Think you might be getting a UK State Pension ?

[exbluejob]

Which presumably means you'll be on minimum state pension?

No, 25 years RAF, 13 years a civvie company in similar work (with good pension), 4+ years overseas, then into consultancy a year or so after I came back. I'm paying for the time I was overseas (reduced rate) plus a couple of years after I got back which brings me up to full rate.
MoD pension + NATS pension combined give me enough to comfortably live on, wife gets state pension next year, I get state pension year after. The consultancy stuff is just for fun, although not on one of my projects with the Qataris who, quite frankly, haven't got a scooby what they want.

 

[old_n_fat]

No, 25 years RAF, 13 years a civvie company in similar work (with good pension), 4+ years overseas, then into consultancy a year or so after I came back. I'm paying for the time I was overseas (reduced rate) plus a couple of years after I got back which brings me up to full rate.
MoD pension + NATS pension combined give me enough to comfortably live on, wife gets state pension next year, I get state pension year after. The consultancy stuff is just for fun, although not on one of my projects with the Qataris who, quite frankly, haven't got a scooby what they want.

Nice position to be in.

 

[exbluejob]

Nice position to be in.

I think I've been very lucky. My wife says I've worked hard for it, so a combination of both. Certainly after I left the RAF I just kinda fell into doing the right things. When I joined NATS they didn't have the same pre conditions for promotion as the RAF. Minimum 5 years between ranks in the RAF, in NATS I had 3 promotions in 5 years. Loved the work I was doing but when it all finished and I was destined to work with the Europeans on dead end stuff a job came up in Dubai, they say if you meet 70% of the requirements on a vacancy notice you should apply, I met 95%. Thought hhhmmm Dubai, then looked again at the money and put the application in. Shovelled as much cash back to UK as possible to pay off the mortgage. Eventually that being paid off coincided with my full MoD and NATS pensions coming into payment and I thought bollocks to working! Jacked the Dubai job in, came back to UK aged 59. Few months after that a mate had a consultancy job come up in Holland (mainly working from home). Then a short one in Kuwait, a few months in Indonesia (mainly from home) with some nice visits, now Qatar (not visited there and hoping I won't have to). Everyone in aviation has drawn their horns in and are hunkering down until the CV19 storm blows over so all the potential contracts I was involved in have cancelled and very few going on, only got one in the states potentially. Wife doesn't want me working past 65 anyway.

 

[rgjbloke]

No, 25 years RAF, 13 years a civvie company in similar work (with good pension), 4+ years overseas, then into consultancy a year or so after I came back. I'm paying for the time I was overseas (reduced rate) plus a couple of years after I got back which brings me up to full rate.
MoD pension + NATS pension combined give me enough to comfortably live on, wife gets state pension next year, I get state pension year after. The consultancy stuff is just for fun, although not on one of my projects with the Qataris who, quite frankly, haven't got a scooby what they want.

I have a friend who worked for NATS at West Drayton. He was ex RN and started with them originally when morse code was still a form of backup communication in an emergency. When that went, he moved onto other stuff with them.

He was paid an excellent salary for his attendance at work. They were known for their very good remuneration to staff at all levels in the organisation.

Accordingly, quite a difficult place to get a job unless of course you were a controller.

 

[exbluejob]

He was paid an excellent salary for his attendance at work. They were known for their very good remuneration to staff at all levels in the organisation.

Accordingly, quite a difficult place to get a job unless of course you were a controller.

Very good remuneration. They were taking engineers and graduates straight from Uni. I was 40+ when I 'retired' from the RAF as a controller but really didn't fancy trying to complete the civilian controller course. NATS were opening up the new centre at Swanwick, near Southampton, to replace West Drayton and needed additional staff, I got a job as a pseudo controller. No risk of welding planes together, no secondary duties, shift pay, overtime and more than I was on as a controller! What wasn't to like! Then onto projects, upgrading systems and delivering new ones, all stuff I really loved doing

 

[endure]

Very good remuneration. They were taking engineers and graduates straight from Uni. I was 40+ when I 'retired' from the RAF as a controller but really didn't fancy trying to complete the civilian controller course. NATS were opening up the new centre at Swanwick, near Southampton, to replace West Drayton and needed additional staff, I got a job as a pseudo controller. No risk of welding planes together, no secondary duties, shift pay, overtime and more than I was on as a controller! What wasn't to like! Then onto projects, upgrading systems and delivering new ones, all stuff I really loved doing

What does a pseudo controller do?

 

[rgjbloke]

Very good remuneration. They were taking engineers and graduates straight from Uni. I was 40+ when I 'retired' from the RAF as a controller but really didn't fancy trying to complete the civilian controller course. NATS were opening up the new centre at Swanwick, near Southampton, to replace West Drayton and needed additional staff, I got a job as a pseudo controller. No risk of welding planes together, no secondary duties, shift pay, overtime and more than I was on as a controller! What wasn't to like! Then onto projects, upgrading systems and delivering new ones, all stuff I really loved doing

I wish they hadn’t moved. You should see the site now. A developer has turned the whole place into an overcrowded concrete and brick jungle. Flats and houses built on every available square inch that they could cram it all into while still leaving as little as possible for the rest of the estate infrastructure.

The roads on the state are single track in parts where people have to pull over to let others pass them and the leisure spaces are tiny. The place is a disgrace.

Just to add insult to injury, the parking policy for residents is that they get one free space and have to pay for additional spaces to park. That means that every family living on the estate park their additional cars on the surrounding estates causing mayhem.

 

[exbluejob]

What does a pseudo controller do?

For training controllers there are pseudo pilots, they make the blips on the screen respond to the controllers instructions and speak back to them making it as realistic as possible. Those aircraft tracks are generated as a part of the exercise, you can start an exercise with several aircraft halfway through a sector. Of course they're moving so you'll receive aircraft from adjacent sectors. The pseudo controllers manned those adjacent sectors and would hand off aircraft going to the 'live' sector ensuring that they were presented realistically. This job was pretty much only for about a year as we trained all the controllers coming down. After that the exercises were set up to feed aircraft correctly, before then no one was exactly sure how it was going to go.

 

[Civvy Scum]

Don’t know your circumstances of course but if you have a spouse/civil partner who’s income is below the tax free allowance, s/he can give you some of their allowance - I think it is up to something like 10% that can be transferred.


Here’s a link - Marriage Tax Allowance

Useful to know. I'm retiring at the end of June but wont get the State Pension until July '22. SWMBO is jacking at the end of Jan but doesn't get the SP for another 6 or 7 years. Not sure what her NHS pension will be just yet but one side or the other of £850 a month, so she's unlikely to ever pay tax again. If I've any to pay she can put some of her allowance my way and, fingers crossed, neither of us will ever pay tax again at least until she gets the SP. Result.

 

[undervalued]

Useful to know. I'm retiring at the end of June but wont get the State Pension until July '22. SWMBO is jacking at the end of Jan but doesn't get the SP for another 6 or 7 years. Not sure what her NHS pension will be just yet but one side or the other of £850 a month, so she's unlikely to ever pay tax again. If I've any to pay she can put some of her allowance my way and, fingers crossed, neither of us will ever pay tax again at least until she gets the SP. Result.

You can take a max of £1250 of your partners personal allowance.
I'm pretty sure you can backdate it for 4 years.
About £250 less tax per year.

 

[Civvy Scum]

You can take a max of £1250 of your partners personal allowance.
I'm pretty sure you can backdate it for 4 years.
About £250 less tax per year.

Sadly both of us have been over £12.5k for those years, so backdating is off the table. It'll only be from July '21 to the end of June '22 when I'll be able to claim it on it's own. I'll still be able to claim it after then but the SP and my occupational pensions will be over the £14k, so I'll have to pay some tax. If I'm hitting the right buttons on the calculator, possibly as much as £65/month? And yes, I'll begrudge every penny of it.

 

[br9mp812]

I actually worked and paid NI/tax in the UK for 41 years, and yes it is true that you only need 35 contributing years.
But.
Like a lot of us on here though, our NI contributions were what they called 'contracted out' to our occupational yeppension scheme and that a certain proportion went there instead.
You can get your state pension forecast on your HMRC tax account if you log in there.
I looked at topping mine and wifes up to get the max. state pension, and the amount of dosh they wanted* to do so would have involved me living to 80 and her to 78 to break even with the difference in the two.
All for an extra £20 a week.
My 41 actual years of paying NI contributions still do not bring me up to the max state pension for which you only need 35 years to count.
I fully expect the goalposts to be moved again before I get anywhere near state pension age.

*(And so we bought a new car instead!)

yep same for me have to do x more years of paying to get full state pension, as yet no ldea how the CS pension ruling will effect it