Sign o’ the times
Jonathan >
I sit here at my desk, my forearms resting on the papers open either side of the rings of a document binder, my hands swaying as my fingers dance across the keys of the laptop – typing this post.
Inserted into the spine of the 4-ring binder is a long strip of paper with a 7-letter word inscribed many years ago in bold felt pen, but now faded to near-invisibility by the sun pouring in through the windows of our office.
It must be ten or twelve years ago – at least – since this file was last reorganized, probably in response to some change thought to be significant enough to warrant the granting of a new folder to hold the papers accumulated over several decades, and the trouble taken to find the right thickness of card and cut it to just the right size for it to fit nicely in the spine pocket. Since then, the file has been opened just once every two years – to add another statement of account.
But the letter that came with the postie this lunchtime, and which is about to be punched and filed in the same folder, is not a routine bi-annual statement. I’ve known to expect that I would receive a letter such as this some time shortly before my 60th birthday ; but this has caught me by surprise.
The letter announces the intention to make good on a promise made to me very nearly 39 years ago – on the 1st August 1978, to be precise. That’s the date on which, recently graduated from Portsmouth with a degree in Civil Engineering, I stepped across the threshold of Citadel Chambers in Carlisle, Cumbria – and entered the world of work.
The promise made to me that day (I have it here in front of me now – Form S3, Notice in accordance with Regulation L4 of the Local Government Superannuation Regulations 1974) was – well I’ve given the game away, now, haven’t I! – was to pay me a pension, in return for deductions from salary.
I stayed with Cumbria County Council for just five years or so, after which I moved on, taking my pension with me, staying with a number of other local authories over the next ten years or so. As long as I stayed in local government, my pension moved on with me – the pension scheme was nationally recognized, but locally administered. The last local authority I was with remains to this day the administrator of my pension.
It’ll not provide much of an income – certainly not enough to allow us to wind up our various micro-enterprises and ‘retire’ in the old-fashioned sense. Only a third of my professional career was spent in local government, and all of that at relatively junior level. But the terms of the pension scheme, in the time I was a contributing member, were generous, and by leaving local government (and thereby that pension scheme) when I did, my pension was not affected by later changes to the rules: retirement age is now 65, and contribution rates are higher. Thank heaven for small mercies!
Receiving this pension won’t change our lives. We’ll have to keep working at what we do now, probably for as long as we are capable of doing so. But we will, at last, be able to afford to travel a little – not least to visit our grown-up children Rebecca (in Wales) and Catherine (in Spain) – though still not both of us at the same time, unless …
… well, the care of livestock is a problem we’re increasingly keen to find a solution to, as we now have a very special reason to want to travel to see Catherine in late November or early December.
That’ll be in response to another important notification we’ve recently received, from Catherine herself, just in the past few days. Ah, but I’m not giving the game away on that one – not just yet, anyway.
But perhaps you’ll guess?
Every little helps, and gives us confidence that we can take that trip and continue to live a full life. Best wishes.
I’ll bet you are going to have a new grandchild! YAY!
D > Yup – our first! Catherine is in her mid-30s (and Becky’s a couple of years older), so we were beginning to resign ourselves to never having grand-children!
You will be DELIGHTED! They are the best thing about having children!
That’s good to hear. Families – always good to hear of families working together for the common good 🙂
Congratulations on both fronts – exciting milestones. And well-timed, coinciding as they do. I hope you’ll be able to resolve the challenge of leaving the livestock – it sounds like you really must travel together come November 🙂
J&D > We’ve got it sorted – At least for this occasion. Rebecca will be keeping things going here whilst we’re away for a week or perhaps two. We’ll pay for her to spend a while over in Spain with Catherine and Ion and Xxxxx at a later date. We were not really wanting to ask her, but Becky, bless her, was really glad to do this for us.
You’re full of news today! And you sound pleased and content. It’s always nice to have a little extra money, just to make you feel more secure. And is there a baby on the way???
D & J > Yes, Kerry – our first grandchild. And about time too!
How exciting for the two of you! I don’t know that any of us who enjoy providing for ourselves in the way we do would ever be completely satisfied just “taking it easy,” in the life of retirement.
Congrats on the new grandbaby to be.. and on your small but what will be a steady source of income for I hope many years to come.. every little bit does add up and makes things a touch easier.
My own hubby is 19 years in on a government job (along with three transfers and a few other side and up moves along the way) and for us here for a full one, you combine length of service and age, so for us, we would need 35 years for a full one.
But the odds are good that a buyout will show itself at or around the 30 year mark.. As for the traveling one at a time.. because of livestock and farm needs, I do understand that one.. we have not traveled together either for many years for that very reason.