Zan's Zone – Ramblings of an O.A.P.

I finally managed to send my divorce papers off to the pension service this week.

God I am stupid. The pension service asked me to send my divorce papers off to them asap so that I could claim for the years that I was married and bringing up a child. Although having said that, I did work most of those years anyway, but the system does allow one to claim for all those years regardless of whether one worked or not.

Anyway, as soon as I knew they wanted my divorce papers I started hunting for them. Now, I live in a caravan so there aren’t that many places to hunt. On top of that I never throw papers away. All are neatly filed in their years of receiving them and all personal types of paperwork, ie: my birth certificate, p60s, family records, and so I thought, my divorce papers, are all kept very safely together.

So back in November, the month I retired, I went on my first hunt. Being as it was the first hunt I simply looked in the most obvious places. Couldn’t find them, so gave up pretty quick thinking I would look elsewhere later. My computer, after all, was calling to me.

January I received a letter from the pension service reminding me that I hadn’t sent the papers and that if I get married again (fine chance) before I made the claim I would lose it. Claiming before a new marriage one has the extra money for life.

So this time I thought a serious search was in order. I had every piece of paperwork out in every nook and cranny. No sign of any divorce papers. Now I am thinking “Shite” I’m going to have to send to the Hastings Court for a new copy. Bummer.

Another couple of weeks went by and a new reminder from the Pension Service, (do these people ever give up??).

Now I knew 100% that those divorce papers were somewhere and I was buggered if I was going to waste time and money to send for new copies. So, drastic action was called for. I decided to clean out and change around every single cupboard and drawer and put every thing in more suitable places.

Two days that took me, (between my time on the comp of course), and still no divorce papers. Bugger, bugger, bugger. But I certainly had a nice tidy caravan.

Then one afternoon whilst sitting listening to the family yacking around me, I suddenly remembered, (so much for being 100% sure I had them) I had sent them many years ago to my Ex hubby for him to prove he was divorced when he put up the banns for his second marriage. He had never returned them and I had never asked for them as I had never needed them.

Instantly I was on the phone to him praying that he still had them and plus, knew where they were if he did. He didn’t know where they were of course, men being men, but his wife did. The following morning they popped them in the post to me by recorded delivery.

From me direct to the pension service and I received them back from them within 3 days.

All done and dusted thank goodness.

Today should have been the very first day that my pension should have gone in the bank. It’s paid on the first Monday after ones birthday and today should have been my payday. Note I say should have been. Yup, they messed up big time.

After checking my bank account this morning, and finding that there was no sign of any cash being paid in, I rang the Pension Service to find out what was going on. Now you wait for this one. My pension claim that was put in 2 months ago hadn’t been processed. It gets worse. I wasn’t even in the queue to be processed. To put it bluntly, they had no idea that a claim from me was actually in the building.

On top of that when I put the claim in for my pension, all those weeks ago, they should have asked me to send in my Decree Absolute as proof of my divorce so that they could then sort out the extra pension I was allowed for all my married years. I have now been told to send it in directly but it’s going to take several months to process that part of my pension.

Can you ever believe such an absolute cock up??

But, fear not for anyone that is reading this and thinking, crikey I hope that doesn’t happen to me. All is not lost for me………

I spoke to a woman that couldn’t apologise enough. She went to her supervisor, rang me back within minutes to tell me that they are going to get a bank transfer done for me by the end of the day for the basic pension I am entitled to as a single person which will take 5 days before it gets to my bank. Along with that they will organise pension credits to take me up to the required pension required by law which is just over £124. From next Monday the correct amount will be being placed in my account.

I still have to send off my Decree Absolute and once they have sorted out that money in a few months time, that will then be added to my pension and any extra tax credits that have been paid between now and then will have to be paid back. So basically the tax credits are lending me monies that would be due to me if the Pension Service hadn’t totally over looked my claim.

Funnily enough after hanging up from the Pension Service all those weeks ago when making my claim, I turned to my daughter and said “I have a terrible feeling that something is going to go wrong with getting my pension – I know darn well it’s not going to be there on the Monday it’s due”. Sarah obviously told me I was worrying for nothing. Yea, right, never argue with an old Witch, lol.

Today I claimed my pension by phone. It seems now one only has to make a phone call rather than fill in all the forms.

I do wish they would make up their mind though.

In the letter I received a few weeks ago, that everyone receives just before the Birthday that will turn us into an O.A.P., it states that one can make a claim 4 months prior to their Birthday. Well, being the lazy marebag that I am I kept forgetting to make the phone call until today when I realised that I am less than 2 months away now.

Thinking that if I leave it too late it might mean a late start for the first payment, and I know they don’t back date a pension, I thought I had better make that phone call. In fact, depending on what day ones Birthday falls on, one can already lose several days. The pension starts from the first Monday after ones Birthday. So if one is unlucky enough to have that Birthday on a Tuesday one loses a weeks pension. As it happens my Birthday this year will fall on a Saturday so I only lose 2 days.

Anyway, back to the phone call. As per usual, it’s press No 1 for this and press No 2 for that and so on. Before I can get to speak to a human I am warned by a robot on pressing No 1, that if I am less than 2 months away from my Birthday then hold the line, if I am more than 2 months away from Birthday, well, basically don’t bother, just hang up.

So why is the letter saying claim 4 months away and the robot saying 2 months away??

It seems that being a lazy cow saved me a phone call when one thinks of it, because I would have just had to hang up if I had rung any earlier.

Anyway, a human finally came on the line and informed me it would take about 20 mins to make my claim. Ok, no problem. Sarah, hadn’t started lunch yet so let’s get it over and done with.

Name,
Address,
Date of Birth
Date of Marriage,
Date of Divorce,
Ex Hubby’s Insurance Number (luckily I knew about this and copped it off of Bill a few months ago),
Am I working,
Do I intend to work,
Bank Details.

That’s it. Don’t know what happened to the 20 mins as it only took 5 mins.

Can I also claim tax credits now??
Yes. I will give you the phone number.
But the letter I received said on the one phone call I claim for both pension and tax credit – You can do it all in one go.
No. Sorry you have to ring this free number.

So thank her and hang up.

Rang free number – Pressed No 1 – Chap comes on and says this will take about 20 mins is that ok.

Fine.

Name,
Address,
Date of Birth
Am I claiming any benefits,
Do I have any savings,
Am I working,
Do I intend to work,
Do I care for anyone,
Does anyone care for me,
Bank details,
Nearest post office (this is because the first payment is sent by giro).

15 mins – It wouldn’t have taken so long but we got chatting about cost of living, forgetting names of roads, and… well, don’t ask, it was basically a lot of waffle about nothing. He was obviously bored, Sarah still hadn’t started lunch, and it’s always nice to chat to a young man occasionally.

So there ya go, easy pezzy. I can now sit back and wait for the letter to come to tell me how much pension I will be getting. Not that it matters because if it happens to be less than the government says I can live on, the tax credits will top it up.

Actually I do know that I will be getting the full basic pension plus a little more for the graduated pensions I paid in but that will still bring me slightly under the amount I’m entitled to by law.

Being able to claim tax credits is very important. Even if one is only entitled to one penny it means that one can then claim free dental treatment, free eye exams and a very large bulk of the cost towards glasses. All that, plus other bits and pieces locally as long as one is claiming tax credits.

Must remember to go and collect my free bus pass as well as soon as my first pension day comes. I never catch a bus but the bus pass is free so why not have one. There has to be some perks to growing old.

From today, British Gas is raising the price of its gas yet again, this time by 35 per cent, while customers buying electricity from it will pay 9.4 per cent more. Households who buy both services from the utility will see their dual fuel bills rise by 25 per cent.

The increases mean the average household’s dual fuel bill will rise from £1,055 a year to £1,322.

Energy analysts pointed out that before the 15 per cent increase in costs implemented by British Gas in January, the typical household was paying £912 a year. Yesterday’s price rise means British Gas’s bills have now risen by 45 per cent so far this year.

Ok, I’m very much ignorant of how finances work for a country as a whole but it seems crazy to me that we (UK) have all that natural resource of gas under the North Sea that we are bringing up and selling to other countries, only for them to sell back to the house holders over here.

Yup, this is what is happening. Of all the dozens of gas/electric companies over here only one is actually owned by the British. The rest are owned by various European countries including Russia.

Many of these countries, mostly the French, are buying our North Sea gas and selling it back direct to the British house holder at astronomical prices.

I can’t for the life of me see how this helps our country financially.

When I was younger all utilities were nationalised, then all of a sudden during Margaret Thatcher term our utilities were sold off. Gas, Electricity, Railways, Post Office etc. All were privatised. From then on it’s been down hill all the way.

Our railways are an absolute disgrace and in some places very dangerous where the tracks haven’t been repaired over the years. Our post offices are now being closed down to make sure that share holders get their millions of pounds a year bonuses, and the deliveries of post has become a joke.

Human beings are so money grasping and still in this day and age the few are taking it from the many. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Now it’s becoming that more and more are living on the bread line over this last couple of years. More and more are soon not going to be able to keep a roof over their heads, food in their bellies and warmth during the winter.

Stock holders all want to be millionares at the poor’s expense. How can there still be so much povety all over the world in this, the 21st century.

Once one is 4 months away from pension age an envelope arrives from the D.W.P (Dept. of Work and Pensions). This tells us how we can now claim our pension ready for when we turn pension age.

The basic state pension is £90.70 ($180.94)per week. Added on to that are any extra pension credits one has earned during their working life. These are graduated NI contributions paid between April 1961 and April 1975.

In addition to that, one can claim pension credits if one’s savings are under £6000 and if the state pension, graduated credits, and credits one can claim from ones time bringing up children, are lower than the minimum the law says you are allowed to live on. This top up must bring one up to the minimum of £124.05 ($247.46) per week.

About 3 years ago I asked for a pension forecast. This is where they take a look at your past contributions and all other circumstances during ones adult life and forecast how much ones pension is likely to be at that present days rate. My forecast was £101 and a few pennies, ($201.48) per week.

I very much doubt that it would have gone up much by the time November comes around and as I have no extra private pension, I would imagine that I will also be claiming pension credits. Pension credits are means tested which means that I will have to fill in a 54 page claim form telling them everything about myself except the colour of my knickers.

As I am just slightly less that 4 months away from my retirement date I received my pension claim instructions a couple of days ago.

One can either send the slip back requesting a claim form be sent or one can claim over the telephone.

The information required is nominal. Name, date of birth, address, any marriage date, any divorce date. Easy peezy??? Not so………..

One then has to go seek ones birth certificate, ones marriage lines and ones divorce papers.

For me the birth certificate is easy, I have a short one and a full one. They will be given the short one.

As for my marriage lines. On applying for my decree absolute they requested my marriage certificate which they never sent back to me. On ringing them I was told they have to keep it.

As for the divorce papers…. I have hunted high and low for those and can’t find hide nor hair of them. So what’s supposed to happen?? I now have to fork out the money to pay for and send for copies of both marriage and divorce papers before I can start to claim.