It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

ussdave

Personally I would argue for uplift in private pensions rather than knocking down everyone to the lowest common denominator.

german_keeper

zagfles said:

Have you ever phoned a bank The dumbing down of call centres is universal. Same for pay. And of course far worse for pensions in the private sector.

I blame the minimum wage and AE pensions. Introduce a minimum and it eventually becomes the norm, or the target.

To be honest my recent experience has been the opposite, maybe I have just been lucky. It's been a bit of an eventful lockdown for us. Three things; my mum went into a care home so I had to take over a lot of her affairs: a claim on the car insurance; a quite ludicrous situation where our "smart" meter broke but as we still had gas and leccy it wasn't an emergency so they couldn't send anyone out. 

So I have dealt with Halifax, Close Brothers, NS & I, Yorkshire BS, EON, General Accident, HMRC, probably 1 or 2 others. Everyone with whom it cropped up in conversation was working from home. Halifax were excellent and sorted the POA out with others in their group, Lloyds and Scottish Widows I think. EON were very good, insisted on treating it as a complaint even though I explained I wasn't really complaining, and when we finally managed to get a replacement meter I was more than happy with their usage estimation during the period the meter was broken. General Accident phoned the other party to confirm she was accepting liability,arranged hire car and phoned me back within about an hour. NS & I cocked up initially mainly due to the fact that I already had my own account and they made a mistake in the process to give me POA on my mum's. But they were excellent in sorting the mistake out.

Only real disappointment was HMRC, who I work for. I checked with the Carer's Network we have at work and several people confirmed POA was all sorted out in one phone call because HMRC has accesss to some sort of POA register. Unfortunately after waiting about 45 mins for an answer the lady I spoke to insisted that wasn't the case and I had to send the documents in. Also in trying to take responsibility for paying the tax on rental income from mum's house all went well at first but the last I heard was that everything was in order and they would send me a UTR. That was back in April and I am still waiting.

  

SouthCoastBoy

ussdave said:

Personally I would argue for uplift in private pensions rather than knocking down everyone to the lowest common denominator.

The problem with that is the cost to the private sector would be too expensive  hence the route from db to dc. Imo the public sector need to do the same as currently the public sector burden is just too great on the taxpayer.

german_keeper

SouthCoastBoy said:

ussdave said:

Personally I would argue for uplift in private pensions rather than knocking down everyone to the lowest common denominator.

The problem with that is the cost to the private sector would be too expensive  hence the route from db to dc. Imo the public sector need to do the same as currently the public sector burden is just too great on the taxpayer.

We all have our opinions on taxation and spending; that just happens to be yours. I see nuclear weapons and the royal family as a bigger burden on the taxpayer. Probably HS2 as well although I don't know too much about it. Just seems an awful lot of money to enable people to get to London about half an hour quicker.

I would completely revamp inheritance tax as it seems odd to me that people can be gifted a million quid and pay no tax on it and other far less fortunate people pay more income tax,VAT and the like. I would also get all the dozens of royal palaces on AirBNB. Imagine how much Americans would pay to stay at Buck House, Balmoral and the like. Blimey we could probably abandon income tax completely. Just my opinion and you would no doubt disagree. No problem.

On that note, and with a fulsome apology to Sea Shell, I will bow out as I feel like I have played my part in derailing her excellent thread somewhat. 

zagfles

ussdave said:

Personally I would argue for uplift in private pensions rather than knocking down everyone to the lowest common denominator.

Good luck with that! Maybe only buy products and services produced by private companies with pensions as good as the public sector?

zagfles

german_keeper said:

SouthCoastBoy said:

ussdave said:

Personally I would argue for uplift in private pensions rather than knocking down everyone to the lowest common denominator.

The problem with that is the cost to the private sector would be too expensive  hence the route from db to dc. Imo the public sector need to do the same as currently the public sector burden is just too great on the taxpayer.

We all have our opinions on taxation and spending; that just happens to be yours. I see nuclear weapons and the royal family as a bigger burden on the taxpayer. Probably HS2 as well although I don't know too much about it. Just seems an awful lot of money to enable people to get to London about half an hour quicker.

I would completely revamp inheritance tax as it seems odd to me that people can be gifted a million quid and pay no tax on it and other far less fortunate people pay more income tax,VAT and the like. I would also get all the dozens of royal palaces on AirBNB. Imagine how much Americans would pay to stay at Buck House, Balmoral and the like. Blimey we could probably abandon income tax completely. Just my opinion and you would no doubt disagree. No problem.

On that note, and with a fulsome apology to Sea Shell, I will bow out as I feel like I have played my part in derailing her excellent thread somewhat. 

But the Queen is the most popular public sector employee! Millions will be singing her name in about 50 mins!

german_keeper

zagfles said:

german_keeper said:

But the Queen is the most popular public sector employee! Millions will be singing her name in about 50 mins!

I know I said I wouldn't comment further but.......

I watched the match with my wife and youngest daughter. None of us were singing. Particular highlights were daughter: "when they swap sides (half time) don't they get confused" and missus "why is that goulash bloke not playing tonight". I really do need to go down the pub for the semi final.

zagfles

german_keeper said:

zagfles said:

german_keeper said:

But the Queen is the most popular public sector employee! Millions will be singing her name in about 50 mins!

I know I said I wouldn't comment further but.......

I watched the match with my wife and youngest daughter. None of us were singing. Particular highlights were daughter: "when they swap sides (half time) don't they get confused" and missus "why is that goulash bloke not playing tonight". I really do need to go down the pub for the semi final.

Good idea, you'll get some singing there!!

Ibrahim5

I went to the pub but there wasn't any singing. We won too easily.

zagfles

Ibrahim5 said:

I went to the pub but there wasn't any singing. We won too easily.

What, not even "it's coming home"??

Find a better pub, like some of these!

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/euros-live-pictures-teessiders-hit-20964504