raising pension age

Numbers of pupils l mean.

GagaJo, you are a similar age to me. I am self-employed as a private music teacher and work/have worked in schools as well as from home. I realise l am very fortunate and may well reduce numbers in the next decade. However, as l am self-employed l have no full-back such as sick pay. There are hidden pressures involved too, such as entering pupils for exams, concerts etc. While l love what l do, one to one tuition is very intense and l find l become increasingly exhausted by the end of each term in a way that l did not even ten years ago. I was speaking with my mother earlier about this and the way that governments of every variety have wasted money that could have been used for our pensions. We came to the conclusion that the only real financial benefit we have ever had in our lifetimes has been the student grant. She also observed that they are probably hoping we will die off before we get our pensions. She, incidentally, has enjoyed her free TV licence for all of two years and that privilege is being removed too.

The Working Time Directive doesn't apply to teachers because it's an average over a certain number of weeks (I'd have to look up the exact number), so when holidays are factored in, teachers don't officially work over permitted hours. However, every teacher knows about Clause 19, which means that teachers have to work however long it takes to do the job. If they don't, they will be put on competency procedures.

I am shocked at the lack of empathy voiced in some of the posts in this thread.
My hope is that now men will be affected adversely and as unjustly as women protests may increase.
The NI fund allegedly shouldn't be used for any other purpose but has been used to lower the National Debt, shocking, and I am delighted that this has now been made public.
It's super that some people feel they benefit from working on until in their 70's but I find it insulting when other women talk as if those of us who would like to retire when we expected to are either lazy or holding out our hands complete with begging bowl.
Please remember we, and our employers, have paid in to this expecting a return.

How nice to have swanned through life without a care in the world and have sufficient money to totally forget about applying for your state pension.

I would say that every job at times is not without its stresses and some are a lot more stressful than others.

I am not a teacher and have no grandchildren, but I am not so stupid that I am unaware how stressful that job is and the number of hours put in especially with the interminable number of meetings, preparation for the work next day and the marking of papers.

I would also think that today's children are more difficult to teach. I sat at my desk without a peep. I was educated in Scotland so it was a leather strap applied if one was out of line.

What about the High Court judgement of the Backto60 group? Anyone heard further about it?

Teaching wasn't the way it is now even 15 years ago. Nearly time for me to stop, if ONLY I were able to retire!

Can I put my hand up GG54 and ask a question, politely and out of curiosity what job you did when you were working that didn't cause you any stress and how long ago was you dad a Headmaster?

Do you know, Gabriella, every time you 'virtually' open your mouth you shove your foot further down it.

My mother was a Head Teacher. She didn't work 70 hours a week either, She retired 45 years ago. Teaching is a whole different ball game now. As you would know if you had any connection with reality.

It's hard to believe that you're a real person sometimes...

Life in your gilded cage is leaving you completely out of touch Gabriella. My closest friend is the SENCO at a local school. She begins her working day at 08.00 so that everything is ready for pupils to arrive. Her school day ends at 17.00 provided that she doesn't have a meeting with school governors, staff meetings, parents who "want a chat" about their child, staff training, multi disciplinary meetings or parents evening. When she gets home, she spends her evenings and weekends marking work, writing reports to support statemented children, preparing for the next lessons, writing to the local ED to seek additional funding for children who need extra support, writing reports and requests for additional support in cases where a child's safety or home situation is a risk to a child. Every aspect, of every day, has to be logged and reported ready for OFSTED inspections. Every child has to have an individual learning plan that demonstrates what level of attainment they are at, and expected to achieve. The demand for transparency in the classroom has massively increased the need for continual and continuous reporting. Who do you think does this Gabriella, and when?

If you took time out of being so self congratulatory for a while, you'd know that there is a whole world of hard working, dedicated workers out there who are buckling under the strain of keeping the wheels on the bus.

Workload and working time directive don't meet in the middle. Go into any school. Teachers will tell you the same thing.

Beyond this, I'm not debating with you GG54. As I said, real life work situations and you...

How long have you been out of the workplace, Gabriella? You seem very out of touch with the changes.

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Curious as to why anyone would risk their health working 20/30 hours more than their contracted hours.

That was to GagaJo

My father was a headmaster.
He certainly didn't work your hours Even when he started teaching.
Does your contract mean you have to be in school at 7am and not leave before 7pm?
Doesn't the working time directive apply to teachers or did you opt out?

And yes would like to see the MP’s having to watch every penny they spend

I did retire from full time work at 63. Should have been 64 but took a 10% cut in private pension ( it was tiny) as could not stand the stress any longer. I got my state pension a year later at 64, missed getting it at 60 by 3 months.

So at the moment I have state pension and 2 tiny private pensions and am still working part time at 66 because I can’t afford not to. I moved to the SE to be near my family and all my outgoings are much more expensive . Will have to stop working at some point, still love my job here but can’t work forever and really won’t have enough money to cover bills without my small salary. Don’t know what the answer is and I’ve worked since I was 16.

The ship for justice for Waspi women has sailed. As more and more of us reach the age of our pension being paid, the relevance reduces. Exactly as the government of the time intended. The can’s been kicked too far down the road now.

At least there is one party still fighting for the rights of the WASPI women:

^THE SNP’s Westminster leader has challenged the Prime Minister to end pension injustice for hundreds of women in Scotland. Ian Blackford is urging Boris Johnson to “prove he’s serious about gender equality” by helping the Waspi women. Blackford said the women were “guilty of nothing”, and that the party would “continue to fight for justice for all women affected by the scandal”.

The SNP has called for transitional measures to mitigate the issue, saying that independent research shows the cost at £8 billion, rather than the UK Government’s £30bn figure.

Blackford said: “This issue has run on far too long – it’s time for the Tories to get their heads out the sand and put an end to this serious injustice.

“Waspi women are guilty of nothing – they’ve had the misfortune of being female, born in the 1950s and live under a reckless UK government who refuse to do what’s right^ .

If GagaJo is a teacher, she probably does work a 70 hour week.

Well said Gagajo plus add in the factor of care which falls on the heads of most females. I for one left for work at either 6.30 or 7 and didn't get home until 6 or 7 and then had the care of a disabled daughter type 1 diabetic, fits and learning disabilities so tell me how GG54 you can avoid stress when confronted with yet another fit just as you are dishing up dinner?

I was one of the lucky ones who received my pension at 60 which was just as well as ~I was retired on the grounds of ill health at 57, probably caused by the stress. I just wish I was perfect.

Dinahmo. You have clarified the problem beautifully. Well done.

GabriellaG54, I get to work by 7. I work all day, usually eating my lunch at my desk, although often doing detentions at lunchtime in my classroom while eating. I make sure I'm prepped for the next day before leaving school. I never leave before 6 and am often there later. My work begins after the students leave and after the interminable meetings end (some finish at 4, some go on until 5).

When I get home, I then have marking to do. 5 classes of +30 books to be marked every 5 lessons e.g. Once a week. Each book, approx 20 mins. You do the maths.

Colleagues of mine who are new teachers work past midnight. I refuse to work past 10pm. I work most of Sunday.

I'm nothing special. A typical teacher. Yes, I work a huge amount of hours. No, I can't do it much longer. I'm too old.

Did I mention I'm an examiner for Cambridge too? Marked 350 papers in a month this summer.

You are rude and out of touch with how real people work. Oh, and I'd like to see YOU stay cool and unstressed with 30, 15 year olds in front of you all day, everyday.

Right wing, over entitlement such as your is the cause of most of what is wrong in the uk now.

Gagajo GagaJo

A brief history of the old Age Pension, more recently the State pension, which might help to explain why the age should increase.

The OAP was brought in in 1908 for people aged over 70. Only 1 in 4 reached that age and the life expectancy (LE) at age 70 was a further 9 years.

In 1925 a new type of pension was brought in based on contributions from both the employer and the employee. This started at age 65 and if a man was married he had to wait until his wife reached 65 before receiving the pension.

In 1940 the age for married woman was reduced to 60 so that men would start to receive their pension as soon as they reached 65.

Life expectancy at birth (LEB) has increased dramatically over the last century. For those born in 1900 LEB was 48.5 for men and 52.4 for women. For people born in 1950 the LEB was 71.5 for women and 66.4 for men.

LE for women is still higher than it is for men and so it seems a little unfair that women should receive the State Pension before men.

We know that people are living longer and assuming that most people work between the ages of 20 and 65 some will be receiving the SP for 25 or 35 years.

The NI contributions paid by us baby boomers funded the State pensions of our parents and grandparents. But they didn't live that long after retirement. My own father didn't live to receive the state pension and my mother died a couple of years after receiving it. The contributions are intended to pay for several state benefits - widows/bereavement allowance, incapacity and sickness benefit and maternity allowance. The contributions of your children and grandchildren (I don't have either) are funding our retirement.

What we should be looking at are ways in which work can be continued in ways that suit the person. Obviously we cannot expect people during heavy manual jobs or even those who work in the police force or the fire service to continue doing those jobs.

Whilst I agree that the pension age should be increased I don't think that IDS or indeed any of the Tories are the people to talk about. Most of them, provided that they keep their seats could continue to work as MPs until over 70. They can only draw their pension once they have reached 65 and are no longer MPs. Many of them will get well paid directorships - eg John Redwood who apparently receives a salary of £250,000 as a consultant to Charles Stanley (investment advisers).

Both I and my husband, having been self employed for most of our adult life do not receive the full state pension as we have missed some years of NIC during our youth. We are also victims of the Equitable Life debacle. We ceased paying contributions into private schemes after EL and so only have small private pensions. Because of increased life expectancy the pension pots buy smaller annual pensions than they once did. So, at the age of 72 I continue to work. I still want holidays and good quality specs although I no longer buy shoes from Russell & Bromley. M & S or Hotter for me now!