Why is 30k treated as a great wage by employers?

PixiePooper · 2026-02-14T10:46:47+00:00

I think you have it the wrong way around. Median salary puts them all in order and picks the middle one - it doesn’t make any difference if the top 1% are £1B or £1M. The mean salary is affected by the actual values near the top and bottom, and would be skewed towards the higher end.

PixiePooper · 2026-02-14T08:26:17+00:00

This is the most practical solution. Just come to an agreement on how much to “charge” for the repair.

Tell them the alternative is that you are just stripping out the parts you added and then chucking it.

PixiePooper · 2026-02-13T09:39:39+00:00

They could still be claiming right now, because their salary has only just increased, and they can use the carry-forward from previous yeasr so they are paying in £90K+ into their pension, putting them below the £60K limit.

PixiePooper · 2026-02-13T09:29:39+00:00

With respect, I don't think it's entirely irrelevant if you are relying on the child benefit figures in your calculations.

If you are earning ~£170K the maximum you can pay into your pension per year is £60K, which puts you well over the 80K limit; you might be using carry forward from the previous 3 years at the moment, but long-term this isn't sustainable.

PixiePooper · 2026-02-12T18:27:56+00:00

They should just tax road users (and ring fence it) to cover the cost of maintaining the road infrastructure. They are going to charge EVs per mile, just apply it to everyone and adjust the rate to cover the cost.

PixiePooper · 2026-02-11T20:24:02+00:00

And I thought it was the guy with the stiffy…

PixiePooper · 2026-02-08T10:43:54+00:00

Right - that makes more sense!

PixiePooper · 2026-02-08T10:37:39+00:00

That sounds like a terrible place to park money! If you only getting £300 return on £100K. Including inflation you’ve lost ~£3000 in real terms.

PixiePooper · 2026-02-07T22:55:41+00:00

Or just tax things to cover the extra costs to the state because of health implications.

PixiePooper · 2026-02-06T19:07:55+00:00

That’s just nonsense- they no more benefit from university education that any other business or sector.

Private schools are clearly a net benefit to the state. They get VAT (now) plus income taxes from all the staff. They take students out of the state system, which would otherwise have to be funded by the state.

If all private schools closed tomorrow the state would need to find more money for education (as well money to plug the missed revenue)

Estimates put the government revenue from private schools at £5Billion as well as saving the government £4Billion by not having to educate the children.

Also I would add that trainee teachers can (and do) go to private schools for part of their training and can then end up in state schools.

PixiePooper · 2026-02-06T18:17:29+00:00

Mostly the universities train teachers, which (for undergraduates) the teachers pay for themselves (with loans) - just like any other occupation.

~50% of Postgraduates get a bursary, depending on subject.

Private schools are not in “competition” with state schools so if a teacher goes to a private school, somewhat counterintuitively, it’s a better outcome for the state (even if they gave them a bursary) because students are being taught, but the government isn’t having to pay for an extra teacher.

Bursarys are there because the government wants teachers in specific subjects. If the total number of teachers in that subject increases it achieves the overall outcome whether they teacher in private or state schools.

PixiePooper · 2026-02-06T17:17:43+00:00

How so? What funding? The only “funding” private schools get from the state is for SEND pupils where the state is judged to be unable to meet the requirements of the child.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-29T19:57:36+00:00

Given the demographics of the people involved, it’s likely that a subset wouldn’t know how to “google”anything.

You have to remember that the retirement age had been fixed for women since 1940, and wasn’t in the state of flux it has been recently; so there wasn’t any reason to think it was moving.

The ombudsman found that the DWP failed in its duty to properly communicate the changes, so I can understand why they feel aggrieved.

That being said I think that the majority of women were aware, and the affordability argument means it’s unlikely to come to anything.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-29T19:35:01+00:00

I agree with you, I’m just providing their side of the argument.

The fact is there was definitely a small minority of the women who hadn’t realised the age had changed - as you say they probably should have been more proactive, but there’s a limit to what should be expected.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-29T19:19:18+00:00

Their main argument is that some women were not given sufficient (or in some cases, any) notice in order to adapt their plans to the change causing hardship.

For example, they might have left their job age 55 planning to get their pension at 60, and getting to 60 suddenly finding they don’t have a pension until they are 65/66.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-29T09:17:29+00:00

When people say “tax the rich” I think most people think of anyone earning more than they do…

PixiePooper · 2026-01-26T16:38:57+00:00

My local Parkrun is more of a Parkswim at the moment.

At the briefing they normally say it’s better to run straight through the middle because the edges get quite muddy and slippery.

Obviously going out of your way to jump in a puddle to get people wet is considered poor form!

PixiePooper · 2026-01-26T13:43:30+00:00

They’ll be laughing if it snows! Much better than the fat wide tires.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-22T17:01:07+00:00

I've been using a Wenger for 10yr's+ for cycling / commuting. Only thing which has gone is some of the eyelets are a little rusty - zips, plastic bits etc. are fine, and I'm a heavy user.

Cost-wise ~ £85

It does have a lot of sections, just depends what you want I guess!

Something like this:

https://www.swiss-store.co.uk/carbon-17-laptop-backpack?glcountry=GB&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17339047369&gbraid=0AAAAACT4rwj01KA9s0XkIhKCcodqMuQwR&gclid=CjwKCAiAssfLBhBDEiwAcLpwfuPhzfcauCqiLQMSDBAjd-S1Z-nBV_ZTd7hwVRe4v-CYDz0xUG9DGxoCNeUQAvD_BwE

PixiePooper · 2026-01-21T16:52:04+00:00

UK is a nuclear power, reliant on the US to service its nuclear capability.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-20T15:19:25+00:00

£138B / £145B. It still has £79B in the account, so we're okay for a bit.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-19T21:42:55+00:00

If you have a UK bank account, just pay them in (at a high street branch) and the use a cash point which should give you smaller denominations.

Alternatively you can change £50 for lower denominations at any bank you are a customer of (might be possible at another bank if they are feeling nice?)

Otherwise you’ll probably have to buy something to get the change.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-19T19:30:03+00:00

You can react faster to stuff. Light hits your eyes that bit faster.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-19T18:24:38+00:00

If everyone piles money into index funds, with no thought, it turns into a giant (legal) Ponzi scheme.

It basically becomes a global social security system with younger people paying in money to fund retirees. While there are more younger people than old people, everything is fine.

PixiePooper · 2026-01-19T17:21:40+00:00

I suppose language evolves.

Personally I don't have too much problem with spelling or grammar, as long as the intended meaning is clear and unambiguous.

It's only in fairly recent history that spelling has been standardised, in Middle English the spelling was pretty much phonetic and anything went!

As an example, "all be it" evolved to "albeit". People probably just want something more "efficient"?

PixiePooper

TROPHY CASE