Govt Pensions Revealed

[Derek Flint]

7 hours ago, wrighty said:

You need to read it again Derek.  "As of March thirty-first, 7826 people were receiving government pensions"

Got it now. Missed the second comma. It’s just as well they didn’t write 31032022,7826

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, wrighty said:

7826 memberships may not be 7826 pensioners. Some will be getting more than one - for example on divorce there can be a pension sharing order, or a teacher may quit, and take up a role in another area for example and on retirement have two pensions. 

Yes, it makes that point on the same page.  I'd assumed it wouldn't make a massive difference because 80% of member are in the Unified Scheme, so it would only be a few hundred who were counted twice, as in the examples you give (eg an ex-teacher moving into CS employment and so being part of two different schemes).  But rereading it I wonder if they're counting separate period of employment as separate memberships even if in the same scheme, it's a bit ambiguous.  Though I can't imagine them sending out separate payments to the same person.

One little sidelight in the report is the fact that they have the same problem with the monumental inefficiency of Human Resources as everyone else: 

The PSPA continue to work collaboratively with OHR Payroll on numerous longstanding data issues. The timeliness and accuracy of starter and leaver data being submitted by OHR has improved but there is still a large backlog. The PSPA Operations Manager, whilst seconded to OHR, has been able to supply leaver data needed along with coaching payroll staff and he will return to the PSPA in April.

Even the most basic tasks seem to be beyond them and management is so poor that someone has to come in from another Department to tell the staff what to do.

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Roxanne said:

I know this.  I was simply making a point that the state pension is an entitlement not a benefit as some seem to believe it is. I was not talking about the article.  I’m not quite sure why I’m finding it so hard to explain my point so I’m going to leave it there - defeated. 

Well you were posting in a topic called Govt Pensions Revealed, so you can understand why people assumed you were talking about the civil service.  Though the line between pensions and benefits is hazier than people think anyway and some benefits (eg JSA) are also contribution based.