Cuts to benefit’s and tax increases to cover NHS over time & final salary pension schemes never make me happy.
No one gets a employment package like NHS staff. 37 & 1/2 hours per week including meal breaks, 8 weeks holidays per year and time, overtime at time & 1/2 and allowances for working unsociable hours and weekends.
Why so many lost so much since the start of the pandemic, others have cash in. While the news and social media present an image of hard working NHS staff on the front line running out of food and petrol….its not really the truth.
Regular NHS staff from cleaners to porters doubled there wages on over time.
Nursing agency charged round £30-60 per hour for staff.
At the peak of the latest wave there were 34,336 COVID-19 patients in hospitals across England.
Back in 1990 I paid into a pension plan for two years with an employer at 6%. Today that fund is worth 2k or £700 per year for life.
A friend of mine worked as a university lecturer training teachers. Under Edward Health’s government they closed down most teacher training by 1981 and he was pension off at 51.
This year his pension is paying around 32k per year. He’s been getting for the last 40 years.
So when we talk about the NHS and its cost…..most of the bill is pensions not health care. Few work pass 55.
The NHS Pension Scheme has 1.57 million members actively contributing, 650,000 deferred members and 900,000 pensioners receiving benefits. The benefits and conditions vary according to the type of worker and the dates of their service.
So lets say they all get a pension of 18k per year ( 18000 x 900,000) that’s around 16 billion a year.
Now think about all those extra hours worked since the pandemic started within the NHS. All those extra contributions made into there pension funds. We’re storing up trouble for the future and the end of the NHS wont come from privatization by government……its going to be there pension fund.