Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Onebrokelady

Yay to the dental work being finished and boo the HMRC problem. I hate dealing with anything that part of a government dept because it rarely runs smoothly 🙄

Makingabobor2

Glad your dental work is complete. Now onwards to refillng the saving pot. 

I used to have a part time self employed job, along side my normal job. So for several years I submitted a SA. I told them when I stopped  being SE, about 5 yrs ago & they acknowkedged it. Now I keep getting texts, saying to submit my SA or I'll get a penalty. I've just ignored them TBH, as its either a scam or they've just got their wires crossed. I mean I don't work at all now, just SP & a very small private one. So I'm nowhere near the tax threshold  

Cheery_Daff

Well done on your persistence with HMRC. We also have an issue with the self-employed voluntary contributions since they changed the system a few years ago, but that's not even the issue we're trying to solve now - this one relates to two random missing years in the middle of 20 years of continuous employment by the same organisation 🙄😂

We actually found a letter in the loft from said employer for one of the years (in the 1980s 🙄😂) confirming they were taken from his wages (and informing him that HMRC didn't have his correct address so they couldn't match these to his account - despite them being able to match for several years before and after...). Obviously he did nothing about it at the time and just shoved it in a drawer 🙄

After some sleuthing I figured out that at some point he had been bizarrely issued with a second national insurance number! Apparently this very occasionally happens 🙄 So I suspect the contributions for the missing years (which aren't even consecutive years) have been allocated to that. So all they need to do is merge the two accounts... But that's the letter we're till waiting for a response to...

If that ever gets sorted out we'll tackle the voluntary contributions issue 🙄 Trying to deal with two things at once just seemed like it might make someone's head explode (possibly mine!)

Anyway, sympathies all round. And I did giggle about Mr F having spent all his personal spends 🤭

Oh, and I meant to say thank you for sharing about your implants. I am waiting to have a tooth removed, and a separate filling, which will result in me also losing two bridges 🙄 Meaning I'll have a gap of one tooth one one side, and two on the other side 🙄 For now, I'm going to attempt to manage with a plate - our savings definitely don't stretch to 3 implants right now. But I shall watch with interest at how you get on with yours, and it may well be something we save for.

Tescodealqueen

CRANKY40 said:

Just a quick note to say that if you are corresponding with government departments it's probably worth the extra to send them registered post as someone the other end has to sign for them and then they are delivered to the correct department who also has to sign for them. It makes it a little harder for them to get "lost". 

This was true certainly for DWP back in the day but before I left over ten years ago we had moved to paying for post to be opened by Royal Mail and it was signed for there and then transported to a centralised team . I can’t think that it has changed back since then and our local post opening teams are a thing of the other than valuables like cheques

badmemory

I was under the impression that royal mail basically said here are a thousand registered letters sign for them all here without checking.

There used to be someone who posted on here who worked for them often I think from home as he was disabled.  He said their new sytems had not involved any consultation from those who had to use them & were not really fit for purpose.  If you go to an accountants that has a tax advisor, they mostly used to be employed by HMRC & were got rid of.  It is no wonder they are failing.  On the rare occasions I have spoken to them recently the best results seem to come from those who work at home.

milann

I bet you feel a million dollars with the dental work being finished. 😁 
Hope you get the tax issue sorted eventually 

2Scratters

@foxgloves re your need for new varifocals may I suggest you checkout Asda opticians they are considerably cheaper than other places 

I have been quite resourceful this month with using up stuff from home stores. I have even collected more under the kitchen sink cleaning products from parents house that I and others had left previously. It really is a matter of waste not want not. Its a good job I had been working on reducing stuff from there over the past year as it created space for the new invasion. The last haul probably saves around £20 at todays value. Perhaps I should have put the previous costs saved into an account?

I have given notice to V re broadband and landline package as it now costs nearly £58pcm without the increase which will happen in April, as DH is on qualifying benefits we can do better with BT so shall be speaking with them very soon. 

2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,
I've just enjoyed a catch-up with all your comments & contributions - thanks. 
@2Scratters - Very resourceful using up those salvaged cleaning products. I did the same when we were clearing Mum & Dad's house - I found it such a sad job, but it would have been even worse had we just thrown everything in a skip, so we donated, sold or re-purposed/salvaged as much as we could. I don't think I shall ever get through my Mum's huge collection of anti-mould sprays though! And she didn't even have a mouldy house....oh, maybe that's why!
@Cheery_Daff - 2 NI numbers, oh my goodness, what a nightmare! Re the implants. I don't blame you for trying something else due to costs, but it you do ever need to consider them, do feel free to ask me about the experience  - I only had 2 implants, but 3 teeth, as the centre ones can be carried as a bridge. 
It was interesting reading other people's current attempts to sort out HMRC issues. I am so pleased to tell you that as of this afternoon, my problem is solved! No, after 10 months, I couldn't believe it either! It was such a simple thing & I thought that I would finally be able to set up an online account last week, but I ran into another issue involving verification. Basically, I was excluded because I .....wait for it........have no consumer debt!!
Potted history of the problem:
March 2023 - I bought back 7 state pension years through paying voluntary NICs. Did the maths, spoke to the very helpful advisor, defo worth doing, no brainer. She even put me straight through to the person giving out the 18-digit payment numbers so I didn't have to wait another 1.5 hours in a phone queue.
When speaking to this 2nd person, who again was very helpful, she said there was a 'discrepancy' on my HMRC record. She asked me lots of questions about past addresses, other people at my address, last place of employment, etc. She said I needed to send a letter containing a list of information plus photocopies of my driving licence & birth certificate which must be verified at the local DWP office. I did this (went out specially in the snow!) & posted it straight away registered or recorded post or whatever it's called these days. Advisor said it would take 6 weeks for my record to be updated then I'd be able to set up an online account to view my VNICs & revised state pension forecast.
April 2023 - 6 weeks later, I attempted to set this up but on inputting my name, d.o.b & NI no was screened out with "Does not match our records". 
Waited another 2 weeks, tried again, same, so wrote to original office again to ask if they had actually received & acted on my letter. No reply. 
Tried again every couple of weeks to set up an account. Same message.
May 2023 - Raised an official complaint. This was that I had paid £5.5k & received no receipt or acknowledgement, having been told this would be visible on my online account......which I can't access as their record for me is wrong.
No reply.
October - Phoned their pension helpline. Spoke to very nice chap who said he understood my point about 5,5k being a lot of money & that my record was defo showing that I had paid it & it had been allocated to the missing pension years. He sent me a letter of acknowledgment which was the first I'd heard that they had actioned anything or even received the money. 
Suddenly this month.....a response to my formal complaint - after 7 months of waiting! Very apologetic. My record has now been corrected. The discrepancy was that my record did not include my date of birth!!! How can that be a thing when I was on PAYE for years & they have written to me regularly with the usual tax code stuff, etc. And I couldn't help but note that while the lack of DOB prevented me being able to access my own records, it didn't stop them accepting my 5.5k payment!
So I sat down last week to set up my online account. I did get through the initial screening questions, so my DOB obviously had been added, but then I had to 'pass' additional verification questions. I was surprised to see this extra level of hassle as had already been told to go & get my ID verified in person which I had done, but read through the list of acceptable documents. I don't have a passport as we don't travel abroad, but nearly all the bills are in my name & I drive, so I opted for 'Driving licence' & 'Credit check'. I wasn't asked to input anything about my licence, instead, I was asked if I had a mobile phone account, I had to say 'No', as that is one of the only 2 household bills which are in Mr F's name, so then they asked me for the date of the last online shopping account I set up. There was an explanatory note that this is something which would often involve paying monthly instalments. Well, that was my attempt at verification effed, wasn't it, as I don't have any consumer debt. I do buy things online, but they are not 'accounts'. I have had a JL online account for a while but wouldn't even be able to pick a vague year out of the air as to when I set that up, so I clicked to say I don't have any of that type of verification info & was REFUSED AGAIN!! 
Well, I just about went ape-bloody-sh*t & rattled off an escalation of my original complaint. I didn't get it stamped & posted because Mr F arrived home & calmed me down. He said I could have used the app download option. I could have done, but chose not to because I have already done extra verification for them, why should I also need to fanny about with further photos?! Anyway, I have had a nice weekend, my scary dental work is finished & I had calmed down so this afternoon, I decided I would download the app just to get the damn thing done once & for all. The only bit I couldn't do (you'll laugh at this!) was work out how to put my mobile phone onto front camera as I never take selfies!! Mr F did that bit & showed me how I had to line my face up in an egg-shaped hole. And it worked! I was able to access my own records/information after 10 months of trying to resolve the DOB problem & my state pension forecast & NIC record is now looking as it should. 
As I was signing out, a box appeared asking me how I found the experience. I didn't go over the old ground of my original complaint but did say that the random verification questions which came up for me last week excluded people who do not have a passport & more importantly, who do not use instalment-payment schemes when making purchases. 
Right, that is the end of that saga. The only other thing I will add is that if anyone on here has an HMRC issue involving a discrepancy on their personal account, I was told by the advisor back in October that the backlog in that department was the biggest one, at 60 weeks.

Other things......
*Yesterday was my Big Budget Day. All went well, though I was only able to pay the Holiday Pot (general savings like Car Fund, Regular Saver & Premium Bonds get paid as a matter of course) this month because I need to book our tree man to come & cut our high hedges, prune the pear tree & clean the gutters. Not a lot of point putting my estimate for that work into the House & Garden Pot, only to be fishing it out a week or two later.
*Nice gentle free leisure activity first thing doing the Big Garden Birdwatch. It was very slow at first but as we went on, the usual suspects were joined by a little flock of 8 long-tailed tits & 3 goldfinches. It's something we take part in every year.
*Then 2 hours free bending & stretching session in the garden as we gave the pond a serious de-gunking while talking through our plans to improve it this Spring. Mr F mended my garden kneeling stool & began weeding one of the big raised veggie beds ready for shallots & I carried on with cutting back a flower border. 
*Synchronised our diaries for the week ahead over a coffee - never underestimate how big a factor disorganisation is in spending money unnecessarily!
*Wrote February's master meal plan, prioritising what we already have in the freezer. Will need to buy some mince, a chicken & gammon, but have the rest of this month's proteins in stock, including plenty of pulses.
*Intend to have a quick check for surveys before I shut down my laptop. January PA earnings currently at £35-45.
Then, I shall be looking for a peaceful evening (not my cooking night) & a nice hot bubble bath.
Hoping to progress a few things over the coming week. 
F x

WinterWarrior

Woohoo, well done on finally getting to the bottom of the HMRC issue. These things are sent to try us! 

Cheery_Daff

What an absolute palaver! I'm so glad this is finally resolved for you, what an excellent outcome. Well done for persisting, and what a relief!