Jun wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2019 11:09 pm
1. National Insurance IS a tax paid on earnings. All the money goes into the same pot as taxes. None of it is invested to fund your pension, it's a tax and the money is spent almost as fast as they collect it.
2. Governments are continually changing the rules on pensions. So much so, that even my statement earlier today isn't quite correct, as I forgot the last rule change.
1. Yet you have said in the past that those who live overseas should not receive state pensions! I did not pay UK taxes when living overseas. I paid a voluntary National Insurance rate, the amount being determined exclusively by the Brutish government which had no clue what I earned. So it had no relation whatever to what i earned. I have a stack full of letters from the relevant government department telling me that this was to qualify for a pension! And those letters informed me I had to pay for 40 years to qualify for the full basic pension - not 30, although that is relatively immaterial.
2. I perfectly understand that rules will change. What pisses me off, as I am sure it would you, is when governments fail to notify individuals of changes which specifically affect them and their future.
fountainhall wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2019 11:26 pm
1. Yet you have said in the past that those who live overseas should not receive state pensions! I did not pay UK taxes when living overseas. I paid a voluntary National Insurance rate
I said those who were living abroad and not paying UK taxes should not get a UK pension. I stand by that.
National Insurance is recognised as a tax. If you have paid that tax, you are entitled to the pension that accrues from it. That is how it should be.
Jun wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 4:12 am
National Insurance is recognised as a tax. If you have paid that tax, you are entitled to the pension that accrues from it. That is how it should be.
My last word on this issue. As defined by the UK government, National Insurance is a contribution made by an employee and the employer based on the actual full level of earnings of the employee. For those living overseas, it is impossible for the UK government to have details of a citizen's income. So it impossible for either party to pay an assessed contribution to the UK government. Further, the overseas employer does not pay tax or deduct taxes on UK citizens working for it on behalf of the UK government. So for overseas UK workers, it is not a tax!! It cannot be!
Earlier this week Boris Johnson effectively kicked 21 members of his party out of the party because they had voted against him. (I'll bet Trump wishes he could do that!) One was Kenneth Clarke, the oldest serving Member of Parliament with 49 years as an MP. Clarke had held positions, including Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary, with four Conservative administrations. Another was Winston Churchill's grandson. It was the most brutal purge since World War 2.
Yet Clarke points out that had Jonson's predecessor done that with those who rebelled against her, Boris Johnson would have been out! Regarding the Brexit deal that brought down Teresa May, he adds -
“It’s no good Boris saying there’s fundamentally, in principle, something wrong with the outlines of the deal we’ve got, because he voted for it.”
The trans-Atantic Alliance continues to hold up well with a pair of liars and dissemblers in power.
fountainhall wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:01 am
My last word on this issue. As defined by the UK government.....
Governments tend to use creative descriptions. Most independent commentators consider National Insurance to be a tax.
It has all the characteristics of a tax. If you are employed in the UK, earning above a minimum threshold, you have to pay it. The money raised goes into the same pot as income tax, VAT and all the other taxes they raise.
Here is an example from moneyadviceservice.org
"National Insurance
National Insurance contributions are a tax on earnings paid by employees and employers and help to build your entitlement to certain state benefits, such as the State Pension and Maternity Allowance."
Back to the awful Boris Johnson. Last night he lost another vote in the House of Commons, yet another attempt to call a General Election bit the dust. That makes him the worst Prime Minister in recent UK history. Of his immediate predecessors, the following is the number of parliamentary votes they lost -
Thatcher - 4 in 11 years
Major - 6 in 7 years
Blair - 4 in 10 years
Brown - 3 in 3 years
Cameron - 10 in 6 years
May - 33 in 3 years
Johnson - 6 in 6 days
People are finally realising the man is a blustering buffoon.
Incidentally, Lord Sugar is a long time Labour Party member. I'm not sure if he remains in it under Mr Corbyn.
I would hope anyone who doesn't like the Conservatives would turn to the Liberals, rather than the Labour party. It's nothing like Labour under Tony Blair.
Well, now we know what a no deal Brexit might look like if Boris Johnson gets his way and Britain crashes out of the EU on October 31 without a deal with the EU. The government has been planning for this, according to a Minister who recently resigned from his government. Thanks to MPs demanding the release of Operation 'Yellowhammer', a hitherto secret government document, the public now knows what the government believes will be a "reasonable" worst case scenario. Note the word "reasonable".
The worst disruption at Channel crossings might last for up to three months before improving
Lorries could face maximum delays of two-and-a-half days before being able to cross the UK border
Possible immigration delays for UK holidaymakers at the Channel Tunnel, ferry crossings and airports
A likelihood of "significant" electricity price rises in Northern Ireland
Medicine supplies will be "particularly vulnerable to severe extended delays"
A potential reduction in the UK's ability to prevent animal disease outbreaks due to reduced supplies of veterinary medicines
Supplies of some fresh food will decrease, while supermarket prices may also rise
Panic-buying could increase food supply problems
The possibility of urgent action to ensure access to clean water if there is a failure in the supply of chemicals - although the likelihood of this is considered "low"
Disruption in law enforcement data sharing between the UK and EU
Concerns that Gibraltar has not prepared well enough for a no-deal Brexit
"Significant amounts" of police time being taken up by protests and a possible rise in public disorder
The risk of disruption to fuel supplies in the south east of England
Possible clashes between UK and EU fishing vessels
UK efforts to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are "likely to prove unsustainable"
One paragraph of the document has been redacted due to "commercial sensitivity", the government said.
Worst case scenario or not, this is the madness the idiot Johnson is determined to inflict on the UK population come hell or high water! AS the article also states -
From the last 30 years of British political history, any one of the potential outcomes outlined in the document would be a national emergency and a crisis on an epic scale. https://news.sky.com/story/operation-ye ... d-11807339
