Disability

Differently abled, incapacity, special needs, handicapped, crippled, impairment......all words which have been used as descriptors. All are fairly negative. All are now frowned on to describe the 21 or more different categories of disablement. There is a move to use the term para - ability instead.

I'm interested because I'm watching, with interest, my 77 year old body failing to function. It is very easy to focus on the things I can no longer do - walk far without pain, sit or stand for any length of time without siezing up completely, hurry or run at all, carry anything, climb stairs or an incline, kneel or bend down, sleep well, turn over or get out of bed.....

I have always been very physically active & energetic. I recall with shame that I didn't adjust my pace of walking to my father as he got older & slower. Not being able to do things is not only limiting it is frustrating & actually quite worrying because I can see the deterioration. It would be easy to be anxious about what the future holds living alone.

I have a daily struggle to get my feet into or out of my pants & trousers. Putting shoes on & off is equally difficult. I'm convinced that my feet have grown further away from my hands! I am resisting getting a stair lift, "use it or loose it", but carrying anything up stairs is a challenge.

I want to be positive about this natural deterioration in function. I'm old. Focussing on the things I can do is more important. Doing things that are enjoyable, but don't have a cost, like reading, swimming, using the computer is very important. 

There is nothing more boring than someone who is negative & dwells on things they can't do anymore, or things that have changed for the worse. We have to acknowledge what is, accept it & do the best we can within the limitations.

However, I'm not a saint & I would really like to be able to climb a mountain again!

Tax shouldn't be Taxing.

I pay tax. I have all my adult life - PAYE. Income tax applies to most types of income, salary, profit & pensions. There are State benefits which are income that is not taxed. Income tax is the government's main source of revenue and is collected by HMRC on their behalf. The government uses the revenue from income tax to provide funding for public services such as the NHS, Education, Welfare & Roads. So far so good. I'm happy to pay for vital services & help people who aren't as fortunate as I am. The fact that I don't have children in the education system doesn't mean that I shouldn't pay for the service. Currently the biggest spend increase will be on net debt interest.

There are also approximately 100 other taxes in the UK - Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax, VAT, Stamp Duty Land Tax and Inheritance Tax – they affect us at some time in most walks of life. There are other not so obvious ones that still affect our daily lives: petrol, beer, Insurance Tax, Travel Tax......There are anomalies, biscuits and cakes are deemed as necessities and are not subject to VAT. Chocolate covered biscuits however, are luxury goods and taxed at 20%. Toasted sandwiches are fixed with a 20% tax charge but toasted bagels and baguettes are exempt.

 

https://www.statista.com/chart/4520/where-do-uk-taxes-go/

We have been printing money we don't have, euphemistically called "quantitative easing". We used to have gold reserves to back printing money, but we sold half off between 1999 - 2002 costing tax payers approximately £7 billion. The money was invested in foreign currency deposits. I'm not a financial whizz, so I don't know how good or bad this decision was. All I know is that if I pay for something on my credit card I need to have the cash in my account to cover it.

The thing I do object to is that the money that is taken from me is used for things that I do not agree with & is wasted by an incompetent Government. A Govenrment that says it does not have a "magic money tree", but finds billions to spend on the arms industry & wars whilst taking money out of the overseas aid budget. Replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system will cost £205 billion.  A government which hands out contracts worth millions to dubious companies providing useless PPE for the Covid epidemic. A government that is not scrutinised & regulated effectively.

When I read that the obscenely wealthy can evade tax through admittedly lawful, but immoral tax dodges I'm afraid my blood boils. It's called Corporate tax avoidance. Complex financial structures, which take profits offshore and the use of tax loopholes means some of the biggest companies in the UK can get away with paying next to no tax. Just so you comprehend what I'm talking about, a £billion is one thousand million pounds! Accumulating this amount of wealth is often, but not always, hinged on the legal exploitation of people or resources. By paying workers low wages, without comfortable working conditions, companies, and by virtue their owners, can maximise their profits. In 2018, the top five tech companies operating in the UK collectively made tidy profits of £8.1bn. They paid just £237m: an effective tax rate of 2.9 per cent. Corporation tax, paid by most UK companies, is 19 per cent. Tax avoidance is legal, tax evasion is illegal.

https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/ethical-money/billionaires-rise-time-super-rich-pay-fair-share-tax-1208626

I have been told, but can't veryify, that big UK Accountancy companies like Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche, Arthur Andersen, KPMG, Price Waterhouse Coopers, actually advise HMRC on tax legislation & then advise companies & individuals on ways to evade paying tax. If that is true it is utterly unacceptble. Tax is so complicated very few people actually really understand it.

Governments have been saying for years that the tax system is broken, over complicated & needs complete overhaul. But no one has done it. Currently it is discriminating against people on low or no incomes & favouring the extremely wealthy. 

Why are we tolerating that?

 

 

 

System Failure

This last year has been a revelation in many ways.

Currently I am waiting for 8 outstanding complaints, some escalated to formal, to be resolved.

• An Amazon seller sold me a supposedly new plinth heater which didn't work.It has a bent casing, broken fan & rusty screws. I didn't know he was an individual seller not a bona fide trader. He admits he bought it for himself & then decided he didn't want it. He hasn't sent a refund label & isn't responding. Getting Amazon to do something about it has been very difficult & wasted huge amounts of time.
• Thames Water got my bills wrong for my rental & the house I've bought. They also tried to debit my account for a monthly payment of £23,537.00 which resulted in my bank sending me 4 warning texts about being overdrawn. It's not resolved & almost caused me to have a heart attack!
• I notified Oxford City Council that I was moving out of the rental & into my house. They have sent me a notification for the coming year council tax for the rental & my own house tax still isn't right.
• The company who supplied my side door haven't done the inside the colour I ordered. I have no keys or trickle vents for the windows, which were delayed by months.
• Another glazing supplier has put some wrong fittings in & used rusty screws. The front door which I ordered months ago still hasn't arrived.
• The gutters & dreainpipes, supposedly matching the metal cladding on my extension, are the wrong colour. The drainpipes actually go on top of the cladding, so it is really obvious.
• My mobile supplier seems to be unable to get me reliable mobile reception in my house or outside it. I live in a city with no tall buildings around me.
• I am still waiting for delivery of fittings for my wardrobes which were ordered before Christmas.

Why are big companies, the building trade & utilities, so broken? Is it really simply the result of a devastating financial crash, Brexit & Covid resulting in a broken supply chain & huge staffing issues? I am really beginning to wonder. I do understand the underlying transport, raw materials & staffing problems. But organisations have had years to adapt & re-organise. The fundamental problem seems to be communication in the 21st century, which has the most effective communications ever. There is also an underlying staff training & skills problem, which hasn't been resolved.

The other revelation is that I have coped with all of this & more. I have taken each problem & eventually found a way to resolve it. But it has taken a massive toll on my time, energy, health & finances. 

My point in Blogging about this is that it shouldn't happen. No system is perfect, but people have a right to expect that when problems arise they will be dealt with speedily & efficiently. I can't tell you how utterly fed up with phone menus, irritatingly repetetive music & messages telling me to hold every 12 seconds I am. It is like Chinese water torture - it can literally drive you mad.

 

You just have to remember that the person you ultimately speak to is hardly ever the one who is responsible for the problem.