City council's pension scheme faced a '£219million black hole'

“Ok. I have nothing against Public Sector workers - as far as I'm concerned we are 'all' workers. We are all feeling the squeeze - the cost of living has risen sharply yet pay rises have become pipe dream. Many people would agree that they work hard at their jobs and are not valued enough and could also earn more if they gained qualifications in what they do. But qualifications do not guarantee jobs let alone high paid ones! We all need to understand that the current pension situation is unsustainable and has been for quite some time. If you work in the public sector, yes - you may pay into a compulsary pension scheme but your employer also pays into that pension scheme and as that is a public sector employer, when things go wrong it is the tax payer that pays (regardless of what sector you work in). Investments are a gamble and therefore pensions are also a gamble. I wait for the backlash...don't get me started on political greed and third world debt!”

“circles, I think you are having a go at my post but I'm not sure? In fact I don't know what your trying to say. I certainly dont know if you have the ability to read or understand my post. Maybe you should have paid more attention to your public sector teachers. Or maybe its their fault - if thats the case then maybe everyone has a point on the public sector being a waste of money.

If your trying to say where does the money come from to pay public sector wages. Some of it comes from taxes ( which I doubt you are paying). On the flip side who provides the foundation of society ie education, infrastructure,and other fundemental services that enable the private sector to carry out their businesses. All im saying is that both sectors rely on its other to function and should support each other instead of demonising each other.”

“Jimm, ware do do you thinky your income comes,from how do you think pays you money, for it not private sector ax what do you think you are are money grubbing”

“Nothalf id be interested to know what you do to generate income for the UK? about 20% of the workforce in the UK are public sector ( a lot higher in plymouth). There isnt two seperate economies for the private and public sector with only the private sector paying into the other. The only sectors that generate wealth for the country are in the most part manufacturing and banking. If you work in the service industries like most people what wealth are you generating? The rest are just continously recycling the wealth which is largely controlled by government through taxes and spending. Believe it or not this includes the public sector spending money in the private sector! The main difference between the sectors is that theres generally a relatively limited salary peak in the public sector compared to the private sector where a small percentage keep hold of a large percentage of the wealth. I have nothing against this as in my eyes its fair play but i dont see why theres all this public sector bashing. Maybe aim your abuse at benefits cheats who are contributing nothing to society.”

“@Bruzercat

No, some of us DID work in the public sector and then were clever enough to get out of it. Some of us with brains then managed to better ourselves, in the private sector, enabling us to retire at 50. The move also allowing us to buy a lovely big house with grounds, new cars as and when we want and giving us a very comfortable living......... You were saying?”

“Life is full of choices. The public sector is not a closed shop, anyone can work in it. If you chose not to work in the public sector then that's your choice, stop moaning at the ones clever enough to have made the right one.
The public sector is somewhere where an employee is treated well, paid fairly and looked after; something we all should aspire to. It's what happens when an employer is not looking for huge profits for their shareholders at the expense of their workforce.
I see a huge green-eyed monster looming in some of these comments. Perhaps some ought to have done better at school then, they too, could have been paying £124 pcm for their pension.
As I said, life is full of choices.”

“if you dont pay tax then how can you complain about deductions to further pay you into retirement, all you do is recycle tax benefits, if thats not greedy then go on strike and see how much you're missed”

“FedupwithPCC - My pension contributions are not really affordable. With everything going up except pay it's becomingly increasingly difficult to do without that money and when the government raises the contributions again it'll be even harder. I don't deny that it's a better pension scheme than most people are able to join but when the average received is £4000pa it isn't the golden plated holy grail that the media says it is. And whilst I do earn a good salary for Plymouth an equivalent role in the private sector would be carried out by a qualified lawyer (which unfortunately I am not) and they earn an awful lot more £23k.

Anotherflier - I was simply responding to nothalf's claim that public sector workers are "money grubbing waste of spaces take,take,take". And now apparently greedy! You've read an awful lot into what I said that simply just wasn't there which is exactly the kind of thing that I was objecting to in the first place.”

“tough!”

“The public sector does seem to be cushioned to an extent, from the downturn in insurance type schemes. Our endowments, in spite of predictions when purchased, came a fair way short of paying off the mortgage and pension funds have suffered in he same way.

What happened to the £13million in Iceland? If that is still "missing" presumed writen off,
it wouild seem like a good time to sue for it.”