raising pension 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

GagaJo. Gabriella doesn't like teachers.

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)

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thanks for that Absthame, I never thought of the starting age. Mind you now only need to pay in for 35 years for a full pension so if for instance the average age of starting work was say 25 (just to be generous) that would mean you had enough credit at 60. So the government are still being b.....s and making a hell of a lot of money from it to add to what they have already made. Whatever job you do it is unreasonable to expect a person to work until 75. I am 72 and at times I cant even remember what day it is let alone think about the complexity of a work environment.

We already find people who have been made redundant in their 50s and 60s who are unable to find employment. Most employers are looking for younger people, especially if they want to fill a vacancy which requires expensive training.

If I hadn't retired to provide childcare for DD she couldn't have worked and would probably been claiming benefits. The last few years I have been caring for my terminally ill DH. If I had been working he would have needed care from the state. Not giving me a pension would just have ben costing the state in other ways.

Deedaa, my position exactly. I'm on a temporary contract at work and doubt I'll get another permanent contract at my age. I'm practically being forced to move overseas again, where they value older teachers.

Well I'm 74 and working part-time in my own business, not entirely my choice, many small businesses are put off by placing their computers in the hands of someone they think may soon be in a wooden suite

However my intention is to continue well into my 80s as long as my wife and the fellow up stairs permits it.

GabriellaG54
And I certainly wouldn't choose a vocation that ultimately caused me stress anxiety and ill health
Many don't have that choice.

How do you not know that??

She does annep1, she does. Only a self centred, egocentric, narrow minded, tunnelled visioned fool who lives in a vacuum would not.

My father was a headmaster too. He was also one of the laziest men who walked this earth and loathed children as well.

Of course they have to raise the pension age and if Johnson wins in the next election we will have to pay for all his buying of votes AND a no-deal Brexit. The only way the can do this is by taxes and by cuts in benefits that will damage yet more people and, once in power, could well included a pension freeze - let's face it, they've taken it from everyone else.