It seems like I was a bit premature
Because the next day it rained as well.
Today the sun and the flowers rebelled
They decided, all on their own, that spring has sprung.
The Robin’s nesting
She can’t wait for the rain to stop.
Daffodils and redcurrants blooming
But no cherry blossom yet.
It’s spring, a time for growing,
for going out in the garden
and getting started on a new year of flowers,
but nobody told the rainmaker !
I haven’t been out much this winter because of all the rain, so today I decided to travel to warmer climes. I joined an American couple on a trip though the Panama Canal. I have never been to that part of the world before, so it was interesting from that point of view. Having said that it looked quite boring, just a load of docks, cranes and containers along most of the route. A few tourist stop offs, but it mainly seemed a means of getting from one side of the world to another. The Atlantic to the Pacific.
The French started to construct the canal in 1881, but gave up because of the difficulty caused by landslides and the constant problem of tropical disease. The Americans restarted the project and completed it in 1914. It took 56,000 men to build it at a cost of 5,600 lives. The 48 miles of canal, a reservoir and six locks cost $350million. Today 13,000 ships pass through it every day.
That started me thinking. There are quite a few locks along the way. Does that mean the Pacific Ocean is higher than the Atlantic ? If so and you opened all the locks at the same time what would happen ? These are some heavy weight questions to ponder on a rainy day in the UK winter.
If the Pacific is higher than the Atlantic would El Ninio flow into the Caribbean and then up the Atlantic drift ? That could bring tropical storms, hurricanes, storm surges and maybe even a tidal wave to the UK. To say nothing of the giant squid and man-eating sharks. I do hope our weather men have done a risk assessment of someone accidentally leaving all the lock gates open.
Of course it could happen the other way around. The Atlantic could drain into the Pacific, which could mean low-lying islands like Tahiti would be at risk of disappearing beneath the waves altogether. Also our herring fishermen would have much further to go. On the up side we might find out if Atlantis really did exist.
I am grateful to Sallie and Bill ? for allowing me to travel with them. They have written about their travels since they retired in 1997, in their blog “ A full-time life”. They have travelled in an RV motor home all over the USA (except for two states) and have an interesting blog illustrated with some excellent photographs, which is well worth reading. It is a brilliant example of how adventurous some people can be when they retire.
You can travel with them, just get on your cloud surf board.
This is a continuation of my blogs on welfare benefits. It directly follows on from the last post. ( You can see all the posts on this subject by clicking on “Welfare Benefits “ in the Tag Cloud )
The Last Laugh Looney Party is aware that its proposed higher pension for older people may be seen as too generous by the younger generation.
So it has a supplementary proposal to give older people a more inclusive role in society.
In exchange for new Super Delux Pension all old people will be expected to work as a volunteer for ten hours a week. That works out as equivalent to £2.62 an hour, which is not even the minimum wage.
Here are some of the things they can do :-
Footnote. Of course you may have noticed that a great many older people do these things already. So at £2.65 an hour that more than pays for the extra SUPER DELUX PENSION SUPPLEMENT 😀
FOOTNOTE This new system would obviously be open to abuse e.g. two old pensioners going down the pub every day would qualify. So the civil servants at the Department of Work and SuperPensions came up with a control regulation just before they were made redundant. To prove their qualifying hours are legitimate, pensioners would have to have their SUPER DELUX BENEFITS PASSPORT stamped by a retired civil servant.
This is a continuation of my blogs on welfare benefits. ( You can see all the posts on this subject by clicking on “Welfare Benefits “ in the Tag Cloud ) But now I am moving away from all the nitty gritty interminable detail of my earlier research, to come up with a Grand Plan 🙂
The Government has been totally consumed with Brexit for the last two years and is likely to be for two years to come. This creates an opportunity for the Last Laugh Looney Party to steal a march on all the other political parties and propose a radical new approach to welfare benefits for older people.
The LLLP
“SUPER DELUX PENSION”
for all existing and new pensioners.
No forms, no qualifications, no messing.
With the assistance of Red Tape Man, all extra pensioner benefits will be scrapped.
This will mean that 24,756 civil servants will no longer be needed to check all the forms.
Their 4500 square feet of office space will be surplus to requirements and can be sold off for £billions to fund more retirement housing.
The SUPER DELUX PENSION will give every pensioner an extra £ 2,467 a year.
It should be worth quite a lot of votes at the next election. Wealthy pensioners who didn’t want the extra money could donate it to the civil servants redundancy fund.
FOOTNOTE – Please note, I hasten to add that I am no expert and anyone reading this should not take my observations or figures as fact. Hopefully before I finish this series of blogs, I will have raised awareness of some of the issues in the welfare benefits system. If you’re intending to make a claim, you should go to one of the trusted agencies like Age UK or Citizens Advice Bureau.
This is a continuation of my blogs on welfare benefits. ( You can see all the posts on this subject by clicking on “Welfare Benefits “ in the Tag Cloud )
I have been reading, researching and writing about welfare benefits for over a month now and I’m still not sure I’m any the wiser. There is a mine of Government information and a plethora of reports, all endeavouring to explain one aspect or other of the benefits system. On me, most of the effort has failed. If anything there is too much information!
It is estimated by the charity TURN2US that the amount of unclaimed benefits could be as high as £15billion. Obviously not all of this relates to older people, but a conservative estimate by Age UK suggests that there is over £5.5billion of unclaimed retirement benefits.
Here are some overall benefits facts that support this :-
Means tested benefits take-up :-
What all these figures mean to me is that there’s a heck of a lot of room for improvement. What if we found a way of cutting through the red tape?
In fact if we could get a 100% of take-up by pensioners, it could provide them with £5.5billion of extra income.
FOOTNOTE – Please note, I hasten to add that I am no expert and anyone reading this should not take my observations or figures as fact. Hopefully before I finish this series of blogs, I will have raised awareness of some of the issues in the welfare benefits system. If you’re intending to make a claim, you should go to one of the trusted agencies like Age UK or Citizens Advice Bureau.
At the start of this month, I wrote about GP’s being at the front line of the NHS and their role as gatekeepers to other clinicians. Now some of the most talented managers in the Clinical Commissioning Groups have come up with a way of reducing referrals to consultants and other hospital services.
It is an idea worthy of the Last Laugh Looney Party 🙂
They are going to pay GP’s NOT to refer patients to hospital. Wow ! Who could have thought of that ? Breaking the link between GP’s and hospitals will save a shed load of money.
The GP’s aren’t too happy about it, but you have to agree, it is a unique idea for keeping the NHS within budget. Of course there may be some slight consequential damage. A few people may die before they get old.
Some people might try and get around the new system, by calling 999 for an ambulance to go direct to hospital. However, the cleaver NHS managers have a plan for that. Double check-in! The ambulance will take you to the GP surgery first, where your GP will have an opportunity to explain that he will lose his bonus if you go into hospital.
When these very cleaver NHS managers put their minds to it, I am sure they will be able to come up with a lot more ideas to save money. Initially they will be going to a luxury NHS think tank in the ski resort of Davos in Switzerland to clear their heads and get away from the incredible pressures of being a manager in the NHS.
I will report back on the progress they are making —— on the thinking —— not the skiing.
This is a continuation of my blogs on welfare benefits. ( You can see all the posts on this subject by clicking on “Welfare Benefits “ in the Tag Cloud )
Now I am becoming a well read benefits expert, I think I have found another source of riches in the 5772 pages of the Government website guide to welfare benefits. If I have got it wrong, no doubt they will tell me soon enough, because I must admit I was not expecting to find this much needed benefit.
It’s BRACERS for holding up my trousers. It comes under Health Benefits on page 4364 and is a grant for fabric support. I asume this includes bracers. Quite an uplifting surprise really ! Now I have lost a bit of weight, by following the ‘five fruit a day’ Government advice on healthy eating, I suppose it is only fair that the State should pay for braces or alternatively they could buy me a new pair of trousers 😀
One other pleasant surprise for all follically challenged men is on page 4365 sub- paragraph 7. Free WIGS. Obviously to keep your head warm in the Cold Weather Payment days of winter, when the temperature is below zero for 7 consecutive days —— within 10 miles of your house —- unless you live in Spain.
I am really getting the hang of these benefit payments now. I did not realise how generous the Government was with my money.
My braces, trousers and wig will hopefully be on the way soon 😀
FOOTNOTE – Please note, I hasten to add that I am no expert and anyone reading this should not take my observations or figures as fact. Hopefully before I finish this series of blogs, I will have raised awareness of some of the issues in the welfare benefits system. If you’re intending to make a claim, you should go to one of the trusted agencies like Age UK or Citizens Advice Bureau.
This is a continuation of my recent blogs on welfare benefits. ( You can see all the posts on this subject by clicking on “Welfare Benefits “ in the Tag Cloud )
The LAST LAUGH LOONY PARTY will adopt a totally new approach to welfare benefits for older people, if they are elected at the next General Election. The LLLP starts from the basis that older people should not have to live on benefits. They have worked and saved all their lives and should now be entitled to a good pension.
The LLLP approach will be based on the following common sense principles :-
We will engage the services of the Red Tape Crusader to sweep away the 5772 pages of existing regulation and replace it with a single page of A4 in LARGE PRINT. All local councils will have to recruit a group of retired volunteers to advise anyone who has problems understanding the single page.
This will of course displace thousands of civil servants, they can be redployed in the Brexit Department tearing up the European legislation in 27 different languages. When this is done, estimated to be in 2028, they will be relocated to the Amazon rain forest to plant new trees.
FOOTNOTE – Please note, I hasten to add that I am no expert and anyone reading this should not take my observations or figures as fact. Hopefully before I finish this series of blogs, I will have raised awareness of some of the issues in the welfare benefits system. If you’re intending to make a claim, you should go to one of the trusted agencies like Age UK or Citizens Advice Bureau.
This is a continuation of my last blog on welfare benefits. This post illustrates just how difficult it is to navigate your way through the benefits system. ( You can see all the posts on this subject by clicking on “Welfare Benefits “ in the Tag Cloud ) Now I have read through the thousands of pages of benefits bumph, I think I am just beginning to get the hang of all the confusing jargon. So before I before I start my Red Tape Crusade, I will take advantage of my newfound knowledge.
When I was reading through the 116 page abbreviated, simplified benefits guide, I think I found a loophole ! It is one that must have been missed by the thousands of civil servants who spend their happy hours drawing up all the rules and qualifications that make up the 5772 pages on their not so very helpful website on benefits.
It is a potential pot of gold that could give thousands of pensioners a happy winter break in Spain and save them from having to claim for Cold Weather Payments. It is about the little known TRAVEL ALLOWANCE to cover the cost of going to hospital appointments.
It is buried in the section on health benefits. Here is how to claim it :-
FOOTNOTE – Please note, I hasten to add that I am no expert and anyone reading this should not take my observations or figures as fact. Hopefully before I finish this series of blogs, I will have raised awareness of some of the issues in the welfare benefits system. If you’re intending to make a claim, you should go to one of the trusted agencies like Age UK or Citizens Advice Bureau.
GrumbleSmiles 