Why does life seem to shit in the UK

[RosieLeaLovesTea]

Endless threads about schools going down the pan and poor behaviour in schools making teachers want to leave.
NHS waiting lists and quality of care medical is poor.
housing market market in crisis and affordability of housing

I read the threads and it feels like life in the UK is really shit. Plus crap weathe for 8 months of the year.

how did we get here snd what is the solution?

Dh had problems persuading British Gas that an empty flat with no one in it doesn't use gas. They kept sending him estimated bills and refused to accept that he only had the standing charge to pay. It took six months to get the bill reduced. It was like talking to a brick wall. Goodness only knows how much money they manage to con off people simply by bombarding them with false figures. It must be quite the money-spinner for them.

We’re still being billed for a property we don’t own, we have supplied documents to show the property was sold, we have provided details from the land registry showing who does own it, the current owners have also confirmed they own it and their mortgage provider has also confirmed it. This isn’t considered enough evidence for british gas, oddly enough british gas are unable to tell us what their criteria is for proving home ownership.

We sold it over 18 months ago!

That's like our own HMRC and their shambolic PAYE/NIC system for employers. Rather than buying in an accounting system, they decided they needed their own! It's a complete shambles and has been for years. There is no facility to see a "statement" of charges and payments like you can get from cheap (and free) book-keeping software! Something so simple, and yet HMRC bugger it up and produce a system that's so bad, even their staff can't understand it. Lists of numbers that don't add up, figures on their system that don't match figures submitted to them (into their system!). It's hopeless. So it's not just firms that screw things up with basic poor admin, it's governmental bodies too!

With first house we had issue with British gas trying to bill us for pervious owners usage - it was passed to debt collector. In end did letter recorded delivery to their complaint department and debt collectors - listing information and photo copies of proof and it stopped.

Same with child tax credit people who were insisting they were not sending letter to previous address when we had them in front of us - one recorded delivery letter and it got sorted - same with passport for DD1 before they improved the service - she was caught in some blackhole - sent letter they rang her and it was sorted. Actually same with smart meter we gave in and got fitted that wasn't fitted right - all the phone calls and e-mails got us nowhere one letter and engineer was sent out.

I think letters must get tracked better or they bring complaint to new eyes or I just write a mean letter. Though Mum says sister who worked in call center for years can get them to do what she wants on phone- she got British gas to pay compensation to Mum with few calls- to point the boiler issue cost her nothing.

I used to work for one of the big 4 companies that do all the government IT projects - no surprise government have problems they do but government needs better procurement people to work on contracts and more willingness buy off the shelf products.

Someone on a MN thread said that if you're a single, childless HR taxpayer you should move to Norway or Sweden, as you'll pay the same amount of tax there but you'll actually feel the benefit from it, whereas in the UK all you do is fund everyone else's provision and receive nothing whatsoever yourself.

I think there's probably some truth in that. I wish I were an attractive candidate for emigration!

A quick google will tell you that Sweden’s health care is pretty much suffering from many of the problems the U.K. NHS are facing, as are many European countries. Like a lot of places it can be a lottery where you live and what kind of care you can access. Same as here. It’s reported Sweden also has problems with staff shortages, long waiting times, rural care not being as consistent or as good quality as other areas. A growth in people using private care because they are dissatisfied with the free healthcare plus a worrying growth in antibiotic resistance because it has been used too often/without proper consideration. These problems are pretty much rife everywhere. If you live somewhere in the U.K. ( or abroad) where you don’t feel your nhs/health provider is functioning properly, you are going to assume it’s country wide but honestly where I live it’s been pretty fantastic in my experience. I don’t think we as a country are alone in our problems.

They're also struggling with the consequences of large scale immigration from cultures who don't hold Swedish values by a long way.

Apologies!! Didn't mean to make that sound like it did!!
Its must be so stressful!!

So sorry *juggleit *didn’t mean it to come out like that.

That isn’t the only company to screw around with me

I am currently trying to work out why when I scanned my card at a petrol station to pay at pump, I am being told that the card payment despite a hold of £120 being authorised on the card and the machine letting me fill up with fuel, I didn’t actually pay.

I cannot work it out.

The world doesn’t make sense