Worse than I understood and reported. Nenkin

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

I reported that the pension office sent three bills together for the three colander years I owed back payments on and that the first of these is due January 4th. That is not the case. The dates on the three individual bills is the date until each can be used to pay the past due amounts. The actual due date is Dec. 17, 2024, tomorrow!

Late Spring or early Summer this I received the first notice since the only other one I got many years ago. This first in many years stated I was 14 years behind pension payments and that I needed to get caught up. This is as I understand it, an illegal action on their part, attempting to scare you into paying more, far more than statute provides. This being ignored, they sent other notices. One sent late Summer of early Fall demanded full payment of the previous two years of back payments or have the home and car seized regardless who in the household owned them. No payment schedule, just pay or the whole amount or the family is made homeless without even a car to live out of.

This is of the exact same nature of the attacks against poor families I have learned of for not paying into the national healthcare scheme. Those who counseled talking with the various offices are, in my belief, operating from the flawed assumption that those employed in these offices are decent, reasonable people who deal with the public in good faith and who have not had to deal with them in these issues and do not know anyone who has. Bureaucrats are not reasonable. They are not honest. Their one goal is to get as much money from as many people as possible that they can.

Last night, my wife spent the 40 minutes or so online to pay the full two year over due bill with Pay Pay. She is glad to have to points awarded for use of that service. Earlier she told me that I can deduct these payments from my income tax bill but I make so little that I pay the minimum income tax as it is regardless of the deductions I make or not. She then asked if she could keep the bills so that she can deduct them from her taxes to which I agreed.

A flash in the pan, that may turn out to be something or not, is my wife learned that a few years ago the pension law was changed. Paying into it for ten years allows the payer 1/4 of the full pension. In theory, I will be able to ask for a pension at age 62.

That leaves the monthly payments from this past October until I turn 60. Already earning less than my monthly bills, where is the money going to come from for this? My wife suggested I cancel my life insurance policy. I do not think this is a good idea. At least in death, I can leave some money to my family. But there is another reason. If I live to retirement, my policy can be used as a private pension. It grates me to think I have to stop paying into my private pension that has no legal excuse to not pay me so that I can then afford a public pension that can be denied me based solely on my nationality.

I worked on this off and on throughout the day. I wanted to post it earlier but others things kept intruding, so I thought I would do so right after getting home. However, sitting at my spot at the table was an envelope for my private health insurer. I just renewed it and paid the first bill. The second its due at the end of this month, so I was not expecting anything.

“Notice of Discontinuation of Acceptance of Applications for All Insurance Products”

“Please be informed that we have decided to suspend the acceptance of new and renewal applications for all insurance products.”

Emphasis in the original. It then gives the date this will go into effect. I have been with this company for close to 20 years, possibly more. I do not know what, if anything larger this may signify but at the very least, I guess I have until Oct. 2025 to find a new health insurer.

Went to our local post office today for the first time in a while. All employees wore masks with plastic sheeting still up as a barrier between patrons and clerks. December 16, 2015. Many kids were still masked at the testing center the 11 year old took their test at yesterday. Lots of kids, including very young still masked around Tokyo. Monday and Tuesday last week I was a simulated patient. Over the two days, I worked with 26 fourth year medical students, all but three were masked. Wednesday was the last day in class with my 1st year medical students. The first class had 8 present, half were masked including at least one who had stopped wearing one for a while. The other class had 7 out of 12 masked. I neglected to count the nursing students whom, due to their schedules in clinic, have not met for class in 5 months, but I saw many faces for the first time despite teaching them since April this year.

A positive development is that I may be landing a new position at a new med school. For now, not a big bump in income, if at all as there is a scheduling conflict that may mean I lose another class. The class I may lose is a one semester course but I will be gaining a full year course. If I get it, I’ll be working once again with my favorite department head. Last time I worked with him, I was able to spin it off, with his recommendations, in to other gigs. I hope for similar.

After dropping the application for this position in the mail at the post office, I swung by the supermarket because we were out of bread. The parking lot in front of the store was full so I had to park on the roof. Instead of using the elevator to descend, I used the stairs without my cane for the first time outside the home since injuring my knee back in August, I took the stairs back up too. For usual daily mobility, I no longer need the cane. I carry it for buses and trains only. I am terrified of injuring it again before it is restrengthened but normal use, I am walking and climbing stairs as usual, all thanks to that magical garlic water, aka, DMSO.