[BITList] A Telegraph reader thought you would be interested inthis article

[HUGH]

Mike,

The article mentions a word with which I'm not familiar (note the attention
to grammar) - "savings".  My dictionary is across the room, could you look
it up in yours and let me know what it implies.  The article also refers to
vast sums of money like £6000 - surely shum mishtake?  Are there pensioners
who can recall ever having had that much cash money, let alone have it now?
Why would anyone who once had £6000 need a pension?  Such people are
obscenely rich, for god's sake.

Changing mood - when I took early retirement on the grounds of sanity I did
so partly on the inducement of certain amounts of tax free cash.  On the
first convenient day after collecting my jotters and all items of office
gear not nailed down on my desk, I called at the local Job Centre to sign on
as unemployed.  A large and homely lady interviewed me.  She produced an
enormous form I was supposed to fill in, but declined to give it to me - she
said it was mostly rubbish and she'd fill it in for me.  I gathered such
would annoy "them upstairs", that being why she was doing it.  So she asked
me questions and wrote my answers into the form. When she came to the bit
about the size of the McIntyre bank account she looked straight into my face
and slowly asked, "Have you got more than £3000 in the bank?", while shaking
her head just a wee bit from side to side.  I didn't get her drift, so she
repeated the question.  When I said that to my knowledge we had no such
amount she smiled widely.  I didn't get a penny from the state - before the
quarantine period was over I started as an estimator with a swimming pool
firm.

So, much depends on the individual - there are numpties and jobsworths
everywhere.  A few years back we visited the same establishment, seeking
advice on a matter concerning my wife. We met a brick wall.  Passing the
same facility in Greenock we popped in on the off chance.  The young girl at
the reception desk solved the problem in two minutes without leaving her
seat.  In the months after we got married we experienced delays and idiocy
getting Mrs Mac's income tax adjusted.  One letter, and I wish I'd kept it,
demanded to know her home address.  If the stupid fools had looked at what
they were writing on the envelope, all their difficulties, and some of ours,
would have been resolved.  One Saturday morning we called at the relevant
office, having heard it was open on that day and time.  A bright chap
listened to our tale and diagnosed the problem.  "Until now," he said,
"you've been dealing with morons.  Now, you're dealing with me."  A couple
of days later the whole sorry matter was resolved to our satisfaction, ie,
they sent us the money Janet was due.

Hugh.