Today's Budget. What you hoping for?

[Docca]

Is the 5% coming from the tax payer? If so, during a cost of living crisis and inflation rise, is that a good idea? Won't that extra burden onto the tax payer cause inflation to rise again? Whilst the private sector who fund it get.....nothing, again.

You appreciate that NHS staff pay tax, too?

Also, Agenda for Change ( the terms and conditions that frame all non-medic pay) have effectively seen a pay cut in the last five years. Doctors have it worse. Private sector have gone up 16% on average.

Workforce is the biggest cost for the NHS.

This increase will only be for part of my earnings. The other part ( 60%) is now against a different pay framework, which hasn’t gone up (but is higher than this one if that makes sense).

I don’t pretend to understand it.

You've got over £1,000,000 in your pension pot and you still appear to feel that you're hard done by, get a grip.

You’ll have to show me where I say I feel hard done by.

I feel very fortunate, certainly more so than junior colleagues. I’ve done my time etc.

[Ant]

Yes and no.

Income tax, true
Inheritance tax, not true
Many taxes are inevitable for you and me, but optional for billionaires.

Also look at it another way, with the tax free allowance, it makes lower earners keep a higher proportion of their earnings than 'the rich' who will of course be paying more anyway. If you're a billionaire, you've probably got there through hard work, not by not paying tax.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

You appreciate that NHS staff pay tax, too?

Also, Agenda for Change ( the terms and conditions that frame all non-medic pay) have effectively seen a pay cut in the last five years. Doctors have it worse. Private sector have gone up 16% on average.

Workforce is the biggest cost for the NHS.

This increase will only be for part of my earnings. The other part ( 60%) is now against a different pay framework, which hasn’t gone up (but is higher than this one if that makes sense).

I don’t pretend to understand it.

You've got over £1,000,000 in your pension pot and you still appear to feel that you're hard done by, get a grip.

You’ll have to show me where I say I feel hard done by.

I feel very fortunate, certainly more so than junior colleagues. I’ve done my time etc.

It's the general feeling I get from your posts, I'm glad that you feel fortunate, nice one.

[Greenman]

Yes and no.

Income tax, true
Inheritance tax, not true
Many taxes are inevitable for you and me, but optional for billionaires.

Also look at it another way, with the tax free allowance, it makes lower earners keep a higher proportion of their earnings than 'the rich' who will of course be paying more anyway. If you're a billionaire, you've probably got there through hard work, not by not paying tax.

[Docca]

You've got over £1,000,000 in your pension pot and you still appear to feel that you're hard done by, get a grip.

You’ll have to show me where I say I feel hard done by.

I feel very fortunate, certainly more so than junior colleagues. I’ve done my time etc.

Indeed, there are many very fortunate employees of that institution, I used to stand there shaking my head when the ex-staff came back to show off their Range Rovers. The NHS is an institution run for the benefit of it's employees, not the end user, so it's absolutely dreadful if you're a patient, it's an utter failure, but if you do your time as an employee then you've made it.

It's not a personal attack, fair play, I might have done the same, I've sometimes said that if I could go back I'd have stuck it out and sat comfortably until the golden cash out at fifty-five. I've done fine anyway, but it was a hell of a lot harder to make it in the private sector - not to mention (to tie it back to budgets) that I've got to manage my own money through retirement, no golden pension guarantees.

I'm not taking it as a personal attack, because you're on a fishing trip

It does somewhat gloss over what actually happens. I guess 'did my time' was also a tad throwaway from me; you don't get to retire at 55 anymore. I'm 48 and i'll still be working until i'm 75, if I make it that far. That's not a choice thing as such- just the way it's playing out. Also, we not longer receive the final salary pension- and all pensions are now split in to two eras. It's too confusing for me to understand; all I know is that I paid 13.5% which is about to reduce to 12.5 to help pay for increased...erm...pay

As for hard done by (the other poster's comments)- I think my life is what i've made it. No more or less. I do feel the NHS is not fit for purpose anymore, however- hasn't been for a number of years. Poor leadership, especially in England doesn't help (but England is spectacularly hampered by a woefully incompetent government)

[Mr Moofo]

As for hard done by (the other poster's comments)- I think my life is what i've made it. No more or less. I do feel the NHS is not fit for purpose anymore, however- hasn't been for a number of years. Poor leadership, especially in England doesn't help (but England is spectacularly hampered by a woefully incompetent government)

Erm, what about the NHS in Scotland - which is a complete clusterfuck?

I think NHS England may well be hampered by the government (refusing to keep on throwing money at it) but the poor management is spectacular , making the patient do favours to support "our NHS" is laughable, and then there is the bloated, slow moving bureaucracy, run by self serving managers, that hampers anything being done quickly, a terrible procurement process that guarantees that we don't get value for money.

However, we would agree on the fact that the NHS is no longer fit for purpose!

[Docca]

As for hard done by (the other poster's comments)- I think my life is what i've made it. No more or less. I do feel the NHS is not fit for purpose anymore, however- hasn't been for a number of years. Poor leadership, especially in England doesn't help (but England is spectacularly hampered by a woefully incompetent government)

Erm, what about the NHS in Scotland - which is a complete clusterfuck?

I think NHS England may well be hampered by the government (refusing to keep on throwing money at it) but the poor management is spectacular , making the patient do favours to support "our NHS" is laughable, and then there is the bloated, slow moving bureaucracy, run by self serving managers, that hampers anything being done quickly, a terrible procurement process that guarantees that we don't get value for money.

However, we would agree on the fact that the NHS is no longer fit for purpose!

Scotland ( and Wales) don’t have the myriad of governance structures festooned upon it that England does.

That’s not suggesting it’s not complex, it’s just nowhere near as complex. In England you have Trust, local system ( integrated care boards, integrated care partnerships and integrate care systems- 3 separate things) before you get in to regional stuff. Then national.

In Scotland, the mine to actual policy makers is much more direct.

Also, whilst I’m sure there are lazy and incompetent managers - what I’ve described above is not set by them. It’s set by government, for which we get a new SSfH every few years who sets up their own vanity project. To levy the blame at bloated management is, ironically, lazy.

As for a million quid in my pension. I don’t know what it means in real terms. As things stand, if I was to leave ( at pensionable age) I’d get a lump sum of £98k and an annual pension of £20k. Obviously, I have many years left though

[Cousin Jack]

As for a million quid in my pension. I don’t know what it means in real terms. As things stand, if I was to leave ( at pensionable age) I’d get a lump sum of £98k and an annual pension of £20k. Obviously, I have many years left though

I don't know how it works, but that's £100k up front and a 2.25% pension on the £900k.
Is that right? It sounds rubbish.

IIRC NHS pensions were (like lots of other government pensions) unfunded, so there was no pot of gold, the pension came from current expenditure, just like the police, civil service etc. Most of that has changed now, but there is still no pot of gold for the time spent in that scheme - it is just a notional calculation done by HMRC to stop you paying too much into a real pot.

[Mussels]

It does somewhat gloss over what actually happens. I guess 'did my time' was also a tad throwaway from me; you don't get to retire at 55 anymore. I'm 48 and i'll still be working until i'm 75, if I make it that far. That's not a choice thing as such- just the way it's playing out.

Seriously, I'm actually interested, how do you have a million quid in a pension scheme at 48, but can't retire until you're 75?
I'd be banging out at 55, you'd be able to set your watch by it.

He's just bought a new house, that's probably how long the mortgage runs for. My mortgage is due to finish when I am 73 but I have plans with a mixture of overpaying, taking a pension lump sum and then ramping voluntary contibutions right up until I do retire.
I could have taken a shorter mortgage but wanted to leave my options open.

[Count Steer]

As for a million quid in my pension. I don’t know what it means in real terms. As things stand, if I was to leave ( at pensionable age) I’d get a lump sum of £98k and an annual pension of £20k. Obviously, I have many years left though

That sounds more like a 'If you left the service now, this is what you'll get on retirement figure', rather than a 'If you keep paying in until retirement at 67 or whatever figure'.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

It does somewhat gloss over what actually happens. I guess 'did my time' was also a tad throwaway from me; you don't get to retire at 55 anymore. I'm 48 and i'll still be working until i'm 75, if I make it that far. That's not a choice thing as such- just the way it's playing out.

Seriously, I'm actually interested, how do you have a million quid in a pension scheme at 48, but can't retire until you're 75?
I'd be banging out at 55, you'd be able to set your watch by it.

He's just bought a new house, that's probably how long the mortgage runs for. My mortgage is due to finish when I am 73 but I have plans with a mixture of overpaying, taking a pension lump sum and then ramping voluntary contibutions right up until I do retire.
I could have taken a shorter mortgage but wanted to leave my options open.

Mortgages are so last year

[Docca]

As for a million quid in my pension. I don’t know what it means in real terms. As things stand, if I was to leave ( at pensionable age) I’d get a lump sum of £98k and an annual pension of £20k. Obviously, I have many years left though

That sounds more like a 'If you left the service now, this is what you'll get on retirement figure', rather than a 'If you keep paying in until retirement at 67 or whatever figure'.

Yes, exactly that.

I’m quite transparent when it comes to this type of thing. Always have been, even on the days of VD when I was talking about being a ‘band 6’ and how much I earned. For most of my career, my salary range has been published online. It’s only now that I’m moving in to the ‘very senior’ bit where salaries don’t need to be published.

[weeksy]

As for a million quid in my pension. I don’t know what it means in real terms. As things stand, if I was to leave ( at pensionable age) I’d get a lump sum of £98k and an annual pension of £20k. Obviously, I have many years left though

That sounds more like a 'If you left the service now, this is what you'll get on retirement figure', rather than a 'If you keep paying in until retirement at 67 or whatever figure'.

Yes, exactly that.

I’m quite transparent when it comes to this type of thing. Always have been, even on the days of VD when I was talking about being a ‘band 6’ and how much I earned. For most of my career, my salary range has been published online. It’s only now that I’m moving in to the ‘very senior’ bit where salaries don’t need to be published.

Yeah but when you start getting shy about it, we know it's £150k+

[Count Steer]

As for a million quid in my pension. I don’t know what it means in real terms. As things stand, if I was to leave ( at pensionable age) I’d get a lump sum of £98k and an annual pension of £20k. Obviously, I have many years left though

That sounds more like a 'If you left the service now, this is what you'll get on retirement figure', rather than a 'If you keep paying in until retirement at 67 or whatever figure'.

Yes, exactly that.

I’m quite transparent when it comes to this type of thing. Always have been, even on the days of VD when I was talking about being a ‘band 6’ and how much I earned. For most of my career, my salary range has been published online. It’s only now that I’m moving in to the ‘very senior’ bit where salaries don’t need to be published.

Oh, it wasn't a dig in any way. Just that one or two people seemed to think you had £1M in the current pension pot. If you do have when you do retire, more power to your elbow I say.

[Mussels]

Mortgages into your 70's don't sit well with me though, I fear it will become the norm and future generations will spend their whole lives with that yoke around their necks. Each to their own, but I don't think it's a good trend.

It doesn't to me either, this mortgage is due to finish when I'm 73 but when the fix runs out and I remortgage then the next one will be set to complete when I'm in my 60s, and I aim to finish paying before I'm 60.
Mortgage length is just an indicator of how much capital repayment you are committed to in a normal repayment mortgage, the 73 bit doesn't worry me.

[Mr Moofo]

Yes, exactly that.

I’m quite transparent when it comes to this type of thing. Always have been, even on the days of VD when I was talking about being a ‘band 6’ and how much I earned. For most of my career, my salary range has been published online. It’s only now that I’m moving in to the ‘very senior’ bit where salaries don’t need to be published.

Now you are "very senior" are you not exactly the person that should be solving the issues in the NHS, rather than saying it is not if for purpose? If not you - who? It is what senior management is meant to do (in the private sector, where you get sacked if you don't)
Isn't blaming the government all the time, like blaming the shareholders ( which ultimately is us)

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Mortgages into your 70's don't sit well with me though, I fear it will become the norm and future generations will spend their whole lives with that yoke around their necks. Each to their own, but I don't think it's a good trend.

Having a mortgage in your 60s doesn't seem wise to me, but if people want to spend their whole lives working so they can have a bigger house then it's their choice.

[weeksy]

Mortgages into your 70's don't sit well with me though, I fear it will become the norm and future generations will spend their whole lives with that yoke around their necks. Each to their own, but I don't think it's a good trend.

Having a mortgage in your 60s doesn't seem wise to me, but if people want to spend their whole lives working so they can have a bigger house then it's their choice.

I didn't buy a house until 40... Therefore having a mortgage late on is sadly the impact. There's many reasons for why and how this happened, mostly though, stupidity

[Mr. Dazzle]

Get a mortgage until you're 99, die when you're 85 and beat the man! It's the downtrodden internet user's dream surely.

[Skub]

Owning a house can be a bit of an illusion for some. They work all their days to 'own' a house,then health fails and the house must be sold to pay for extortionate care costs. I've watched these dreams turn to dust so many times in the last few years.