08.30 Good start to the day and work on writing until 10 am and then some communications and upload and print Blog. Decide to watch Dr Who from Saturday and then attempt to complete income tax return. Weather is wet and grey. The Dr Who engaged and was not a programme suitable for children as the threat could not be seen, dissolving all human flesh in an instant. Moreover there was no resolution with the episode, one of two leaving Catherine Tate transformed by a well meaning young girl into a speaking communication's terminal with her automaton face encased. Because of the quality of the acting and production the sinister and horror aspect was more effective than many of specialist horror moves which teenagers and young people, and some not so go to see for a safe thrill at weekend.
I had a cook lunch such was the effect of the weather and where artificial light was required as the skies darkened. I spent the first part of the afternoon working out the changes to the new Local Government Pension scheme which came into effect in April of this year. The entitlement of those already in the scheme do not change in relation to service before April but after that date and for new entrants the new system applies Under the old scheme they would have got a annual pension of £20000 40/80th which would increase by a nationally agreed figure subsequently if their final salary was £40000 a year, and a once only lump sum of 3 times the initial pension ie £60000. For someone entering the scheme now and working for 40 years they would get a pension of 40/60th that is two thirds which if their final salary was £60000 a pension of £40000 instead of £30000 under the existing scheme but no lump sum. This means they would have receive the pension for over 10 years to have an improved position. The position for those in the already in the scheme means that for someone with 20 years service before April who retires on a final wage of £40000 they get a first part pension of £10000 and a lump sum of £30000 and then for the second period of 20 years of service they will get a pension of £13333 but no additional lump sum.
The price being paid for the changes is a sliding scale of superannuation payments and perhaps the most significant the raising of the earliest age when benefits can be taken from 50 to 55 and instead of the local authority adding years of benefit the employee gives up some benefit f they wish to retire early. Whereas the previous retirement age was 60 females and 65 men is now jointly 65 and moreover the benefits can be postponed until 75 and for each year of delay similar to the state pension the pension is increased. For the first time a same sex partner in a civil partnership can be nominated to receive benefits and their are improvements for part time workers and in death benefit for those who die in service. Believing I had grasped what they changes were all about it was time to sort out income tax for the last financial year and my coding for the present year,
I have spent two and half hours attempting to fill my income return for 2007 2008. I continued where I had previously left off with being unable to enter information about my occupational pension in one of the boxes so I telephoned the local office for assistance as advised on the online contact system and this was helpful and provided the opportunity also advised about my tax coding position where the notice for the current year included a project income about 25% more than will be the situation. I had first queried this when the notice arrived but was told to await receipt of the information about the optional pension, Whether this will affect allowances and therefore reduce the tax due I suspect not. However when I proceeded with filling in the form I reached another circular situation which told me that the only way I could an answer was use the delete button except there was no delete button. When I put in a nominal amount of £1 to make progress although I was told the form contained no errors I was then given a schedule of payment required as if I was self employed and not part of the PAYE system and where the amounts related to national insurance contributions and student fees which would be laughable were it not for the waste of time and mounting frustration. I therefore decided to put up the white flag contacted the local officer and asked for a paper return and was immediately arranged without question. I suspect I am not the first to make such a request, or the last. It continues to rain, sometimes it is a heavy which does not omen well for tomorrow's cricket. Time for some tea and perhaps a catch up of more TV with a new Inspector Lynley mystery.
Having eaten well at midday I restricted this evening to a sandwich and a banana with custard. I watched a familiar Pie in the Sky with Richard Griffiths the restaurateur and detective of a rotund frame who provides a picnic lunch for the top police brass on a country shoot of wildlife. The programme was enjoyed as was the 101st showing of the Stones in the Park the 1969 concert where for once the Police revised the crowd estimates upwards from a quarter to a half a million. Sandwiched between these programmes was an arts feature on the creature of the Muslim Art gallery at the Victoria and Albert museum. Inspector Lynley waited in the wings as the weather improved with the promise of a dry day tomorrow before more rain for the rest of the week. I needed to do some more work today if I could rouse myself.
In some respects I wish I had decided not to view the Inspector Lynley which became progressively more horrific s the 90 programme development. The basic storyline was bad enough, the adduction and rape of two teenage girls, the death of one, and the likely death of the second if she was not found, because as a diabetic she had been without her insulin injections. Over the first hour the team led by Lynley find and save the girl and persuade the wife of the killer and rapist to testify against the husband for a lenient treatment on the basis that she acted under the control and terrorism of her husband. However Lynley is not convinced and as a consequence of further investigation is able to prove that the wife was an equal partner in the abduction of the girls and had an active involvement with the murder of the first girl and in the earlier murder of a cousin, and that all three crimes had been videoed. The psychology of both killers and their family backgrounds were chillingly accurate. There are people like this couple in our society and we all are their potential victims.
Having drawn attention that former newspaper editor Piers Morgan is everywhere there on the TV yesterday, he was hosting yet another programme this evening, a short series about the development of Sandbanks where Harry Rednap is one of those who bought a property which is now worth several millions and where an apartment in the right location can be worth a million and half and of course you will need your 100000 car, or cars and the several million boat as well as the gardening and home helps and personal security.
Finally I could not resist a film with the title Casablanca Express which appeared to be worth watching with Glenn Ford, Donald Pleasance and Sean Connery's son, Jason playing a James Bond like role rescuing Churchill, taken prisoner while travelling in carriage attached to the Casablanca Express. Throughout the film I howled at the pathetic attempt to represent Churchill in situation of much shooting between combatants and the killing and injuring of many of the ordinary passengers on the train including nun, a priest, a floozy and a little girl although surprise surprise all ends well, and then there is the twist with justifies the enterprise. Churchill had made his way separately and the man on the train was his double, It is sill an awful film which was only released in theatre in Italy and France and the shown on TV and is available on DVD. It was the right kind of nonsense for bedtime
I had a cook lunch such was the effect of the weather and where artificial light was required as the skies darkened. I spent the first part of the afternoon working out the changes to the new Local Government Pension scheme which came into effect in April of this year. The entitlement of those already in the scheme do not change in relation to service before April but after that date and for new entrants the new system applies Under the old scheme they would have got a annual pension of £20000 40/80th which would increase by a nationally agreed figure subsequently if their final salary was £40000 a year, and a once only lump sum of 3 times the initial pension ie £60000. For someone entering the scheme now and working for 40 years they would get a pension of 40/60th that is two thirds which if their final salary was £60000 a pension of £40000 instead of £30000 under the existing scheme but no lump sum. This means they would have receive the pension for over 10 years to have an improved position. The position for those in the already in the scheme means that for someone with 20 years service before April who retires on a final wage of £40000 they get a first part pension of £10000 and a lump sum of £30000 and then for the second period of 20 years of service they will get a pension of £13333 but no additional lump sum.
The price being paid for the changes is a sliding scale of superannuation payments and perhaps the most significant the raising of the earliest age when benefits can be taken from 50 to 55 and instead of the local authority adding years of benefit the employee gives up some benefit f they wish to retire early. Whereas the previous retirement age was 60 females and 65 men is now jointly 65 and moreover the benefits can be postponed until 75 and for each year of delay similar to the state pension the pension is increased. For the first time a same sex partner in a civil partnership can be nominated to receive benefits and their are improvements for part time workers and in death benefit for those who die in service. Believing I had grasped what they changes were all about it was time to sort out income tax for the last financial year and my coding for the present year,
I have spent two and half hours attempting to fill my income return for 2007 2008. I continued where I had previously left off with being unable to enter information about my occupational pension in one of the boxes so I telephoned the local office for assistance as advised on the online contact system and this was helpful and provided the opportunity also advised about my tax coding position where the notice for the current year included a project income about 25% more than will be the situation. I had first queried this when the notice arrived but was told to await receipt of the information about the optional pension, Whether this will affect allowances and therefore reduce the tax due I suspect not. However when I proceeded with filling in the form I reached another circular situation which told me that the only way I could an answer was use the delete button except there was no delete button. When I put in a nominal amount of £1 to make progress although I was told the form contained no errors I was then given a schedule of payment required as if I was self employed and not part of the PAYE system and where the amounts related to national insurance contributions and student fees which would be laughable were it not for the waste of time and mounting frustration. I therefore decided to put up the white flag contacted the local officer and asked for a paper return and was immediately arranged without question. I suspect I am not the first to make such a request, or the last. It continues to rain, sometimes it is a heavy which does not omen well for tomorrow's cricket. Time for some tea and perhaps a catch up of more TV with a new Inspector Lynley mystery.
Having eaten well at midday I restricted this evening to a sandwich and a banana with custard. I watched a familiar Pie in the Sky with Richard Griffiths the restaurateur and detective of a rotund frame who provides a picnic lunch for the top police brass on a country shoot of wildlife. The programme was enjoyed as was the 101st showing of the Stones in the Park the 1969 concert where for once the Police revised the crowd estimates upwards from a quarter to a half a million. Sandwiched between these programmes was an arts feature on the creature of the Muslim Art gallery at the Victoria and Albert museum. Inspector Lynley waited in the wings as the weather improved with the promise of a dry day tomorrow before more rain for the rest of the week. I needed to do some more work today if I could rouse myself.
In some respects I wish I had decided not to view the Inspector Lynley which became progressively more horrific s the 90 programme development. The basic storyline was bad enough, the adduction and rape of two teenage girls, the death of one, and the likely death of the second if she was not found, because as a diabetic she had been without her insulin injections. Over the first hour the team led by Lynley find and save the girl and persuade the wife of the killer and rapist to testify against the husband for a lenient treatment on the basis that she acted under the control and terrorism of her husband. However Lynley is not convinced and as a consequence of further investigation is able to prove that the wife was an equal partner in the abduction of the girls and had an active involvement with the murder of the first girl and in the earlier murder of a cousin, and that all three crimes had been videoed. The psychology of both killers and their family backgrounds were chillingly accurate. There are people like this couple in our society and we all are their potential victims.
Having drawn attention that former newspaper editor Piers Morgan is everywhere there on the TV yesterday, he was hosting yet another programme this evening, a short series about the development of Sandbanks where Harry Rednap is one of those who bought a property which is now worth several millions and where an apartment in the right location can be worth a million and half and of course you will need your 100000 car, or cars and the several million boat as well as the gardening and home helps and personal security.
Finally I could not resist a film with the title Casablanca Express which appeared to be worth watching with Glenn Ford, Donald Pleasance and Sean Connery's son, Jason playing a James Bond like role rescuing Churchill, taken prisoner while travelling in carriage attached to the Casablanca Express. Throughout the film I howled at the pathetic attempt to represent Churchill in situation of much shooting between combatants and the killing and injuring of many of the ordinary passengers on the train including nun, a priest, a floozy and a little girl although surprise surprise all ends well, and then there is the twist with justifies the enterprise. Churchill had made his way separately and the man on the train was his double, It is sill an awful film which was only released in theatre in Italy and France and the shown on TV and is available on DVD. It was the right kind of nonsense for bedtime
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