Member postings for Mike Poole

They publish the date that the April increase commences so I assume the payment will reflect that. We are paid in arrears so provided the executors get their skates on with notification to the DWP then no repayment will be necessary. When my mother passed away no payment was due either way. They will require a refund if payments are made after the date of death. The Tell Us Once service will notify many state departments and council departments which does help quite a bit. I was pleasantly surprised that many utilities and financial organisations have a bereavement department that in my experience were pleasant to deal with and avoid the long telephone queue for other business. I had to laugh that the banks release quite substantial funds with the minimum of fuss but the council make the refund of less than £200 council tax a more difficult exercise.

Mike

It certainly is but it often happens, Andrew started the thread in the tearoom which just like a real tearoom can soon go off the original query. It happens in the other headings as well and I think I have been guilty of partaking in some of those. My last post on this thread was back on topic though.

Mike

Contracting out was only of the SERPS or second state pension element of National Insurance. We were still entitled to the full value of the basic state pension and the private pension you needed to be in to contract out should be at least as good as the second state pension. This was all replaced in 2016 by the New State Pension and contracting out was no longer possible. The New State Pension will be at least as good as the basic state pension which is £141.85 per week. The widely trumpeted £185.15 has a big but accompanying it at the moment as many people will not have the required NI history to collect it. I doubt that many people would be only on the basic as they probably have extra payment from the various top up schemes. Pensions should be hammered into the young as the earlier you start the more comfortable will be your retirement. Of course when you are young you never have enough money as a mortgage and family don’t leave much left for pension payments.

Mike

I think you require more than a wiring diagram as the inputs that you need to use are configured using the parameter table to define their function. The trouble with the manual is that it is written for people familiar with the techniques used. It is very difficult for a novice to understand and extract the relevant information. The drive you have specified is a very competent and flexible piece of equipment, unfortunately the flexibility goes with lots of configurable parameters which is very daunting to understand. Ideally you need a diagram and parameter list from someone who has installed this drive with the setup you require.

Mike

You only need a TV licence to watch live broadcasts and the BBC iPlayer, streamed content from Netflix, Amazon etc. requires no licence. You need to be careful as the streaming services are including some live content. Youngsters watch very little live broadcast TV and I am sure they will be reluctant to buy a licence which they don’t need to anyway. I have no interest in TV but enjoy surfing the internet which has much that interests me whereas TV is unwatchable for me.

Mike

The new state pension is only paid in full to about half of claimants. We are in the changeover phase where a large percentage of people will have been contracted out for some of their career which will compromise their new state pension entitlement. After making voluntary contributions for the last five years, the best I can get out of the state pension is £11 short of the headline figure of £185.15. My National insurance record initially looks rosey with 50 full years but a substantial spell of contracted out years compromised getting the full amount.

Mike

EBay has a wide selection of TTL data books with all the info you could ever want about TTL. Google will find the same information online.

Mike

According to the song “only fools and horses work”

Mike

The new state pension requires 35 qualifying years to collect £185.15 per week, I had 45 years of full contributions but the kicker is that I was contracted out for many years. After topping up my years I now have 50 years of full contributions but the contracted out years mean I still fall short of the £185.15. There is a hell of a lot to working out your pension entitlement even if you have been on PAYE all your life, self employment is another can of worms.

Mike

I always use both but I suppose the rear brake doesn’t help much when the wheel is in the air.

Mike

Everybody’s pension is going to be governed by their work, pension and national insurance history. I worked for one employer all my working life and was contracted out for many years. After 44 years of work I retired at 60, this left me with a national insurance shortfall of 5 years, from 2016 until this year. My pension could be improved by £5.29 per week for each missing year I paid for at the rate of roughly £800 pounds a year for each missing year. As my state pension will be all taxed by altering my tax code applied to my work pension I calculated it would take about 3 years and 9 months to break even. After repaying the £4000 to myself I would be £1000 a year better off with the state pension. The only catch is that I need to live until I am nearly 70 or I lose my investment. This set of circumstances is my story with my particular pension history. I spoke to the DWP to establish that filling the years I had missing would benefit me and they assured me it would, they gave me the number to ring and the key words to negotiate the voice recognition options on the HMRC number, they provide you with an 18 digit number and how to pay details and amazingly it seems like it has worked. It seems that paying a pre 2016 shortfall may not improve your pension so beware. I think giving advice on pensions is covered by a regulatory body and it would be wise to talk to a qualified practitioner. The DWP should know their job as they are responsible for the state pension but that might be rather an optimistic hope, nevertheless that must be the place to start. On the government pension page I had three figures quoted, the first was my pension earned so far, the second if I payed NI contributions this year and the third was the figure if I payed the missing years. Remember we are just blokes down the pub and take what is said with a pinch of salt although many valid points will be raised I would take it as useful background rather than hard facts.

Mike

Machines in a tool room will usually be levelled to a good standard and grouted in. It could be useful for some setups to be able to use a level knowing the table is level. In reality most people will never find it especially useful and unless you check before you rely on the table being level it may lose the original setup if the foundations move. This dry summer has played havoc with many roads so workshops are probably not immune from ground movement and machine levelling could be disrupted.

Mike

As cables in WW2 had all sorts of standards or none it was found that a red cable was included in most cables so the plant I trained in as an electrician settled on using red as the earth. I started my apprenticeship in 1972 and encountered a heater with a red earth in 1974, unfortunately is was still a possibility to encounter this so I had been warned of this. It was also not allowed to be left in this condition and would be correctly rewired.

Mike

It certainly looks good now, that table seems to have led a life of unbelievable carelessness. I have managed to avoid milling the table or vice on my mill or drilling the table of my drill, however i did hit my top slide with a chuck jaw, the bad language didn’t fix it.

Mike

I have known SY used in an application where it moved and the braid broke and pierced the insulation to the conductors. I think SY is intended to be used in static applications and not required to flex. In the car factory it was the standard cable for connecting static devices and many miles were used. In applications where regular movement was required it was not specified or used.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 19/09/2022 10:13:05

HOFR cable is not hard to find and is a rubber type cable that is Heat Oil Flame Retardant hence HOFR. I doubt that it is a natural rubber to meet that requirement but it is nicer than PVC cable for power tool flex.

Mike

The process of proving identity seems to hinge around having a birth certificate and the endorsement of a reputable person who has a public identifiable position. One you have a passport or driving licence you exist. Would the services of a notary public or similar role in NZ not be able to satisfy the requestor of your ID, this costs money in the UK though. Unfortunately business and government are not too bothered about people who can’t or don’t wish to embrace technology systems. Although my finances are in a solid position I fail identity checks that rely on a credit check as I do not use any credit services.This has inconvenienced me when I had to visit my mothers bank with various paperwork to confirm my ID as an executor for her estate. I do feel that business and government agencies should have a workable non tech. option as there is a significant segment of the population who do not own computers or smart devices. A friend down the pub was unable to complete the online boarding check in for his flight to France to visit his brother, I completed it for him which saved him the charge for airport check in. I am happy to use most tech at the moment but as the years tick by it does get more difficult. Fingerprint and face recognition does mean I don’t click the forgotten password button so much these days.

Mike

I recently inherited a Trösser rather like this from my mother, I think she purchased it when we lived in Germany about 1964. As a youngster it was good fun grinding the beans although I was not a coffee drinker as a child. I shall have to give it a clean up and give it a try with some beans, it had an adjustment for the grind preference. It has not been used for many years but it used to have a lovely coffee aroma.

Mike

Just received my third notification, I ignored the first two but doc says an early catch is very treatable so going to go for it. Hope it’s clear as having a camera boldly going where no man has gone before is not on my bucket list. A friend used to have us in stitches with his experiences of cameras investigating all his male orifices, although he was hilariously funny it didn’t make me feel I was missing out.

Mike

For the interest of the members I have just done a spark test on a HQS tap from Tap and Die, a typical display as produced by high carbon steel and very different from the HSS tap I used as a control. I am confident that HQS is a high carbon steel, I am also quite happy that it is a good tap that is fit for purpose although I may choose something else if I was buying for a high volume production use.

Mike