It just wasn’t funny at all

It just wasn’t funny at all

I’VE just watched Comic Relief 2021 and the first thing I noticed about this year’s usually magnificent fundraising event was it wasn’t funny. It just felt all wrong. I say it wasn’t funny – there was a James Bond sketch and a bit with Tim Vine, but that was all.

We all know this last year has been different from any we have ever had. I feel it wasn’t necessary to mention Covid or vaccines every few minutes. It almost took on a political feeling.

The no audience situation makes so much of it just flat. It’s a shame because they tried hard. Normally they manage to extract vast sums by making people have a a good laugh, at the same time pointing out the needs of so many worthy causes. For me this year they didn’t. But well done for trying and well done for raising millions once again.

When I got to pensionable age here because I had paid into the system I was informed that I would receive a small pension, to be paid alongside my UK one. At the time I was amazed because I’d only paid in for four years here. It was only just over three grand a year, not a fortune, but I was delighted.

So jump forward four years and imagine my horror and surprise when this week I got a letter telling me they had overpaid me three grand in 2017 and they want it back. They told me what I was going to get – I never asked and I filled in all the forms correctly and Spain consulted with UK pensions. However, it seems I didn’t read the paperwork correctly.

My pension here was only €60 a month and then they topped it up to 300 as that was a minimum monthly pension payment. What I didn’t realise was that you only get the extra 240 if you don’t have any other taxable income and as I declared I had earned some money I now wasn’t entitled to it.

So hey ho the Spanish government has loaned me three grand and are now going to subtract €47 from my pension for the next 70 months. Hopefully that’s the end of it, but knowing the Spanish system it wont be! So folks make sure you read the small print – carefully!

Email: mikesenker@gmail.com

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Mike Senker

Grumpy Old Man Mike Senker provokes laughter and some groans with his spot on observations of life in the modern age.

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