On the Road Again!

One of the perks when you get to state pension age in England is that after possibly contributing to the country's coffers for around 50 years they give you a pittance to live on, plus a free bus pass. Incredibly, in a world where private companies know how much toilet roll you bought and when, the UK Government expects you apply for the things you are entitled to.   State Pension? Apply for it and quote your National Insurance number.  That tells them all about you. How much tax you paid over your entire lifetime. How much national insurance you paid to get your pension and medical cover. But the ten page form asks you to do all this again! Bus Pass? Simply quoting the same National Insurance number should be sufficient. They can see from that when you were born and whether you are old and decrepit enough to be eligible for one.  But.... No.  Another form to fill in to APPLY for what is rightfully yours. Repeating all the same information as the State Pension F...

A month to go and then I will officially reach the State Pension Age for the UK.   But am I looking forward to it?  I have mixed feelings.  It's not as though I have been working every day in an office with colleagues around me so that I will miss the banter and all that.  I have been working from home since March 12th 2020!   I have been into the old office building once and that was over a year ago and I didn't see anyone I knew! Even the guys on the door at 222 Upper Street had forgotten who I was and I used to see them every day! So the countdown on the right is getting lower and lower.  I don't officially retire until the last day of December as that means I get a full months pay to tide me over until the State and my occupational pension start to cough up! And I am fully expecting that to go wrong!   I have already applied for my bus pass. This gives me free bus travel across the country!  If I was living in one of the other d...

This is something that wasn't being given much attention over the years. Okay, I am the oldest person in the team at work, but as we haven't met face to face since March 12th 2020, the feelings of being in a team are far from fresh! I was making a timer for the days leading until the school holidays kick off (it's over there ---->). Whilst I was at it I typed in the date of my 66th birthday. It's the date I can retire, if I so wish.   I guess I was a little stunned to see the timer calculate that I have only 163 days and change (at the time of writing) to go! In fact it will be slightly less, as my term-time only contract means I actually stop working on Friday 17th December. I am still waiting to hear from the Government's Pensions Agency about the arrangements for my state pension and I can apply for a bus pass for free travel in September! I had the fanciful idea of working on a bit. If we can't travel because of Covid, and the weather is crap anyway in th...