I have won £25 on the premium bonds

Lend us a fiver.

I learnt yesterday that, if I'm forced to retire when I'm 55, I'll have £900 a year less than I thought I was getting.

And I was expecting good news, so it was an especially cruel blow.

Could you make up the difference?

A few shifts somewhere that involve a useful staff discount? Sainsburys? B&Q? Maybe a little cafe or record shop?

Or a different solution - OnlyFans, etc - could see that £900 reduced to a fraction of a fast expanding income.

I make about that much each year just by filling in surveys.

Not everyone is suitable to earn money by “”’filling in surveys’’””.

cosmictanya wrote:

Could you make up the difference?

A few shifts somewhere that involve a useful staff discount? Sainsburys?

Interestingly, when I reawakened this tablet at the start of tonight's drinking session browsing, I found the browser open at a Sainsbury's 'careers and opportunities' page which I must presumably have opened when the news sank in.

Marks and Spencer food halls tend to have a lot of older people. For a while, I used to be served by an old teacher in the Kensington one. She was there for a seat, no marking, no teenagers shouting at her (and the ability to get security to put them out if any ever did), and the discount, and preferential access to the room of stock beyond its ‘sell by’ date. Very nice lady.

I've been trying to sort out my tax for last year, but the government gateway won't let me in.

The government don’t give us nuffink, so we don’t give the government nuffink.

Well they're being mighty reluctant to let me tell them about the extra income in question.