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[Varche]

I'm not going to get involved in whether striking was right or not as, to be honest, I don't understand the full implications.

However, sticking with the generic topic of pensions..... I work for a big building society  and I pay in to my pension and have done for 10 years. I just missed out on grabbing a final salary pension and am on something I don't really understand. I pay no AVC's so am paying the basic amount.

I'm seriously thinking about cashing this in if possible (although I think I read somewhere I can only do that when I get to 55) and not paying any further in. The reasons:

My best mate's dad died a few years back. He was aged 62 and didn't see any of the pension money he'd paid in the poor bastard. Now, in his case that dosh automatically went to his family which, although he didn't see it, at least it went to help look after his wife and kids 

HOWEVER, I haven't got kids and am most definitely not having them... so when and if I get to retirement and I pop my clogs on the day I retire (as I am a chronic Sod'slawitus sufferer) that money presumably will go to the state and I will have paid my whole life in to this pension and not benefitted.

So, what do you guys think to stopping this?

My two pennorth (two centworth?) is I have always belived that an individual is best to either contribute like crazy to a pension to build up the best they can (and that is at the expense of having spare cash for 40 years prior to retirement OR to spend everything you have in a TGIF cultuire and then expect hope for the state to look after you when you get to retirement age. The halfway house is no good at all as you will get taxed to death on what small pension you saved and won't qualify for top ups and so on from the state. I know this for a fact with many family members.

The bottom line is you have to decide a) will you live a long life and b) will you be well enough to enjoy it. If the answer is yes to both then start saving all you can now if one or both are No blow the lot and enjoy life.

[Bionic]

  At last a realist has emerged who like many of us knows that it is useless to strike or to kick back when there simply is no more money available.
It does not matter where you work or what you do, the money is gone and no-one has the right to demand by force, which is what a strike is by nature, that others should foot the bill for their pension 'enhancements'!
You want a bigger pension? Then do what we in the private sector have to do, work longer and pay in more! Are the employers of the Public Sector crying about the increases in employee contributions they make by proportion? No, they are not so just accept your fate and live peacefully alongside the rest of us. At the end of the day public sector workers are no better than anyone else and do not deserve to be treated any differently.