I have become increasingly concerned about the number of younger teachers who tell me they are not joining the Scottish Teachers Superannuation Scheme (the teachers\u2019 pension scheme) because they don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth it. Unfortunately, as I\u2019m at the latter end of my career, I have seen some of the disastrous outcomes when teachers fail to pay into the pension scheme either at all or for the earlier part of their career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of my former colleagues never joined the scheme, saying \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter, I\u2019ll have the state pension.\u201d Later she asked me for details as to how to join the scheme and I gave these to her, many times. Sadly, she never joined and ended up retiring with only a state pension of \u00a3172 per week to live on. Another colleague who didn\u2019t join until ten years ago found that she simply couldn\u2019t afford to retire and faces working on into her seventies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, it is no longer a final salary scheme with a lump sum, but it is still a defined benefit scheme based on your career average salary. This is vastly superior to the defined contribution schemes most private sector employers offer and where you end up with a lump sum based on how well the pension scheme\u2019s investments have performed. Anyone retiring at the start of the pandemic, for example, would have seen the value of their benefits in a defined contribution scheme crash and have been left with a greatly reduced sum to retire on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some teachers argue that they can\u2019t afford to join the STSS because contributions are high, and they\u2019d rather spend the money on holidays or going out. I would argue that unless you want to live in poverty once you retire, you can\u2019t afford not to join. Teachers\u2019 contributions depend on their promotion level, but the lion\u2019s share of contributions to a teacher\u2019s pension are still made by the employer (usually a local authority). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Employers love it if teachers don\u2019t join the pension scheme, because it saves them a lot of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others have argued that the scheme isn\u2019t as good as it once was because annual pension increases are no longer based on the Retail Prices Index (RPI), but on the lower Consumer Prices Index (CPI). This is true, and I, like many other EIS members, campaigned against the change from RPI to CPI a decade ago. Sadly, we lost the battle, but at least there ARE annual increases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are in a defined contribution scheme you get a lump sum when you retire and you can use this to buy an annuity which usually is at a flat rate with NO increases. If you want to buy one with annual increases, you have to start with a much lower annual pension in the first place. Alternatively, you can invest your lump sum and draw down an annual amount, hoping that your pension doesn\u2019t run out. (Financial experts recommend that you don\u2019t draw down more than 4% per annum so your pension is likely to be much smaller than anything achievable in the STSS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other teachers argue that as the Normal Pension Age (NPA) is now 66, it isn\u2019t worth joining as you may not live that long. However statistically you probably will, and you won\u2019t want to have to continue working in your late sixties and into your seventies in order to survive, which you probably would have to do, as the UK state pension is one of the lowest in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are very few perks in teaching, but membership of the Scottish Teachers\u2019 Superannuation Scheme is still one of them – even with all the changes over the last few years. If you have not joined the Scottish Teachers\u2019 Scheme, I would urge you to do so, or you could end up like my former colleague, who will either have to work on in her late sixties and seventies, or else face a miserable existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another benefit of the STSS is that if you have a spouse or a co-habiting partner, they will receive 50% of your pension if you die, whilst if you have any children under 18 when you die, they will also receive a payment from the STSS up until their 18th birthday, thereby enabling them to complete their secondary education. One of my former colleagues sadly died of cancer a couple of years ago. While the death in service payment cleared her mortgage, her son was able to continue his secondary education without financial problems because of the STSS payout. These benefits are not normally available in defined contribution schemes and are another reason why you should join the STSS!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Sheila Waddell, Glasgow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe thing that is holding things back is not intellectual property,\u201d Bill Gates told Sky News recently.\u201cIt\u2019s not like there\u2019s some idle vaccine factory, with regulatory approval, that makes magically safe vaccines. You know you\u2019ve got to do the trial on these things. Every manufacturing process has to be looked at in a very careful way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is worth noting that Gates is completely wrong and misleading about \u201cidle factories.\u201d In fact there are a considerable number of vaccine factories in, for example, Africa, which are either idle or could be quickly adapted to vaccine production. Including in the poorest African countries like Nigeria and Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also worth noting that the reasons given by Gates are the same or similar to the ones given by Big Pharma since the Pandemic struck 15 months ago. Meanwhile millions have died needlessly. And the longer the prevarication continues the more millions of human lives are threatened. This all sits rather oddly with the reputation of Mr Gates as a philanthropist. Perhaps this reputation is the product of mainstream media that fawns over Mr Gates in a particularly craven way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gates is undoubtedly nervous that the worldwide movement for a patent free people\u2019s vaccine will be successful and threaten the monopoly profits of the multi billionaire class. Does he have shares in Astra Zeneca or other Big Pharma outfits? Or is he just acting in the interests of the fewest of the few and hence putting the lives of millions at further risk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joe Biden is also vitally interested in the issue of waiving patent rights. On the campaign trail last year, he was asked if he would remove intellectual property rights and allow patent free production worldwide in a televised interview with a people\u2019s vaccine campaigner. \u201cYES, YES, YES\u201d replied an unusually animated Joe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Joe has a problem. Big Pharma in the USA has spent 4.7 billion dollars on lobbying politicians in the USA since 1999. This is an enormous sum and both Republicans and Democrats have been the \u2018targets\u2019 or \u2018beneficiaries\u2019 of this lavish largesse. Currently it seems that the slogan has become \u201cMaybe, Maybe, Maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the People\u2019s Vaccine Alliance is successful it is worthwhile speculating on whether Big Pharma will have a second line of defence. Will they, for example, deliberately hold up, stymie and delay the transfer of technology and expertise to the poorest countries? Thus the excuse of \u2018Every manufacturing process has to be looked at in a very careful way\u2019 becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy rather than just an excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gordon Brown is another player on the international stage in all this. At a recent press conference with Dr Tedros, he issued a call for a temporary waiver on patents and called on the G7 to take action. This rightly puts the focus and the pressure on the G7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus pressure is mounting on the billionaire class. Their stubborn refusal to put human life before profit, which is really their whole raison d\u2019etre, is coming under the international microscope. They are searching for new strategies. They are searching for new excuses. They are searching for a way out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Labour movement needs to rise to the challenge. The current leader of the Labour Party needs to rise to the challenge. We all need to rise to the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise we will be waving goodbye to many more millions of lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – John Swinburne, Edinburgh<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pension scheme is still a perk \u2013 please use it I have become increasingly concerned about the number of younger teachers who tell me they are not joining the Scottish Teachers Superannuation Scheme (the teachers\u2019 pension scheme) because they don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth it. 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\n\n\n\nWaving goodbye to Human Life?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n