Problem is as buzz said earlier if u get Ill and have to leave I have no pension

I suspect your contributions would be frozen until you retire which is typical of other pensions. Your contributions so far,I assume would be protected.

I think you may be mis-representing me there, I never said that our pensions were poor, in fact I agree with your assessment that they used to be very generous and now they are only moderately generous, that is why my money will continue to go into my pension.

I wasnt trying to misrepresent you Bazz but you said:

In London (the brigade I serve in) people are leaving the pension in their droves, if I didn’t already have 20 years worth of contributions invested then I would leave as well,

You assume wrong then surfer

Okay surfer I see where you’re coming from, my reasons for that are simply because I honestly don’t believe that these will be the last changes we’ll see to our pensions, hopefully I’ll be long gone before they are changed again but if I was just joining and had forty years to go I’d be thinking of putting my money into a buy to let property and spending forty years growing that, I know a couple of firefighters who have done this and let’s just say they are more confident about their retirement plans than most of the work force.

@firestarter

You assume wrong then surfer

So you lose your contributions up to that point?

According to your first post, leaving aside any growth and any contribution by your employer (which I assume is substantial) you have contributed over £86k (you dont say if this is gross or net but no matter)

Are you really saying that this is lost to you????