“Pension Political Spin”

Posted on February 5, 2017 by john graham

The Conservative party has long seen itself as a champion of older people.   It prides and preens itself as a supporter of traditional British values.   This has kept it in power for the last two general elections propped up by the votes of the majority of elderly people.

One of the centrepiece policies has been the security of the triple lock on the state pension.   Coupled with the additional pot of gold elusively placed at the end of the rainbow – the £155 pound pension.

So far we have just had the rain !

The story of this big rise in pensions has carried the Conservatives through two elections on a wave of hope.   I first started talking about it in 2010 (see my earlier blogs by clicking on ‘ Pensions ‘ in the topics list).

I always knew it was too good to be true and through the rain storm of austerity over the last 5 years the rainbow has started to disappear.     It is vanishing with each step in each puddle :-

  • The commencement date of this wondrous bounty was put back until 2016;
  • Then as the details became clearer, it was obvious it would only apply to new pensioners, leaving those who were already retired or would be retired  before 2016 left out in the rain;
  • An even deeper puddle was that you needed an extended number of years of contributions to qualify for the full pension.    Which leaves people approaching retirement, especially women who have had career breaks to bring up families, inadequate time to top up their contributions;
  • Then the rain got heavier still as savings rates plunged almost to nothing;
  • And by the time you got your pension pot of gold, annuity rates had tumbled by 50% , so you got far less annual income if you cashed it in;
  • Meanwhile the Chancellor has progressively been reducing the maximum size of the pension pot from£1.25 million to £1,000,000.  This only affects the wealthiest retirees but they still vote;

Finally, for now, the triple lock is under threat and may be removed after the next general election.    Also, the treasury is rumoured to be considering  removing high rate tax relief on pension contributions, which affects a smaller group of higher earners, albeit not until they retire.

political-spin

Wonderful how politicians get lost in a world of double speak about how much they have done for older people.     Pensions in the U.K. are among the lowest in Europe and there are still far too many older pensioners, particularly women living below the poverty line.

Right now all the talk is about Brexit, but before  the next general election the new pension will in place for a few people.

Our new Prime Minister had better stop believing her parties political spin about pensions and start listening to pensioners !   Otherwise she may find the rain washes votes away.

 

Posted in Pensions | Tagged | 3 Comments

SCRAP Step 14 – Light Bulbs

Posted on February 1, 2017 by john graham

Light bulbs used to be simpler in the olden days !     When I was a child, to me, there appeared to be one type of light fitting and one type of bulb to go in it.      Life looks simple to a child 💡

In my growing up years I discovered they had something called tungsten filaments and could be clear or opaque.    To make matters more complicated they had watts, although most were either 60 or 100 watts.     Oh and finally —— they could be pushed in with a twist or screwed in.    That was it.

Then I became an architect and learned there was an illumination of light bulbs out there.   Flourescent ones first, not much used in the house, but there were also, up lighters and down lighters —— and recessed lighters —– and wall lights —-and spot lights.

More recently when we discovered all these  lights meant we were running out of energy, there came along a new breed of ‘low energy bulbs’.    Watts were bad, saving the world was good!    They just cost more to start with but would save a fortune eventually.

What has all this got to do with clutter, I hear you ask?     Well our house has lots of light fittings and the bulbs for just about each one are different.     That explains why we have cupboards and drawers with light bulbs in all over the house.    It is also why, when a light bulb blows, it sets off a search around the house in the dark which can take days.

light

We have attempted to get organised by having one cupboard for light bulbs next to the fuse board in the hall.   Low down, behind a chair, with a sticking sliding door, with one broken handle.   It’s very convenient, especially in the dark.

When you finally open the door bags full of light bulbs fall out.  Which is generally not good for light bulbs !     At the latest count there were 56 bulbs all ready to light up our world and half of  Blackpool as well.   Of course we also have bulbs for light fittings that were replaced years ago.     And for fittings we never had that were bought in mistake 😟

Now you know why light bulbs are clutter.

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SCRAP Step 13 – Taking Stock

Posted on January 31, 2017 by john graham

I have now been decluttering for TWO MONTHS and what have I achieved ?

  • a slightly tidier office, but it still looks cluttered ☹️
  • a lot of  empty box files — an awful lot 😩
  • Half finished clutter in the study ☹️
  • A shed full of black bags full of rubbish 😩
  • A few less books 😔
  • A little less whiskey 😋

But it’s a slog, no doubt about it!          Is it worth it ?         Does it spark joy?

Answer NO.    I’m almost beginning to like clutter —- well almost but not really.

Let’s look at the positives  :-

  • I have a bookfull of blog posts out of it 😀
  • My office desk is clear —- well half clear 🙃
  • I have emptied a lot of box files mostly into the bin for recycling, so I may preserve a rain forest or two 😇
  • I have got shot of a heck of a lot of age-old confidential paper work, by burning it in my new incinerator.   I hate paperwork, but I do love bonfires and now I am one or two steps closer to a paperless office 😁
  • I have some unread books to read that I had forgotten about 😋
  • A lot of long forgotten photographs of family and friends 😀😀😀
  • I like burning papers in my new incinerator —- especially BANK PAPERS  — it feels like I am getting my own bank for all that junk mail —-  and for rock bottom interest rates 😀😀😀😀

So now I have got that off my chest.    I need another bigger effort at decluttering.   I have got to give away, throw away or tidy away much more ruthlessly, if I am going to create more space in my life.     I will post two blogs a week on decluttering from now on until I have finished.

I will bloody well get there if it kills me !     And   ………

                          BONFIRES   SPARK   JOY    😀😀😀😀😀

Any ideas of what to do with spare box files ?

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“On the move yet again!”

Posted on January 29, 2017 by john graham

The Office of National Statistics is supposed to be a font of all knowledge about the demographics of the UK.    However, a note of caution is needed if you are thinking of moving house to relocate to a healthier location in this country.     They don’t seem to be able to make up their minds and their advice changes with each new analysis of the same figures – the 2011 census data.

Back in 2010 based on their information, I could have been tempted to move to Dorset where people live longer than anywhere else in Britain.  Fortunately, I didn’t rush into anything because when I visited there this year, the traffic was terrible and there were bungalows everywhere.  (You can see the post by clicking in the Archive on May 2010).

Then in 2012 a new interpretation of the figures suggested Somerset as a better bet for longevity (see “Move to the Country” in the Archive – 25 April 2012).     I guess it could be drinking lots of cider with Rosie 😀.    A word of caution though, be careful of the floods on the Somerset levels, they are evidently too level.

cider

Four years further on and yet another analysis of the same figures in a new report recommends Wokingham in Berkshire or Richmond upon Thames are the best places to be.    I wish these people would make up their minds!

These are the two best places to live a healthier lifespan – 70 years of good health (plus untold years of bad health ?).   For men, all the top five places for good health are in Berkshire, Surrey and Buckinghamshire.   For women, the best place of all is the Orkney Islands.    So I can see this latest advice could lead to a few marriage breakdowns 🙂

No mention of Dorset or Somerset at all.     I guess the traffic fumes or the floods must have got to quite a few people.     Or, if they have been acting on the information, it is probably all the stress and strain of constantly moving house that has done for them in the end.

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 5 Comments

SCRAP Step 12 – Medication

Posted on January 25, 2017 by john graham

Our house must be a very dangerous place to live in, judging by all the medication scattered all around the house.  It’s sort of scattered clutter.   You can find it In bathroom cabinets when you want cracked skin cream after a shave or a shower; in bedrooms  there are pills for headaches after reading at bed time, in the lounge there are pills for more headaches watching the TV ; in the kitchen drawer there are plasters and ointments to patch me up for when I cut myself in the garden.   Then we have a main store of drugs in one of the kitchen cupboards for every possible accident or incident —- from sun burn to frostbite, from bee stings to backache —- you name it we have probably ot it.   We could open a branch of Boots the Chemist or maybe set up an A & E department in Kilsby.

ladderhealth-hooked-on-pills

Many of these medications are old and probably ineffective by now.    They were bought or prescribed for a one off illness years ago, but we keep them “just in case” of a recurring epidemic.    We also have lots of duplicated  pills, plasters and potions because ” you never know when you might need one when all the shops are closed”.

There is only one problem with this medical cornucopia, that is finding the right pill or potion when you want it 😡

Has anybody got any good ideas ???

There will be a copy of Walt Hopkins and George Simons’ book — “Seven Ways to Lighten Your Life Before You Kick the Bucket” — for the best ideas on de-cluttering.

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“Scam Post Defrauds Elderly”

Posted on January 22, 2017 by john graham

I have written a lot about the postal service over the years because of the virtue it has for keeping older people in touch with friends and relatives.   For this reason, I am a great supporter of the Royal Mail service in spite of the quantity of junk mail I get through my front door.   (You can see all my earlier posts by clicking on “GRUMBLESMILES POST” in the TAG CLOUD).

For many people the postal service is still their preferred option as opposed to using the new technology options of email, Facebook, twitter, Instagram and even Facetime or Skype.  For the majority of older  people these are still incomprehensible words, but for younger generations, they are often the only way they communicate.

There is a downside to the snail mail service, which is the huge volumes of junk mail that everybody receives through their door everyday.   But more importantly, there is a pernicious aspect of some junk mail which is targeted at older people with the intention of conning them out of thousands of pounds.    Scam mail starts off innocently enough with an inducement to reply to a competition, or a free gift.  Then it draws you in to making small payments  to take you to the next stage.   Before you know where you are, you can be sucked into a world of scams — of hopeless dreams and unfulfilled promises.

They prey on the elderly because of their trusting nature and their vulnerability.  The excellent website “Think Jessica” gives much more information about how an older lady was conned out of thousands of pounds.  All out of innocently responding to junk mail which she thought to be genuine.  How many more older people are going to be drawn into these junk mail cons before the Government does something about this ?

But what has this got to do with our trusted postal service and it’s trusted brand “The Royal Mail” ?      Well they deliver 15 billion letters a year and by their own admission they have stopped 22 million scam letters in the last two years.   Junk mail itself is not necessarily a problem, but it is when it contains fraudulent inducements.  Many of these scams hide behind a licence obtained from the Royal Mail which appears to give credibility to its origin.  The postal says that they have no legal authority to check the content of mail that is sent.  So how did they intercept 22 million scam letters in the first place ?

scam-post1

This conning junk mail is sent out to thousands of old people and is delivered by the Royal Mail.  They must make millions in revenue from providing this service but they know it’s at the expense of older people in the end.

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 6 Comments

SCRAP Step 11 – Loose Change

Posted on January 18, 2017 by john graham

Where does all your loose change come from?   And what do you do with it when you have got it ?    Here’s yet another clutter challenge.

When I was young l collected it and saved up for something —sweets, foreign stamps, a book, records and finally a Dawes racing bike with derailleur gears.  It certainly got you in the habit of saving.

These days, after years of inflation, loose change accumulates to the point that it becomes too heavy to carry around in your pocket.    It’s value wouldn’t buy you a hard backed book or a record and you would need a wheelbarrow to carry enough change to purchase a racing bike.

So what do you do with it ?   Well in my case I empty the change from my pockets into a bedside drawer — and in a drawer in the lounge — and in the kitchen drawer — and in a compartment in the car.     When they are all full to overflowing I have a magic coin sorter. A gadget my wife bought me.     She loves gadgets.     So every few months I collect up all my change and the magic sorter sorts it into 1p’s, 2p’s, 5p’s, 10p’s, 20p’s, 50p’s, £1’s and £2’s.     Not that I consider £1 and £2 coins as loose change, but what about all the rest.   Nobody wants it.    Shop assistants tolerate it with an impatient look, while they wait for you to count it out and wobetide you if you dole out more than ‘the maximum’ allowed as legal tender.    The queue lined up behind you tut tuts and wonders why on earth you can’t use a credit card like everyone else.     Cash is so yesterday!

So here’s my dilemma.   Do I put it in charity boxes on pub and post office counters —- I already do that but it still builds up ?    Do I give it to beggars on the street —- not when you hear how much money they make ?     Do I put it in a change machine in supermarkets —- and pay them an exorbitant 10% fee for changing my money, or they give you a voucher to spend in their shop ?

clutter-coins-2

There must be a better idea for dealing with this cash clutter.    Any inspiring ideas ?

There will be a copy of Walt Hopkins and George Simons’ book — “Seven Ways to Lighten Your Life Before You Kick the Bucket” — for the best ideas on de-cluttering.

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 4 Comments

“Pills Galore”

Posted on January 15, 2017 by john graham

I have written a lot about pills over the years and many of the posts feature my favourite cartoon character, “Pilly Galore”.   (You can see all my earlier blogs on this subject by clicking on “PILLS” in the TAG CLOUD).

Pilly would be most dismayed by the latest dust-up between the NHS and pharmacists.    Dr Keith Ridge, the Chief Pharmacist for NHS England, is trying to cut down on the billions of pills older people take each year.    Pilly would not like that at all, since she measures the state of her ill-health by the number of pills she takes each day.    The more the better……..or should it be the more the iller!    Either way her favourite GP, Dr Astroglax, keeps prescribing them for her, so she must need them.

Dr Ridge says “older people are taking too many pointless pills and it’s a scandal”.  He has found that “one in seven hospital admissions in the over 75’s, was the result of a drug problem” and that “20% of medicines were unnecessary and half were not taken properly”.  His solution is to urge pharmacists to sell less pills!   Which seems to me to be rather wishful thinking.

I agree with most of what he says about the problem, it certainly reflects my experience of running nursing homes for many years and seeing just how many pills people take.

But Dr Ridge is clearly no businessman and is unlikely to succeed up against the massive advertising and promotion budgets of the drug companies.   His main target should be the GP’s who prescribe the pills in the first place.

Here’s how Doctor Astroglax goes about his daily job.     Firstly a pill to cure the ailment their patient presents to them, …..then later another pill to cure the side effects of the first pill, ….then more problems, ……then more pills.      All free to older people.     What would be ideal to save GP’s and pharmacists time with all that prescribing and  prescriptions, would be one big ‘cure-all pill’.

pills-galore

Perhaps a better answer would be to charge patients for pills?   But I can’t see Pilly ever agreeing to that.

Posted in N.H.S. | Tagged | 9 Comments

SCRAP Step 10 – Change and No Change

Posted on January 11, 2017 by john graham

Today my de-cluttering quest led me to a tidy looking  blue ring binder file on the top shelf of the study alcove.   An easy place to be forgotten.

The only clue was the label — “Blogs”.    It was a relic of my early blogging days, when I used to collect newspaper cuttings to use as prompts for new blogs.     If I didn’t act on them straight away, I would put them in this blog file.     All neatly categorised into different sections, which corresponded with my blog topics list.  Each article was dated, referenced and then filed in a see-through wallet.

Where this system fell down was that I never went back to it.     So today.   The file is officially ‘clutter’ , —– only six years after its inception !

Here is a retrospective look at some of the collected, six-year-old headlines and how things have changed or not changed since :-

  • NURSING HOMES  “Southern Cross and Four Seasons nursing home groups both in financial trouble” —- I wrote extensively about this at the time ( you can see my posts by clicking on Southern Cross in the Tag Cloud). Since then the groups have been split up.   Many other residential and nursing homes have closed and a lot more are just struggling along.  The Government has cut funding for social care and introduced a higher minimum wage.  All of which seems to add pressure to the situation.   Only in the last few days a large number of hospitals’ emergency services are at crisis point, according to headline reports in the press.
  • PENSIONS   Lots of press articles about the inadequacy of pensioners’ savings.   (You can see all my posts about pensions by clicking on PENSIONS in the TAG CLOUD).    So what has been the Government’s response in the following six years ?  They destroyed final salary pension schemes by removing tax exemptions for pension providers and then they moved back the State retirement age towards seventy to lower the cost of pensions.   At the same time, the deterioration in the economy has meant that  annuity rates plummeted and interest rates on savings accounts are now down to almost zero !   How very helpful that is to pensioners who have saved all their lives in a pension scheme to cover the cost of their retirement!
  • N.H.S.    Frequent headlines about poor quality nursing care for older people, not enough doctors, bed-blocking older people because of nowhere to move on to and too many highly paid NHS managers.   (You can see all my posts on these issues by clicking on NHS in the TOPICS list).   Nothing much has changed since then, although there has been a significant increase in the number of retired people, particularly the over 80’s.   The result is that both the NHS and Social Services are stretched to breaking point.

What can I learn from this experience ?

  1. If you don’t do it today you probably won’t do it at all !
  2. Governments are pretty ineffective at dealing with the growing and increasingly frail population of older people.   At the same time they are paralysed into inaction for fear of losing the votes of older people.
  3. Older people are increasingly regarded as CLUTTER  by politicians but they dare not say so.

Has anybody got any good ideas on how to resolve this situation, so that older people are NOT regarded as clutter ?

There will be a copy of Walt Hopkins and George Simons’ book — “Seven Ways to Lighten Your Life Before You Kick the Bucket” — for the best ideas on de-cluttering.

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 5 Comments

“Happy Finnish Post”

Posted on January 8, 2017 by john graham

I haven’t given up on de-cluttering, but as it’s the New Year, I thought I should get back to also writing more generally about other issues for older people.  Therefore, in the coming weeks, I will publish blogs about clutter on Wednesday’s and revert to more general subjects on Sunday’s.  Here is the first of the more general posts which happens to be about POST.

The postal service remains a lifeline for many older people as they get left behind in this increasingly digital age.  In an often lonely outside world, especially in Winter, the postman’s / postwoman’s  friendly face is a welcome visitor.

Back in 2011, I wrote quite a few blogs about the trials and tribulations of the postal service.  Seeing their letter business decline as email takes over and increasingly under threat from private drop-it-outside parcel delivery services.

Traditional postal services are under attack from all sides.  (You can see all my earlier blogs by clicking on “GrumbleSmiles Post” in the TAG CLOUD).

I tried to offer some positive suggestions to enhance the service offer for the future by adding extra services, but they have not been taken up in the UK so far.

However, although the message may take four years to get through to the remoter parts of Finland, it seems they are now adopting some of my ideas and have gone even further.  “Posti”, is the highly appropriate name of the Finnish postal service and they are retraining some of their delivery staff as “outdoor buddies”.  The buddies will offer to accompany older people to walk in the snow when they are often afraid to venture outside.  They will also offer a snow clearing service in winter, sweeping up leaves in autumn and grass cutting in the summer.  They already deliver meals and are planning to help with household chores.

It is a great idea for improving services to older people and it keeps the postal workers employed.

finnish-line2

Currently in Finland, the average Finn only receives 11 letters a year.  So it would be a brilliant move to introduce this new wider community role for the postal service.   Maybe we could follow suit in the UK and all have :-

mansmilew-bigboard-cropped-185

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 5 Comments