Dear LPG, 

I wonder if any other readers find the oddest things to talk about with the most unsuspecting people?  

I found myself babysitting a couple of my younger grandchildren the other day.  I want you to picture the scene.  I got them all ready for the land of nod and my next duty was the bedtime story.  I got the book and was just about to start reading but we quickly strayed from the text.  Even though the oldest one has just graduated to junior school, the subject of choice turned to what they were going to be when they grow up.    

My young grandson wants to be a tester of computer games while my granddaughter, who has just started school has determined that she will be a teacher and, once the ambitions were stated the book made way for some interesting descriptions of what each of them thought their future working lives would be like.   I found it interesting that one is already going for an ambition that never even existed when I was his age, while the other has a more classic outlook.   

The conversation then turned to me and what I did when I worked, and, looking back, I was a bit of a ‘flitter’.  They went on to ask me about all the jobs I had done (something that had not crossed my mind for quite some time) and I was quite surprised when I got to the end of my story which must have been quite boring for them because it eventually put them to sleep.   

I am guessing that most of today’s pensioners were making those childhood predictions about how they would make their living in the 1940s and 1950s when we had our own version of new and exciting channels of employment to choose from (even if you had not gone down the path of studying for a particular career), although I was planning to be a train driver when I think about my original first choice.  

Telling them about my work story reminded me that we pensioners of today lived in a time when, if you left your job on Friday it was much easier to be in another by Monday afternoon.  I bet most of us have lived to see the local Job Centre disappear from a lot of high streets over the past 10 years or so, while we remember the days when there were at least 3 employment agencies to choose from.   In my mind’s eye. I can see the shop fronts and logos of the Brook Street Bureau, Blue Arrow, Reed, Manpower, Pertemps and Alfred Marks to name but a few although, like nearly everything else, most of the ones which have survived are now online.   For the average job there were less CVs, video interviews, 2nd interviews and 3rd interviews, and it was easier to get away with not even having a reference from your last employer.  It was not uncommon to walk into one such establishment unemployed and have a job by the time you walked out. 

The internet tells that the average UK worker has about 12 jobs during their working lifetime, which got me thinking about our pensions.  We all know that your state pension depends on your contributions but are there any occupational pensions that you have missed out on?   

Just a thought…  

WV, Crofton Park 

If you find you remember an employment that might owe you a pension, many commercial agencies will do a bit of research for you, but LPG suggests that you contact the government Pension Tracing Service (telephone number: 0800 731 0175) before you try any of those.  You will need to have the Name of the employer and the dates that you started and ended working there, and your National Insurance (NI) number (you are likely to find it on your bank statement each time your pension is paid in) and any old pension statements, letters, or payslips you might still have to start with.  We have left their website address below…

 

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