haardaarss
Registered
I was "fortunate" enough to rake in a public service final salary pension. The downside was that you accepted piss poor pay and conditions (honestly) throughout your career relative to how equivalent work was rewarded in the private sector. Pay was additionally held back "to take account of your contribution-free indexed linked pension" and your "contracted-out" NI contribution status meant you got nowhere near the "standard" NI pension. My missus gets a far bigger NI state pension than I do, and the majority of her qualifying years were made up of "domestic responsibility" periods at home looking after the kids. I accepted all that shit in return for job security and peace of mind. Although these days job security has gone as has final salary schemes. And the Govt even changed the law to decimate the redundancy package just before they started making tens of thousands redundant, and froze (i.e. killed off) pay scales, so new recruits joined at the bottom of the pay scale and never move up to the pay supposedly rewarding increasing experience and value to the employer. So don't believe the crap you read in the Daily Mail. Having said all that, no-one has a gun to your head and we all stand or fall by the choices we make. Although of course not all choices are available to everyone, for example if you are thick or bone idle. Bad starts in life can usually be overcome unless you decide to make a career of being a "victim" and feeling "entitled" and somehow expecting the State (i.e. the rest of us) to provide for you, over and above of course the social security safety net for genuine cases which underpins society. Hopefully.