On 28/07/2017 20:41, Andrew wrote:
On 27/07/2017 17:04, Mark wrote:
On Thu, 27 Jul 2017 16:45:27 +0100, Andrew
wrote:

On 23/07/2017 23:46, Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp wrote:
while the NHS staff get paid peanuts.

I can *really* assure you that NHS staff do not get paid
'peanuts'. 13 years of NuLab saw the NHS budget leap from
£38 Billion to £115 Billion and most of that increase was
down to increased staff costs. The headcount went from 960,000
in 1997 to 1,350,000 by 2007.

And remember, up to 2011 they only paid 6% superannuation
towards their 40/80'ths final salary pension (plus one-off
3x 1st years pension as a tax-free lump sum.).

So why does the NHS struggle to recruit qualified staff?


More to the point why are so many leaving early ?.

The answer is the pensions lifetime allowance limit.
G Brown brought this in, in 2006? with a limit of £1.8
million. Now it is £1 Million, which at current annuity
rates will buy an RPI-linked pension from age 60 of
about £30,000 without a lump sum. Many many NHS staff
are in this position (or better, Consultants earn up to
£150,000)

Anyone with a pension fund worth more than that has to pay
up to 55% tax on any excess when it was taken.(Or maybe
even before it is taken now).

this was introduced because people like Fred Goodwin were
being granted multi-million pound pension bungs to avoid
tax and NI.

Public servants were also ensnared but the value of their
pension was set at an arbitrary 20 times annual pension.
This was fine when annuity rates were 'normal', but not
when they had crashed.

As most of them are in defined benefit schemes the annuity rate is
irrelevant to what they get.