Home Office says it has now “committed to relaxing tax and pensions rules”, but did not state that full salary will be paid. In a second blow, returned will also have to pay pension contributions toward pensions for which they have already qualified
The Tory government’s call for retired police officers to return to duty to help in the coronavirus crisis contained a hidden insult that was only revealed to those returning after they stepped forward.
Officers – many of whom received letters with their names stated incorrectly – were told in a ‘generic letter’ that if they return to service they will not be paid their pension:
In effect, this would mean them being paid only a few hundred pounds a month more for returning to the front line, when they could enjoy a pension of around £1,700 a month for staying home.
The Home Office appears to have performed a partial u-turn, but would not commit to paying returners full pay on top of their pension. A Home Office spokesperson said:
The government is committed to ensuring the police have the resources they need to keep themselves and the public safe at this crucial time, including by encouraging forces to ask retired officers to return to work.
To enable this, we have committed to relaxing tax and pensions rules which could otherwise deter officers near retirement or those recently retired from continuing or returning to serve.
However, this appears to be limited to a tax break, rather than a promise of full pay, as the Home Office also said that this ‘relaxing’ would remove ‘adverse tax implications’.
This is confirmed by the Metropolitan Police Service page for potential returners, which states that officers will not only forfeit pension for the duration of their renewed service – meaning that pension contributions, currently around 13.5%, will be deducted from their pay, even though they have already qualified for their pensions:
In accordance with the Pensions Act 2008, the Met will auto-enrol officers in the 2006 Pension Scheme.
Participation in the Scheme will make the pension subject to partial abatement (reduction). This means you will not be entitled to a proportion of the monthly allowance. However, on retirement from the MPS [on a second occasion] your original pension will be reinstated in full.
SKWAWKBOX view:
How typical of the Tories to ask people to return to risky work for a pittance.
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Never underestimate the joy of the returning officers in being able to order the citizenry about again and incarcerate them if they do not respond with alacrity. And a few more quid plus big expenses for the pleasure of doing it. Read the accounts of operations the police conducted in the miners strike if you don’t believe me.
I wouldn’t tar all with the same brush. The motivation could also be a genuine sense of social responsibility. Going back to that strike, I can also remember a number of police as being acutely uncomfortable – and, of course, there was the drafting of ‘foreign’ police into South and West Yorkshire to get round that sort of feeling amongst the locals.
But that apart, the question is “Why the need for extra police?”
… which might lead to a number of alternative conclusions to the thesis that it’s because of illness. 🙂
The old bill get 6 months off for a paper cut ffs!
Whether there’s 10, or 100,000 of them, there’ll always be a load of them blagging on the sick.
……..especially in South Yorkshire & Derbyshire.
I live on around 450 euros a month. It’s a bit bizarre hearing you complaining that for ex members of the plod to only be payed 1700 quid + “a few hundred” is some sort of injustice. My ex has just returned to work at the French old folks works home where she was a nurse before retiring. She lives off a similar amount to me but is doing the work as a volunteer for travel expenses only, as are many other colleagues.
The plod’s wages were massively increased by Thatcher in return for promising never to strike and agreeing to beat other working-class people over the head whenever they were required to do so. The introduction of a few pink police cars, university degrees, equals opps. etc. doesn’t disguise the fact that they remain part of the repressive state apparatus, enjoying wages, benefits and pensions that most other sections of the working class can only dream of.
Indeed, labre.
12 weeks training to become plod. (3 YEARS to become a nurse.)
No training fees, neither.
6 months on FULL pay, then 6 months on half pay when they’re on the sick, as they invariably are.
Overtime galore… I don’t know if it still applies, but in certain circumstances (Finishing a night shift IIRC) plod who worked one hour and ONE SECOND over their time could claim FOUR HOURS MINIMUM overtime.
I had heard tales of plod nicking people at as close to 6 or 7am (On the usual, spurious, trumped-up charges of ‘ soliciting’ ‘breach of the peace, or D&D, of course) then taking their time back at the station to write up the charges and/or changed into their ‘civvies’ so they could claim the ‘largesse’.
It’s a racket to be part of, if you’ve no conscience (And very little brain)
(EDIT)
I had heard tales of plod HABITUALLY nicking people as close to 6 or 7am…
(/EDIT)
I wonder if they’re taking ex-plod that were convicted, back?
Y’know? Those ‘few bad apples’? Those that forfeited their pension?
Also, the likes of (ex) pc simon harwood, who’s unprovoked attack on an innocent bystander (Ian Tomlinson – RIP) led to his victim’s death?
And all those others allowed to retire ‘On medical grounds’ while under investigation?
Anyway – returning to the previous stitch-up : I note that Starmer has already had a butt-kissing session with the Israel Lobby.
It’s a bit reminiscent of kissing the Pope’s ring 🙂
I’m just wondering when his meeting with JVL is scheduled?
Labour has just released a statement about a video meeting that its new leader, Sir Keir Starmer, and his deputy, Angela Rayner, had earlier with representatives of the UK Jewish community from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council, the Community Security Trust and the Jewish Labour Movement.
After it was over Starmer said that he had used the meeting to stress his commitment to setting up an independent complaints process for the party, cooperating fully with the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s inquiry into Labour and getting reports on all outstanding cases sent to him personally on a weekly basis. He added:
Over the last few years, we have failed the Jewish community on antisemitism. Labour is a proudly anti-racist party and, going forward, it will not be enough to ‘pass the test’ on antisemitism. We need to set new standards for best practice.
In a joint statement after the meeting Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl, JLC chair Jonathan Goldstein, CST chair Gerald Ronson and JLM chair Mike Katz,said:
While we would have fully understood the need to focus entirely on coronavirus at this time, Keir Starmer has already achieved in four days more than his predecessor in four years in addressing antisemitism within the Labour party.
The above posted by me was from the Guardian live feed
“At today’s meeting, I committed to begin work on setting up an independent complaints process, cooperating fully with the EHRC’s inquiry and asking for a report on all outstanding cases to be on my desk at [the end of] the week.
“I also discussed with the Jewish Labour Movement my ambition to roll out training of all Labour party staff as soon as practically possible.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/apr/07/jewish-leaders-praise-keir-starmer-for-pledges-on-labour-antisemitism
“ While we would have fully understood the need to focus entirely on coronavirus at this time”.
I am unsurprised but they highlight Starmer’s perverse priorities. The deaths of thousands here and bow and throughout the world here and now by the virus, the unelected unrepresentative individual admit what all should expect ie “focus entirely on coronavirus at this time.”… ie here and now. avoidable deaths grief and suffering now. i am not surprised but interesting that just when we are pleading for ventilators … “we need them desperately” at least “200” asap, Starmer has other priorities.
The name “Gerald Ronson” rang a loud bell but I still had to look it up.
There are three things about the CST we all need to know.
The first is that its chairman, the financier Gerald Ronson is a convicted criminal – conspiracy, false accounting (two counts) and theft – despite appeals all the way to the house of lords, those convictions stand. One would think he’d keep a low profile rather than risk fuelling typical antisemitic tropes about Jewish financiers.
The second is that the CST claims of “an explosion of antisemitism” are false – the numbers of convictions have been consistent for years at around 20 per annum.
The third is that Labour members have not even been singled out for dishonourable mention by the CST in its statistics – and if Labour genuinely “had a problem with antisemitism” the CST, being the central repository for all information on antisemitism, would have published the evidence and proved it.
The CST has no such evidence – and that very lack of evidence proves the accusations against Labour to be false and our accusers to be liars.
Starmer’s getting his marching orders. Starmer said he will be getting reports on all outstanding cases sent to him on a weekly basis. Is that in the rule book I wonder? Depends how detailed the reports.
If a disciplinary process is ‘independent’, it will by definition exclude reporting of cases to one interest group/individual – whether Leader or Joe Soap. Simple numerical analysis might be tolerable.
Full public disclosure – with appropriate safeguards, however, would be observably ‘independent’. We could all make up our different minds on the basis of the evidence.
Then, again, involvement of the Bod/JLM/LFI nexus would be excluded from an ‘independent’ process. By definition.
So watch this space (although I wouldn’t bate my breath).
the right pay no attention to rules. eg well b4 the official guidance to cancel meetings, our already delayed clp branch meeting at which an important motion was to be presented, the cabal cancelled the meeting. they were bold enough to admit that it was the decision taken by two officials. as with all other infringements, they go uncensured. even after contacting region etc, nothing had been done. there are then lots of moaning yet to get any action taken is met with heart sinking hesitance. me thinks tis due to generations of subservience. group think of compliance, niceness, defeatism disguised by ineffective protests and niche metropolitan obsessions … oh and quoting Karl & class consciousness and ground up grass roots etc but when the ground / grass roots send a message that does not mesh with out of touch obsessions, they are called stupid racists.
“ The first is that its chairman, the financier Gerald Ronson is a convicted criminal – conspiracy, false accounting (two counts) and theft – despite appeals all the way to the house of lords, those convictions stand. One would think he’d keep a low profile rather than risk fuelling typical antisemitic tropes about Jewish financiers.
The second is that the CST claims of “an explosion of antisemitism” are false – the numbers of convictions have been consistent for years at around 20 per annum.
The third is that Labour members have not even been singled out for dishonourable mention by the CST in its statistics – and if Labour genuinely “had a problem with antisemitism” the CST, being the central repository for all information on antisemitism, would have published the evidence and proved it.
The CST has no such evidence – and that very lack of evidence proves the accusations against Labour to be false and our accusers to be liars.”
these r interesting days indeed. signpostnotwindchimes agrees with David McNiven.
in almost all matters, especially of crucial ones, and moreover when propaganda will be detrimental to others…. never mind ourselves… detrimental to others, we must ask WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE❓
Around the dinner table, at social meetings eg as will occur tonight, one may decide to stay silent on certain topics as not to upset aunty, great uncle nor that cousin. in the micro social situations of the family … one can think of several reasons to “keep the peace”. Even then, year after year, the same ever present triggers are trigger-able. but, it is only our peculiar family. When it comes to the macro family… big society, then no. all the “bringing people together” has already been done as close as they may ever be… in every small family throughout the land. exhausted and no more crockery left to throw, everyone EVERYONE is desperate for a contentious matter to be settled, once and for all. Eg the ref. that’s why cameron called the ref. expecting a remain result which would settle a long running tory problem, once and for all. it was full strength CONCENTRATED JELLIED WEAKNESS a culture of avoiding an ”argument” a lack of practise at tenacious PRESENTATION OF VIEWS to those who may disagree… that concentrated jellied weakness was one of the cultural traits which led to our handing an undeserved victory to johnson, cummings & tory red + blue co. they are desperate to maintain the status quo. yet heartbreakingly those that love to wave the political theories re social and economic change, wrenched a tory toxic barbed wrecking ball and dresses it with the most flimsy worn out tattered mixed fibre off cuts, stuck together with hot air and sputum of pseudo virtuous loud claptrap. think of the noisy windbag proponents of remain, screaming out of every msm orifice – lammy, femi somebody, arsetair campbellend, three or for jokes on lbc and talkradio… think of the ones who are always noisy … aall losers. they expected the Liberal Democrats who are neither, to triumph. i got that one correct in my first ever dally with bookmakers.
but back to point…
when contentious issues and even uncontentious trivial ones are up close as amongst “family”, those issues can burn with illogical counter productive fury. but i believe that the threat of fire and brimstone and hostilities should never deter anyone in the public arena. 1- others depend on our clarity. they are desperate for it. sod the msm. their power is enhanced by those who fear them. 2- the greatest people have always defied the status quo and powerful in the interest of big family society – Che, Simón Bolívar, Fidel … we remember them with a fire… a dynamic inspiration rather than a sad what if. they are revitalising tonics!!! fidel was known to speak for hours everywhere every time REPEAT – EVERYWHERE and EVERY TIME fizzing FIZZING with energy determination DOING IT… doing ALL DESPITE the most HOSTILE of hostile opposition.
THAT is what is required. It is not a pop up here and there business. it is not a build from the ground up and stop halfway… something will happen by magic… the bastards will just melt away. they never have they have to be melted. and even then the heat must be kept up. people have to be fully prepped and ready to seize EVERY SINGLE OPPORTUNITY. Doing what failed before is criminal. Depending on crumbs to fall from the banqueting tables of the one present is a culture that must be banished from the left. we must be as determined and strategic as the right-wingers. there are no suitable words for those who still intend to use old failed pathetic whining excuses for failures. True Labour has to win elections here AND KEEP WINNING. 🌹🌹🌹
”Keir Starmer has already achieved in four days more than his predecessor in four years in addressing antisemitism within the Labour party.”
Code for: ”He’s our man, we’ve got this, now.”
https://youtu.be/GOJGGSaGqtw
………perhaps the chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis can make it a little clearer as to why Keir Starmer is taking instruction.
As Boris once said: “Who can live £175k a year. Apparently, he was starving on such a paltry sum.
Back to topic (sort of)
Just got this emailed through. How often will this be repeated by ‘returning’ plod, under the current duration, one wonders?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8ILyWzvGL0
”The protection of the police ALWAYS comes before the protection of the public”
Never truer words…
They just can’t do it can they , the Tories , they just can’t . It’s impossible for them to give anything without strings attached that always undermines the integrity of any inducement.
Unless of course you are a multibillionaire , then all gifts come with NO strings .
Why I wonder the need for more police , yes some will get sick and some will die , getting old cops back in , well they are surely more vulnerable to the CV19 … and more deaths .
Stay at home coppers , this time maybe the penny drops that the Tories are not your friends !
”getting old cops back in , well they are surely more vulnerable to the CV19 … and more deaths .”
Most of them’ll probably be sat on their obese arses behind desks all day…just like most of them were for years before they retired.
I tells ya now, it’ll be those that were allowed to ‘retire on medical grounds’ (i.e. were at the time under investigation for beating the sh*t out of some poor sod for questioning their authoritah, or pestered an abused housewife for sex/ visited prostitutes on duty, or what have ya) get the ‘frontline duties’.
Anyone going to court for something they feel was unfair ought to question the arresting officer about their background…not that magistrates will take much notice, mind. They never have and never will.
But if the case is serious enough to go to to a crown court, then a jury might – just MIGHT – take it into consideration…
.
Not on the police topic but I recommend everyone working their way through this documentation of main ‘events’ from Swiss Propaganda Research. It is updated daily and runs from March 17th to today/yesterday.
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
Some really interesting info gathered in one place. The day we stop asking probing questions and accept everything Govs tell us and do to ‘keep us safe’ is the day we walk into a totalitarian world. Lest we forget countries are regularly bombed, destroyed and occupied to ‘save them’ based on outright Gov lies some of those Govs Labour Govs and now we have a right wing Tory regime.
Totally agree with that recommendation, Maria.
Sorting stuff out on Tinternet is difficult, but this particular site does give a range of questioning but credible information that has what statisticians call ‘face validity’. (i.e not in the David Icke bracket). Somewhere between the Downing Street PR exercise that the MSM passes on and the wilder shores of conspiracy theory lies the possible truth.
Again – the lack of general contextual information about this epidemic is what is notable. Anyone with a brain can work out that such information, if actually available, would be absolutely key in illustrating why exceptional measures are necessary. All you get from news bulletins is assertion, not that evidence.
I would emphasize that I’ve got skin in this game, being part of the ‘vulnerable’ group, and would anyway be self-isolating, given the lack of a vaccine and the age profile of serious illness. But my scepticism about the extreme lockdown for the majority of society remains, given the lack of such for other epidemics.
I’m another with ‘skin in the game’ being a high risk category but my mother with similar problems was always very ill when she had flu vaccines so I refuse them and touch wood I have never had flu type illnesses, only grotty colds. Another thing, I was prescribed vitamin D three years ago as my levels were very low… since then I have generally been much better, arthritis and muscle pain now no problem and I haven’t had any colds. Vitamin D is crucial for a healthy immune system so stopping people sunbathing (safe distances) and spending time in the fresh air is counterintuitive. especially in the northern hemisphere with summer on its way- vitamin D top up time.
Yes – it’s difficult enough getting the balance right without the interference of those you wouldn’t trust as far as you could see them.
‘Flu vaccines are problematic – they can cause reactions, as you say, but also vary in efficacy. Fortunately, I don’t have the first problem, and my GP has always insisted, on balance, that I should get one, and the bet makes sense.
Admittedly, in the early days of this, there was a lot of daft behaviour – but now that people have, I think, got the message about careful distancing and hygeine, the sound of jackboots is somewhat intrusive.
I wouldn’t even argue about the logistical sense of ‘flattening the curve’. But it’s pretty obvious that in time, the costs outweigh any concievable benefit, as well as prolonging what it’s meant to cure.
“Yes – it’s difficult enough getting the balance right without the interference of those you wouldn’t trust as far as you could see them.”
Lol, touche. I was referring more to LP and EU goings on specifically. Even with commentators and journalists I have learned to trust more than others I remain sceptical until time or more info to back things up comes to light.
Yes flu vaccines are to be assessed on an individual basis, when I mention my mother, they don’t mention any vaccine until the next year or in the case of my GP, never again. To be frank I dread any thought of being forced against my will to have one. The other thing with all flu viruses is they are constantly mutating.
Flattening the curve especially with lockdowns and damage the economy especially for SME sector is going to suffer, not to mention loss of jobs, makes no sense to me at the moment and I’ve only been searching in earnest today.
dear maria & rh, yes maria, flu virus changes every year. the vac includes around 4. it aims to increase your chances of winning. think of it as us humans putting up a battle instead of giving up. the viruses r doing the same. infect the children first but leave them asymptomatic. children silently give the virus lifts back to the human nests …
anyway, like your GP i would recc the flu vac also. true some feel unwell at first. it is a case of weighing up benefits & losses. vg regime vit d + calcium and vit c + zinc, and of course good food more affordable from street markets. full rainbow of food esp dark blues, reds etc . also vvv important good quality sleep and mood. develop sleep hygiene and laugh at least three times a day.
may have missed something but rh’s
“But it’s pretty obvious that in time, the costs outweigh any conceivable benefit,”
that is the core of capitalism. imagining the “economy” only as material / money gdp. moreover feeding the ideology that we… really the 99%, exist to be exploited for the “economy”. we are disposable… expendable resources … just like oil, natural gas or slaves. All burnable, beatable and brand-able for the “conceivable benefit” of the one percent. capitalist believe that the “costs” of making all of the ninety nine percent reap the rewards of our contribution to making every thing in the “economy” possible… capitalist believe the cost of giving just rewards to the many, “outweigh any conceivable benefit” to the few… the one percent. as per margaret thatcher – “is he one of us?”.
aided ably by the msm with no effective sustained rebuttals, the myths grow deep roots. so vvv deep that despite hearing v little radio today, i managed to hear a woman who said on talkradio or lbc this afternoon i think … (big apologies ) anyway the female caller said she was crying all yesterday and today about “boris”. she said she loooooves “boris” so much…. and all black people live him and are praying for him. v much those words and with utter sincerity. also heard all presenters over the last two days, except ian lee now as i type… (how strange life is)… i was about to say all presenters and now ian lee showing a tiny bit of recognition of the “incongruity” of the “does not make sense” the co presenter is now saying something 2221 talkradio what iv not thought of, so i will digress lee & the co r saying the narrative so far has been as if those who don’t survive covid did not try hard enough.
back to my point, every other presenter has been telling us how we should feel and even how “we all feel”. the power of this repeated 24hrs is powerful. people say i feel x y and z. the x y and z are almost always word for word exactly what they heard on tv, radio or “news”papers.
will stop now. only meant to post that “costs” of what and to whom? what “conceivable benefits” for whom?
i believe that the “economy” should be made for the many, not the many for “the economy” … where the economy is an infinite trough for the one percent… the greedy despicable bastards. to not be a greedy despicable bastard … a heartless callous protector of the one percent, is to be well.
to be well is to prioritise the care of the most vulnerable – the disabled, the elderly, the sick, the unemployed, the zero contract workers, the hospital porters, the care workers, the bus drivers, the refuse collectors, teachers, post people, supermarket staff. to be truly well is to care for those considered to be expendable. that, is true wellness.
thus, wishing each and everyone be well, and as the sooner the world is well the better, i wish johnson well.
Signpost, thanks for the advice. I think I’ve got all my vitamin and dietary bases covered as much as I can.
My mother wasn’t just a bit unwell for a couple of days… A&E and admissions. I am not one who makes rash decisions about preventative measures such as vaccines.
u r welcome maria. all good wishes to u & your dear mom. this too will pass. 🌹🌹🌹
Thanks for the good wishes and hopefully we will be free sooner rather than later. take care.
Sadly Mum died in 2006 age 74 so she is at peace now. She was a tough old bird as she would have put it, a real fighter. Her sayings often pop into my thoughts, she had an amusing quip for most occasions and events.
oh dear maria, did not realise your mom had died. sorry. she is still with you. the quips popping into your thoughts. treasure her amusing quips. you really do wonder what all the magnificent people we adored would say about these too interesting times. one thing for sure, take nothing for granted. enjoy ever look at the sky, the blooms, the fresh green buds of spring… the ability to hear the birds chirping without the din of the world just weeks ago. and even with out those, amuse yourself. laugh at least three times per day🌹🌹🌹