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Pascal Desmond's avatar

I met a water company employee in the mid 1990s. He started his working life with Lancaster's water board (he walked to work) which became part of Northwest Water (he had to drive to a depot and could be sent to a house 50 miles away) which combined with the regional lecky company to become United Utilities and he was shifted to a subsidiary that was sold off and then he was transferred to another division of that company. I asked him "What has happened to your pension?" 'I don't know,' was his reply.

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Simon Carne's avatar

Pensions should be a subject taught in school. Maybe they are now? Two pieces of advice received.

1. From an accountant - start a pension as early as possible (he also recommended Equitable Life as the place to put savings)

2. Financial advisor at Westminster Council who recommended buying additional years not AVC’s.

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Ian Clark's avatar

“they will shamelessly use the fact that the private sector has closed final salary schemes to whip up envy” - ought to be the other way, private sector workers should be agitating for the return of final salary schemes to put them on a par with the public sector.

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Robin Mulvihill's avatar

They’ll all be investing in Dignitas UK or equivalents - big believers in Youthanasia - good for you, just not for me.

The incentives to ensure work is valued and retirement is dignified offer nothing to the short-termist arseholes who ran the place like an ATM for 14 years.

I hope there’s a policy and financial audit unit conducting a thorough anthology of the incompetence, deliberate destruction and corruption and they get beaten with it for at least as long as they were inexplicably returned by an electorate either ignorant to or complicit in their Kakistocracy.

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