Ofgem Propose £21 On Energy Bills To Cover Bad Debt.

[Anna B 1,414]

2 hours ago, the_bloke said:

You can claim back 6 quid a week from the tax man for working from home this year. You only need to have worked a single week at home and you can claim the tax back for 52 weeks. That's £312.

OK if you do your own tax return, but I hate to think of the rigmarole you have to  go through to get it, and the mess they will make of your tax code if you're PAYE....

[ECCOnoob 1,049]

45 minutes ago, Anna B said:

OK if you do your own tax return, but I hate to think of the rigmarole you have to  go through to get it, and the mess they will make of your tax code if you're PAYE....

It's quite simple with a dedicated online portal set up.  The logistics of how and where to apply have been widely published for some time. 

 

Hundreds of staff at my work have done it without issue and anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet should do fine. 

 

Why do you always jump in with a load of presumed negativity all the time without actually taking the trouble to find out for yourself.  

Edited November 23, 2020 by ECCOnoob

[the_bloke 17]

1 hour ago, ECCOnoob said:

It's quite simple with a dedicated online portal set up.  The logistics of how and where to apply have been widely published for some time. 

 

Hundreds of staff at my work have done it without issue and anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet should do fine. 

 

Why do you always jump in with a load of presumed negativity all the time without actually taking the trouble to find out for yourself.  

I thought that too. It took about two minutes and I just told the payroll dept what my new tax code was.

[Anna B 1,414]

1 hour ago, ECCOnoob said:

It's quite simple with a dedicated online portal set up.  The logistics of how and where to apply have been widely published for some time. 

 

Hundreds of staff at my work have done it without issue and anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet should do fine. 

 

Why do you always jump in with a load of presumed negativity all the time without actually taking the trouble to find out for yourself.  

You lost me at 'dedicated online portal set up'  

 

You see not everybody is as adept as you seem to think with online stuff. 

Of course, I suppose if you are working from home in the first place, you probably know how to do this stuff. But for people my age, particularly those who never worked with computers, anything online can be problematic. Should see me trying to get Zoom to work...nope..., and I still can't get to do my shopping on line because computer says no at the last hurdle. And I still haven't got my new printer set up properly. The blind leading the blind, and getting worse as things get more complex and elderly people start to lose their memories and their marbles, so wind your neck in.

 

As for my 'presumed negativity' it's born of a lifetime of trying to deal with various government departments, and the tax office in particular.... not exactly known for getting things right are they?  

 

[Arnold_Lane 0]

3 minutes ago, Anna B said:

You lost me at 'dedicated online portal set up'  

 

You see not everybody is as adept as you seem to think with online stuff. 

Of course, I suppose if you are working from home in the first place, you probably know how to do this stuff. But for people my age, particularly those who never worked with computers, anything online can be problematic. Should see me trying to get Zoom to work...nope..., and I still can't get to do my shopping on line because computer says no at the last hurdle. And I still haven't got my new printer set up properly. The blind leading the blind, and getting worse as things get more complex and elderly people start to lose their memories and their marbles, so wind your neck in.

 

As for my 'presumed negativity' it's born of a lifetime of trying to deal with various government departments, and the tax office in particular.... not exactly known for getting things right are they?  

 

Anna, people your age are largely retired so don’t need to change their tax code as they are not working from home.   

 

[Anna B 1,414]

2 minutes ago, Arnold_Lane said:

Anna, people your age are largely retired so don’t need to change their tax code as they are not working from home.   

 

I know.

[Arnold_Lane 0]

3 minutes ago, Anna B said:

I know.

So your point has little merit as anyone working from home with a basic level of competency can apply for the tax relief or Google the instructions for how to do it.

 

 

[Anna B 1,414]

Your faith in the competency of the tax office is really quite touching.

[ECCOnoob 1,049]

44 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Your faith in the competency of the tax office is really quite touching.

By your own admission you know nothing about the procedure, have no experience of claiming and seemingly are not a worker entitled to it anyway.  

 

You just made a pointless, baseless and inaccurate assumption  which you have been called out on. 

 

It's not even relevant to the primary topic under discussion.  Move on and stop desprately trying to further your continuing government bashing.  

Edited November 23, 2020 by ECCOnoob

[Anna B 1,414]

9 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

By your own admission you know nothing about the procedure, have no experience of claiming and seemingly are not a worker entitled to it anyway.  

 

You just made a pointless, baseless and inaccurate assumption  which you have been called out on. 

 

It's not even relevant to the primary topic under discussion.  Move on and stop desprately trying to further your continuing anti-government bashing.  

I know it took me nearly 2 years, endless phonecalls and letters to get a tax rebate on a mistake they made with my tax code. Not only did they not know what they were talking about, I was passed round endless departments and different people, all saying different things contradicting each other. I got the distinct impression I was supposed to give up through sheer exhaustion, and just go away, (a lot of government departments seem to work on this principle.)

In the end I had to employ an accountant to sort it out, which of course I wasn't reimbursed for.

 

I was also critcising the government's assumption that everyone has access and ability to use a computer. This is happening more and more, especially in this pandemic. I used to do voluntary work with a lot of people, some elderly but others not, who were even worse online than I was. That puts them at a huge disadvantage. We see it now with kids who do not have access to computers for home online-education, so the cycle continues. 

Edited November 23, 2020 by Anna B

[alchresearch 215]

11 hours ago, Anna B said:

I know it took me nearly 2 years, endless phonecalls and letters to get a tax rebate on a mistake they made with my tax code. Not only did they not know what they were talking about, I was passed round endless departments and different people, all saying different things contradicting each other.

I know that feeling very well.   I got a self assessment tax bill out of the blue for several thousand pounds a few years ago, with threats of court and prison if I didn't pay.

 

Despite never being self employed and having a life of PAYE they refused to believe they'd made a mistake and their investigation found "secret" accounts and financial consultants and accountant I'd somehow arranged to hide my money.

 

The consultants and accountants they cited confirmed they had never heard of me or that I was a client of theirs, but it fell on deaf ears.  They were "in on it" and were determined to bring me and my associates down for defrauding the good old British government.

 

Turned out they'd put my NI number on someone else's account and were looking at someone else's finances.   Took a few months to get sorted though.

Edited November 24, 2020 by alchresearch

[Delbow 704]

The price of renewable energy continues to fall. Despite all the people who have claimed over the years that 100% renewable energy isn't viable because cloudy/still days etc, the efficiency of renewable energy production continues to improve and the costs of infrastructure continue to fall. The technology to store excess renewable energy to offset days of lower production continues to improve, and is at a fairly early stage so has a long way to go. The price per Kw/H continues to get closer to zero. This is going to put us in a situation at some point where the energy industry should go the way of the music industry, i.e. the companies have to accept much less profit because it becomes so cheap to generate it, almost free. But obviously the energy companies will be appalled at the prospect of us - you and me - having access to limitless, clean, virtually free energy, because their priority is making money for themselves, not providing power to you and me. So, we don't need to be in a situation where companies think about raising our energy prices to cover those who can't afford to meet their needs (of whom there are plenty), but this economic system demands that we maintain the insanity of making basics unaffordable to lots of people, when we could have it all for free if we wanted. Crazy.