One Minute Money Magazine

dreaminginthedeepsouth:

“I used to think, I’m concerned for my children and grandchildren. Now it’s to the point where I’m concerned about myself.”

-Mike Flannigan (wildfire scientist)

[Edward Smith]

As background, sales people and scammers already have my full name, telephone number and address from somewhere. Fortunately they don’t know my date of birth. The latest scam is designed to discover dates of birth, which would be a major help in accessing personal information etc.

This scam is being executed very skillfully. The person claimed to be from a government department, used good English and sounded like a government administrator (which is good) as opposed to a call centre person or someone with sales training.

They confirmed with me that their records of my name and address were correct, said that they were sending my personal alarm and explained how I should wear it round my neck and operate it in case of emergency. Then, in a matter of fact way, they asked for my date of birth and the penny dropped. It was a phishing call.

I continue to await my personal alarm, but don’t really expect it to arrive. In the meantime, beware.

(13/08/2023)

The Pensions Dashboard is a UK government plan to set up one large database from which every person can access their UK occupational pension data from all of their past and present employers.  The previous post on this blog criticised it on the grounds of complexity and greatly increased risk of fraud.  It could also have mentioned the lack of consent.  The government has not asked me whether I want my personal data put on their new database!

Having said this, there is a risk that, when a pension plan member reaches retirement age, the employer and administrators may have lost contact with them.  There are ad hoc arrangements whereby administrators can ask the DWP to help trace a missing member.  This should be formalised and expanded.  Only small amounts of data such as names, dates of birth and national insurance numbers would be needed.  Either individuals or plan administrators could contact the new government agency and the resources needed would be a mere fraction of those for the proposed Pensions Dashboard.  It should also be possible to implement it well before the current dashboard target date of October 2026.

In the meantime, employees should carefully keep their own records and advise plan administrators of changes of address etc.  There is also a government website called “Find pension contact details”.  It isn’t perfect, but it can often be helpful.  The link is

https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

(24/07/2023)

The Pensions Dashboard is a well intentioned plan from the UK government.  At present, if you want to receive information about your occupational pensions, you need to get it on an individual basis from every plan where you have been a member.  The government intends to compell all plans’ administrators to submit and update data for every member in a consistent format to one large database known as the Pensions Dashboard.

Individuals can then log in to see details of all of their occupational pensions.  In my view, the government has grossly underestimated the task and the implementation date has been postponed more than once.

The Actuary, the magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, has recently warned that a cyber pension fraud crisis is on the horizon.  They base this on the increasing number of pension plans putting their data online, lack of adequate internet security and members’ greater access to cash from their pension savings.  This is a cogent warning from a responsible magazine which is not given to hyperbole.  We need to take great care with the proposed Pensions Dashboard.  The link is

https://www.theactuary.com/2023/05/24/warning-cyber-pension-fraud-crisis-horizon?utm_term=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Adestre

(20/07/2023)

Pepsi Cola’s New Recipe and the UK Sugar Tax

As background, the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (known generally as the Sugar Tax) is designed to persuade manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar in carbonated drinks like Persi Cola. The aim is to reduce obesity in the UK population.

Critics often refer to the “nanny state” and “sin taxes”. It is a fact that many people consume sugary products, especially drinks, to provide energy which is not available from artificial sweeteners. Also we don’t all have a high weight problem and some of us actually need to increase our weight. Please go to https://www.gov.uk/government/news/soft-drinks-industry-levy-comes-into-effect for a full explanation of how the tax works. There are 1,000 ml in a litre, which is about 35 fluid ounces or 10% larger than two US pints.

Being high in sugar meant that Pepsi Cola attracted the highest rate of Sugar Tax at 48p per two litre bottle. They have just reduced the sugar content by 58% which brings them below the threshold. The sweetness is retained by replacing the lost sugar (a natural substance) by artificial compounds.

The Sugar Tax is no doubt well intentioned, but it is arguable whether replacing a natural ingredient with artificial ones is more healthy. People will disagree about the change in taste, but the forum I visited was very critical, e.g. “If I wanted something that tasted like Diet Pepsi, I’d buy Diet Pepsi!”

Finally, if you continue to buy regular Pepsi Cola, do keep an eye on the price. If it hasn’t dropped by at least 24p per litre, someone is profiteering from the reformulation.

(02/07/2023)

This post is about the voting system in England and not about the rights and wrongs of NHS nurses’ pay and working conditions.  It argues that the system is illogical and unfair and it certainly doesn’t please RCN General Secretary & Chief Executive Pat Cullen.  Please see https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/news/uk-nhs-england-strike-ballot-results-2023-announced-270623

All figures are rounded.  43% of eligible members in England voted and 84% of them supported strike action.  This means that 36% voted for striking, 7% voted against and 57% didn’t vote.  The ballot was invalid because fewer than half of members voted.  But suppose that 8% of members had switched from not voting to voting against, hence the revised percentages would have been 36%, 15% and 49%.  A greater degree of oposition to striking would have resulted in a valid result and hence a strike!

One question has to be asked.  If you are a union member opposed to striking, should you abstain rather than vote against?  Under the 2016 Trade Union Act, the answer is probably Yes.

The Government’s intention is clearly to outlaw strikes where only a few union members actually support them.  A more logical system would be to have a minimum percentage of eligible voters to actualy support strike action, say 35% which here would have meant further RCN strikes in England.  Alternatively should the threshold be higher or lower?  Any suggestions?

(28/06/2023)

It’s easy to criticise declining performance and increasing prices and this blog does so from time to time.  However, here’s a constructive suggestion for improvement.

To an increasing extent over several decades, the number of main letter sorting centres has been greatly reduced in favour of a small number of very large units.  For example, everything posted over an area of two or three counties is now taken to the massive centre in Feltham, south London.  Think of the extra cost in drivers, vehicles and fuel before even getting to environmental issues.

Larger post boxes could have a one off replacement with a compartment for local mail and a separate compartment for other post.  The incentive to Jo Public is that using the right compartment will help to speed up delivery.  Most letter post originates from businesses and they should be offered incentives to separate their outgoing mail between local areas.

It can be done.  There will always be a need for the letter post (and Royal Mail if they are loyal to their customers and employees).  Royal Mail need to think of their long term future as opposed to an endless cycle of price rises, cuts in service and more road miles per letter.

(25/03/2023)

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (of MPs) has referred Royal Mail to Ofcom for breaking its statutory “universal service obligation”.  There’s more on https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64972913 , but the referral certainly reflects the low standard of service I have received recently.

Furthermore, Royal Mail is making huge increases to its prices from the 3rd April.  A standard second class letter will cost 75p (a 10.3% increase from the present level of 68p).  A standard first class letter will cost £1.10 (a 15.8% increase from 95p).  These increases are, to say the least, inflationary.  Royal Mail cannot get away with saying that the reduction in number of letters sent is due entirely to the internet.

One piece of good news is that you can avoid these increases for now by buying more stamps before the 3rd April, but as always don’t leave it until the last day.

Finally Royal Mail did advise that existing stamps without QR codes would no longer be valid after 31st January 2023.  This deadline has been extended by six months to 31st July, after which old stamps can be exchanged free of charge for the new type.

(18/03/2023)

The best place to watch is the BBC’s Parliament Channel (Freeview 232), where you can enjoy the statement and debate uninterrupted all day if you wish.  The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, normally begins speaking at about 12.30p.m. (U.K. time), but please check this on the day.

The present economic situation is serious.  We have the effects of the covid pandemic and war in Eastern Europe.  There is a valid argument about who will pay, how they will pay and when, but collectively we will be significantly worse off than we would have been without the pandemic and the war.

Maybe surprisingly I am not expecting much bad news on Wednesday 15th, but this is not a contradiction of the previous paragraph.  A lot of bad news has already been announced, the main example probably being the freezing of income tax thresholds until 5th April 2028.  Except for very low earners, this means that every increase in gross pay of (say) 4% will result in ones income tax bill rising by more than 4% and hence ones net pay rising by less than 4%.  It’s known by economists as fiscal drag and it is unlikely to be reannounced by Mr. Hunt on Wednesday.

(11/03/2023)

Have you ever needed or wanted to complain about bad service, shoddy goods etc., but not known to whom to write?  Asking the people you come across can lead to a variety of probably deliberately unhelpful answers, such as:-

# We don’t know.

# There isn’t an e-mail address.  You have to go online and talk to our chatbot.

# It is against the GDPR/Data Protection Act to give out personal information about colleagues.

No kidding, I’ve had all three of these answers.  However, help is at hand for UK readers.  Just go to www.ceoemail.com , search for the organisation and all the necessary information is there to contact the chief executive directly.

With apologies though for ending on a note of realism, this doesn’t guarantee success.  As I discovered when complaining to Talktalk, the rot in the organisation can start at the top.  Their chief executive failed to reply TWICE!

(28/02/2023)