Working Directive is an AVERAGE of 48 hours a week measured over 17 weeks. So a teacher usually works about 6 weeks before a holiday, half term of 1 week or Easter as few more weeks kicks in. So if you so your your sums you will see why TWHD isn't any use in teaching. May your teaching friends and headmaster could help you out.

And I certainly wouldn't choose a vocation that ultimately caused me stress anxiety and ill health.

Apologies for thread having segued from the OP.

GG54 were you a lawyer before or after you were a nurse?

Gabriella Thank you so much for pointing out -- after six hours -- that I pressed the wrong key in the OP.

I am proud of how this thread has developed and stayed on track in one of the biggest wrongs foisted upon my age group. Everybody else knew what I meant or was too polite to say.

I am quite sad that you tried to query a teacher who described her hours here. Schools have changed a lot since your father was a head teacher.

Pointing out how easy life has been for you is not helpful to those people who are in severe difficulties now. And some people really are, no matter how light you make the situation.

There is nothing wrong with reasoned, informed debate, which we have here aplenty. I am so glad that some people did get advance notice of the pension changes, but even where they did, the acceleration skewed things further.

For those of us in the 60s age group, health can hold nasty surprises, but it is the actual recovery time and the body's ability to adjust and repair that are not as they were in our 40s and 50s.

Going by figures offered here, a fairer thing to do would have been to make both sexes' retirement gradually even out at 63, then very gradually raise the age if our health improved and there was full employment.

That would also have freed up more permanent, full-time, well-paid work for the young people at an earlier age.

GagaJo Marking papers for Cambridge is done by choice, for extra money. It's not part of your job description. Some would argue that you are lucky to be able to do this additional work during your paid holidays. I've know several teachers who do this. After all, their spouses may not be teachers and therefore will only be able to take 2 or 3 weeks holiday in the summer in order to go away.

My father is dead nowand would have been 102 this year so it was a good few years ago that he was head of a school.
I'm more up to date than most as 4 of my friends are teachers and one is head of a comprehensive.
I'm fully aware of the extras but you know that when you go into the system...surely.
My dad marked books at home but the workload expected nowadays far exceeds that of his day, however, I read nothing of teachers being excluded from the 2003/16 directive unless they (or anyone else) opt out.
Does no-one lodge an objection to working those hours?
Unions not interested?

I was a lawyer and certainly put in the hours when necessary but billed accordingly and the scenario is different as I had a shared clerk to do my diary.

What on earth is going on?? This is totally crazy

rafichagran, I'm not a teacher, my spelling was far to bad for that sort of job. I worked in admin (a secretary who couldn't spell) and as also for a trade union, which made my work day longer and also added weekend work as well at times.

Nobody in government has taken into account our caring responsibility. parents, children, gc etc. A decent social care policy would help ease the burden. I read somewhere that our life expectancy has dropped over the last few years, mostly in poor and deprived areas, so raising the pension age is certainly not going to help.

Get Gabriella to sort them out, raficha.

This is a thread about pensions, why does it turn into a debate about teachers?
I do a demanding job and so do many others who like me cannot retire until we are 66. I know their are alot of people on this site who are in the teaching profession but it is not all about you.
I am lucky I too have a final salary pension, but not enough to let me retire. I have to carry on. My position is not as bad as some who have to work unsocial hours in retail, catering, housekeeping or cleaning. Some of these people are in ill health due to the type of job they are doing, and some of these people do not have a work pension either.

The putting up the age of the state pension is a disgrace, and we are all affected some worse than others, and as someone said up thread a lot of people will die before they get a chance to enjoy their retirement. I also know a lot of people who are suffering worry, and depression about this as they are ill and don't know how long they can carry on working.

GagaJo, I'm with you all the way there.

Another reality for many women is, of course, the fact that in addition to our paid work many of us are still supporting our children and elderly parents.

Musicgirl I think we're in agreement that no teacher does the job for any reason other than the vocation. It's a slog, stressful, exhausting BUT ultimately, rewarding. I couldn't do 'just a job' because there's one thing that I find more soul destroying than hard work, and that's boredom.