Mike Senker – They just don’t care

I usually moan about things that drive me nuts in Spain, but that’s because this is where I’ve lived for the past 20 years.

However, our daughter lives in the UK so we get involved with things there too. She is trying to start the process to apply for a Spanish Digital Nomad visa as she can work remotely and she’d love to be based in Spain. The first step is to obtain an A1 certificate from the British HMRC. This just confirms that she pays UK National Insurance – simple right? She first requested this form back in November 2023 and was told it would take 40 days to get a response. The 40 days came and went and when her accountant chased HMRC at the end of April they advised that it is now taking 52 weeks to process these applications! 52 weeks – one whole year!! Who, in their right mind, can think it is acceptable for any process to take a whole year? Bear in mind that this delay affects my daughter’s life plans because she cannot proceed without this bloody form. I’d love to know who in HMRC thinks it’s OK for something to take that long and why it takes that long. If it’s because they are overwhelmed with work then surely they need to employ more people to deal with these enquiries. Are they not embarrassed to say it takes a whole year? The truth is they don’t care about the impact this has on people’s lives. I’ve long believed that the people who work in Government or public bodies are all psychopaths with no feelings and no empathy. I’d love to sit in on their interview processes!

Back to Spain and I’ve complained before about the location and number of zebra crossings. They can be on roundabout exits or every 10 metres of a road. I’ve now decided that anyone who enters a zebra crossing from a 45 degree angle whilst staring at their ‘phone is fair game and they are really taking their life in their hands. I swear these pedestrians challenge drivers daily – I’ll just step out from the driver’s blind spot and hope I don’t get run over!

On the 1^st May I was invited back to the CAP group in Estepona to chat about all things grumpy. They are such a lovely group of people who always make me feel very welcome and who laugh in all the right places so it was my pleasure to be there.

Email:mikesenker@aol.com