I am sure that all campaigners will be checking all the polical promises from all political parties and their faceless bosses, advisors?associates?speach writers etc. etc.Reading all the newspapers and political publications hoping upon hope there will be more than just political whims for all campaign issues.

Between now and the election, we are all going to be slightly busier!

(newspapers aint what they used to be!




THE LIFE CERTIFICATE FOR EXPAT PENSIONERS,

LIVES ON, AND ON AND ON -  - 

           I mutter to myself  -  -  “-???? Is it still required? Should it still be required? Why is it still using an outdated system that has not changed for years? As it HAS been used for years!”

          (What’s a pension then? Very crudely its money you receive when you retire from work at a pre-determined age.

          So where does the money come from? Well it certainly does not  come from a money tree growing at the bottom of father Christmas’s garden! We have to go back to the early 1900’s when D.L. George conceived what was probably the most humanitarian Act made for the people.

 An act to provide  that on retirement, those people have an income  that will enable them to SURVIVE on. Note: “survive on, not live on”!   (You can survive on bread alone, but you can live, slightly better on bread and butter). DLG idea was to introduce what was as he described as a “National InsuranceScheme".

  Wikipedia gives a pretty good definition of insurance:-

“Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss”.


:- not easy to translate but would you agree to; “We” pay the fee,( in the form of contributions from our salary), for the protection from our loss of income, (salary on retirement) by the NI Scheme. So "The Gov’t" purely administer for the NI Scheme as it stands?

The gov’t will no doubt attempt to change the scheme.( I think that is already well in hand already in process and question the Consultation process.

          So who does pay the fee? We do of course,  we contribute from our income, during our working life prior to retirement , NATIONAL INSURANCE contributions, (the fee). The employer also contribute to enhance the available monies in the insurance scheme. The gov’t initially also contributed to the NIS scheme but when the legislated balance for the NIS fund was achieved, ”I  (the gov’t) am the boss so we forget the legislation and stop our(the bosses) contributions. (? One rule for you one for us? any consultation with other two in the agreement?).


Is it an equation or guesswork?

(isn't everything DWP does?)



What comes into the equation P = P- (FP). ?. 2 things, ”age”, and whim. Age to receive the pension, of course. This is already brushed aside by the gov’t. the freezing of pension  is affected by minor changes in the Pension Act 2014, (freeze all expats uprating and even worse perhaps!). should we be concerned or are you assuming the election will be the “cure all” of all pension problems?

The parliamentary and government protocols have already been changed by this and previous government and what is to come is anybody’s  guess. During the Brexit changes the PM referred to changes  in our legislation to fit in with EU legislation. She went on to say that the number of changes is high, so to save time she said “we will do it behind closed doors”. If you look at the Pension Act 2014 you will see:-

“All legislation (excluding originated from the EU)”. Now I have no idea what they means! The act is supposed to be correct.  Original (As enacted).

Pensions Act 2014 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 14 February 2024. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date.

How do those two statements fit together?

******

My two big concerns are:-

1) communications  between groups using Facebook is controlled by Facebook. They own the actual accounts with rules. How many times do you find comments blocked by Facebook? Its USA rules not UK.

Much of the problems I observed  related to the earliest campaigning dictatorial tendencies much will go down to, “in my opinion” or  “I  think!” it does still exist to a lesser degree thank goodness but it still holds up our campaigning and divert us to personal gender aeguements.

It also picks up The gender discrimination which is illegal according to the equality Act. So why do people do it? Empire builders in groups put themselves above those we are campaigning for.




2) Working together. or the lack of it

surely every group has said."We must work together", or "We must be united". Then never do or rarely do. which promotes the question, "how the hell do you many groups expect to win the campaign?

(I am afraid the very earliest days of campaigning set that in motion).

  Its not all bad news!There is a lot of knowledgeable canpaigners out there, and more info is coing out.

(PPiI stil recomend any info given out as part of the campaigns agenda or info mut be proven facts preferably with a hyperlink to enable all to read the full info).