dpb

I missed out Ni for ten years ( didn't inform them I was self employed,only my second conviction )
Make fek all difference in the long term. - probably get twenty quid a week the way things are going

Chip

I think SE are included in the new £140 for all pension payment.

Lydia72

You must live in a nicer area than the one I worked in Ours was like a combination of Shameless and Jeremy Kyle (and that was just the staff).
Usually people are complaining about JC's so it makes a nice change to hear about someone being treated with respect.
With regards to the NI contributions I know at our JC they would advise people not to bother signing on if it was just to get their stamp and they thought they had enough qualifying years...
...nothing at all to do with keeping the official unemployment figures down...

paulr

Why are people being made to feel guilty about signing on. You are entitled to it. Just as millionaires are entitled to child benefit. Do they give it up, i doubt it. If the country can't afford it, it's up to the Gov't to sort it out, but if its a legal entitlement, claim it.

AndyBaker

+1

Lydia72

Millionaires aren't entitled to child benefit.

Some millionaire pensioners have tried to give back winter fuel allowance - Alan Sugar being one of them.

No one should be made to feel guilty if they feel they genuinely need benefits. Personally I would like to see the welfare system used as a safety net and not a lifestyle choice.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

When I was out of work I didn't claim either.

Mainly a matter of pride I suppose. And if I really needed the cash I could have sold the scoob (instead I laid it up, sold some of my Hifi gear and bought a £200 VW polo to razz around in).

Turbohot

RIP to Maggie.

What I want to know why she was in Ritz at her end of life months. Why didn't she die like any other normal person in a care home? I understand that she might have been able to afford it (or her kids could afford it for her), and she wasn't any normal person- she was the Iron Lady , but still. You know what I mean.

Sorry if this has been raised before. I don't know what you all have been talking about on last 9 pages TBVH.

dpb

She was in the ritz cos this was the lifestyle she aspired to

Matteeboy

Dennis Thatcher made millions; this may have helped.

But why let facts get in the way of yet more Thatch bashing?

dpb

He inherited a family business, and had a good retirement

hodgy0_2

she had a choice (and every right to exercise it) -- an advantage wealth gives you

however, strongly rumored that the Ritz bill was being paid by someone else

romford-boy

Do you remember the dead guest sketch in Fawlty Towers - well I kid you not but Cleese got the idea from speaking to the then manager of the Ritz, who admitted that the Ritz had a lot of customers who died during their stay. It happens at the Ritz because those who are nearing the end of their life know that everything will be handled perfectly and with dignity.

dpb

Probably that weedy little **** Tony Blairr, her protege

nik52wrx

More likely the Barclay brothers

Nik

Turbohot

Regarding the rumour, who is suspected to have been paying?

Oh, right. Perhaps the Ritz works like rich people's care home. A regular Joey Blogger may have to sell his/her house to get into a care home/nursing home for £500/week expense, and die there.

Turbohot

Oh, right.

romford-boy

Don't don't so stupid and narrow minded. If you have a house that is valued at £182,500 and sell it you can indeed pay for a nursing home, or that same value would get you 365 days in the Ritz, so average Joe Bloggs could see out his or her days in the Ritz.

Turbohot

Don't be so judgemental to call me stupid and narrow-minded. I'm just putting an observation forward. If you want to put your view forward, do it without getting defensive and thus offensive. Not everyone has to agree with your view. And, not every old person knows that they would die in 365 days. I bet Maggie didn't know that she was to have a stroke that day.

romford-boy

I stand by my point and any implied offence you may have perceived, you were making judgements about how people choose to spend their money and extrapolating unfairness in living your own life style as you see fit. She could have easily chosen to pass away in a squalid fashion like Eva Rausing (bar the drugs), keeping her cash stashed away - to do so in the Ritz exhibits some reasonable and astute logic.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Thatcher was like an air strike called in by the establishment, the population were also mightily sick of the millitancy, I remember an advert "Its not go on the soft toilet paper, everybody out" as a comment on the unions and it wasnt that far wide of the mark, too many big ego's that had twisted the trade union movement to their own ends, that seemed hell bent on destroying their own industries. Had the unions been reasonable and stuck to their original remit, had they not got crazed on the power their forebears had fought for then perhaps the Thatcher years may not have been neccessary, of course the unions were a reaction to the working man being dicked for a long time by the establishment but I get the impression they got beyond equality and a right of reply into posturing and unneccessary millitancy.

So, this Rottweiler of politics lands and shreds what was there, she was kind of like Radio Therapy for a cancer which took a lot of healthy cells out as well, thing is, without her I do think the host would have died by the mid eighties, the sell off, the bloody minded pursuance of the unions and the general agressive nature was needed, if unpopular, how long could have things have continued, her short sightedness sellign stuff off is coming home to roost but I would have thought that in the interim things may have compensated, sadly not.

Politicians can only work with what they have, she cane in and had **** all to work with and did a sterling job, we the population of this country need to take a look back at ourselves and decide why we are in this state, are we taking more than we give back do we care ? for those that dont contribute, if they can, they need to not be provided for, there isnt enough to go round any more and politicians are now too constrained for there ever to be another Thatcher.

hodgy0_2

see the post 285 above

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Frederick_Barclay

dpb

Sorry Romford, maybe she did you some good but

Turbohot

Look, I admire you standing by your point. No one expects you to move away from it. You calling me stupid and narrow-minded is a judgement that you throw to someone who is merely stating an observation. Any way, doesn't matter.

Of course, many general public members of Great Britain have their goats bleating for she is an ex-public leader, not some pure capitalist or mega entertainment industry star with no care for the world but for self. Therefore, there are people who think that even till the end, she laughed at the face of the poor by residing at the glitzy Ritz for the top-notch care that a normal person can't even dream of.

Personally, I think everyone reserves their right to spend their money the way they want. Yet again, how politicians lead their lives (and even die) is a public matter. Even if they are former politicians, yes. Even if their relatives made millions, yes. How and why? I'm not explaining that for it is very, very simple to understand.

Turbohot

Oh, right.

hodgy0_2

and yet with all the social and economic upheaval she delivered, but with the establishment still firmly in charge once again, it reminds me of the words spoken by Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, in “The Leopard” a novel by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

"everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same"

jonc

Perhaps you can take some small comfort and delight in the fact that this frail woman lived out her last few remaining years having to be reminded that her husband was dead and then having to go through mourning the loss over and over again, that she died alone without any of her loved ones by her bedside.

dpb

I'm sobbing as we speak lol

jonc

Yep, thought so, speaks volumes about your character.

RA Dunk

And I'm sure Thatcher went to bed at nights sobbing at the amount of people she put out of jobs.

Naa I don't think she did either, no quarter given with that bitch as she didn't give any herself.