BDiONU

Uuumm bittertwisted who do you think NATS is? Some faceless entity? You and me and your buddies and mine are 'NATS' and if we make a loss our company (yes we are a company) go to the wall. Where's our pension then? Megaphone 25 makes a good point, cool heads, examine the deal, look at what it offers and think about the options. Less of the knee jerk "one out all out brothers" responses which appear to be in the main so far. The company, OUR company, has promised briefings, consultations and lots more information on the way, so lets have a read through first.

BD
The ass kissing management lacky (obviously)

Not Long Now

Perhaps if NATS spent half as much time and money and effort as it has on convincing us the pension is beyond redemption on petitioning the regulator and or government to allow it to charge for all of it's costs rather than just some, the situation may be different.
Which other companies, or indeed businesses, charge for a service knowing that charge will not cover it's costs. Why has nobody challenged this ridiculous 'cost passthrough' thing. Apparently NATS is supposed to be a profit making business.(Don't say it will require a change of legislation so can't be done, as I seem to think PPP'ing NATS required a certain amount of civil service work too!)

Also, if this new 'deal' comes to pass, how about a review in 5 or so years when hopefully the economic markets will be on the up again. If the surplus is back or growing, perhaps revert back to the current status quo.

throw a dyce

I thought that each person had an individual choice to opt in to Smart.If you opt out,then you have to wait a year to opt in again,unless you have a lifestyle change.This is HMRC information.Didn't see that in the statement.
Smart is a tax loophole.It surprising that the Gov.uk haven't closed that one off.Probably since they started this pension problem,they thought it better kept open.

Standard Noise

Aaaww, I had that stored in my favourites list.

Mr Red

'Smart pensions' or salary sacrifice

Smart pensions explained a little

Asda

That article states;

Careful account needs to be taken of all pay-related benefits to ensure they are not reduced by the salary sacrifice. Items like overtime, shift etc may be calculated by reference to the basic rate.

Since we are on a final salary scheme, does that mean that by going for a SMART pension, my final salary pension would be reduced? If so, by how much?

ToweringCu

Pension contribution is 6%, so I guess salary and pension would be reduced by the same.

Hooligan Bill

Smart Pensions. Cable and Wireless run such a scheme and I have found the following link to the company handbook that explains it.

http://www.freedom.cw.com/pdf/Smart_Booklet.pdf

Page 5 is the interesting one, especially part for people on the notional 50 grand a year salary. £20 a year for the massive savings the company are making does not seem a lot.

As for benefits on retirement, in the C&W scheme there is no change, it quite clearly states on page 8 that nothing will change as the final salary used to calculate the pension will be based on the "notional" final salary.

As long as it is negotiated that benefits are based on notional salary the only loser is the taxman. However Where we do lose out though is when we have pay rises of greater than RPI + 0.5%, in which case your actually salary becomes higher than the notional salary.

jobsfortheboys

Just thought I would get the ball rolling on this small issue.

My two penny worth is that this is pretty much a done deal, If the NTUS branch are reccommending this then there will be insufficient fight in the membership to strike towards any improved acheiveable goal.

The deal stinks to me but Prospect will undoubtedly get the 51% required and we will move into an unsure future where there will be further attempts to undermine and close the top tier fund.

man friday

sold down the river by a union thats nothing more than a branch of management.

one nats one pension BOLLOCKS!

throw a dyce

Well I would have thought that the statement on this would have mentioned the HMRC opt in/out rules on Smart.
Either they are trying to cover it up by not mentioning it....possible,
or they don't understand Smart,and ain't so smart.....possible,
or HMRC are talking rubbish....errr don't think so.

The new pension for joiners after 2009 was always on the cards.Will the membership go the same way on that as the Banding and Atco2/3 split.Probably because it's the doesn't affect me thing.Will the retirement bulge get any bigger.Certainly because no one in their right minds over 50,soon to be 55 should be subjecting themselves to this stressful job,with an employer/union nibbling away at the only decent thing left..the pension.

Me Me Me Me

I'm baffled by the level of interest in the SMART pension bit.... It's **** all. They are closing our pension scheme and all people want to talk about is the few pence National Insurance?!?!

SMART pension will not have any negative impact on anyone. Forget it. It'll save you a few pennies but nothing else meaningful will change. At all.

Medway Control

me me me me

who cares about smart pensions!! least of our worries... One nats, one pension...
And as for the person who said 'The deal stinks to me but Prospect will undoubtedly get the 51% required ', well I really hope that 51% of my colleagues can look though this so called deal that prospect have said is the only option and give them a big fat resounding 'no' vote, when the push comes to shove...

Anyone wanna join me by the security station?? I'll even provide 180 tea bags to keep us warm, cos the way these 'negotiations' are going, if prospect have their way, 180 teabags will be worth more than my pension!

The question is not whether to strike, its what to chant when we're out there...

Air.Farce.1

Just heard Swanwick has gone down !!.

Any way the onenatsonepension cached link below is interesting since the current onenats2pensions link has gone down in sympathy with Swanwick

Prospect ATCO Branch Conference: Leading the Way, Shaping the Future

"Our pension

• We have one of best defined benefit schemes in UK

• We agree

• The scheme is currently in good financial health and is adequately funded

• We agree, currently and we wish to keep it that way"

BAND4ALL

man friday

thanks band4all, you,ve got me chucklin with that!

ayrprox

just incase the powder thats been being kept dry has been blown away, i have a plan B:

Air.Farce.1

Plan C

MrJones

Instant Karma.

Caesartheboogeyman

yesterdays computer glitch was reported as only lasting one hour yet look at the delays and cancellations. If ever there was proof of how working to rule or strike action would effect operations in nats that was it!!
The media were loving the chance ot go to heathrow and take footage of parked planes. lets make them do it again. VOTE NO to the pension offer.
VOTE YES to some strike action.
Don't step on my shoes barron, you will get a bloody nose.