Today, I've been doing a lot of the admin side of moving. This has involved listening to far too much hold-music, negotiating with automated systems, speaking to people with assorted flavours of so-broad-it's-barely-understandable accents from around the globe, and silent swearing when my mobile started to ring *just* as the people at the JobCentre said "Good afternoon, can I take your national insurance number?"
I started my day by sorting out some letters with the date that Steve and I have defined as the Official Moving Date. There's a letter to the landlord, and two to Waveney District Council - one for the Council Tax department and one for the Housing and Council Tax Benefit department (Waveney District Council rarely if ever answer their phones). I emailed the document to myself and went to mum's to print it out. Well, that was the plan. In real life, we discovered mum's printer had run out of ink (magenta ink to be precise, are there any b3tans with a confession to make?). I couldn't easily find a way to convince it that being out of magenta ink did not preclude printing a black and white text-only document, so I let her have the fun of reordering the cartridges while I went to the internet cafe a couple of doors down to print my stuff off there.
Home, a bit of lunch, a bit of a rest, and then I got on the phone, and in the case of TV licensing, the internet, because their automated voice-recognition system is beyond crap. Now it's half past four, and I've decided I'm finished for the phone for the day. My arms and shoulders ache from holding the handset up to my head, and my speech has gone completely, I simply don't make sense any more.
But I'm still not finished for sorting out this move. Let's recap.
DONE:
Notice to Landlord
Council Tax notification
Housing and Council Tax Benefit notification
TV license
Water (supply)
Water (sewerage) (these have to be separate here)
Phone (calls)
Phone (line rental)
Internet
Incapacity Benefit (except, I have to call them again once I've arranged a new GP at the other end)
CAN'T BE DONE YET:
Electricity (need a final meter reading five days before Official Move Date)
TO DO TOMORROW:
Bank
Building Society
Credit Card
Insurance
South Warwickshire PCT (for GP, dentist, etc. Still not entirely sure how this will work)
Can anyone think of anything I've missed? Gas isn't on the list because this is an electric-only flat, and I don't have a car or pet or gun license... ideas welcome.
This afternoon has reassured me that I still have a certain level of job skills, but reminded me that I mustn't get ahead of myself and apply for jobs where I'll have to concentrate for more than an hour or so at a time.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
DWP for Retirement Pension. Don't laugh! Your National Insurance credits are still ticking up, and its best to keep them in the loop.
Theoretically Incap should tell them, but...
What about Dentists? Cancelling this end or finding one that end.
What number would I call for that? I thought the whole point of continuing with the Incap was to make sure my NI contributions were sound.
I don't have a dentist this end, I used to, but haven't been to see him for a good couple of years.
I'm impressed! I would have struggled to do all that in one day (phones scare me a bit). Good luck with the rest of it.
Actually yeah. I keep forgetting that Incap and RP both use the same computer system for keeping addresses up to date.
Your NI conts are safe!
Sorry. My bad. :)
For doctors and dentists, you just need to find one and register. I imagine you'll just need to ask Steve who he is with, but otherwise you go here and type in your new postcode. They give you a list of which dentists or GPs are closest - you then need to ring them up and ask if you can register with them.
It can take a while for medical records to move across so it's good to do this if you're on any prescription meds. Mind you, our old GP gave us about two months worth to keep us going before we left Whitby - something to bear in mind when you see your doctor this week.
Glad it appears to be going so smoothly.
Thanks Jo!
Goldfish, that was an incredibly useful link. Thirty seconds from clicking on it, I was on the phone to a medical centre just around the corner from Steve's who told me that yes, they are taking on new patients. The only slight hitch is that I can't pre-emptively register - I have to wait until I'm moved, then physically go in, fill out a form, and have an appointment with a nurse, before they'll do anything or get my notes.
I will also mention it to the GP here next week, I am sure she will be fine about making sure I have enough meds to tide me over. And happily, there's nothing I'm on that will be drastic if I stop taking it for a week or so, it's mostly just painkillers.
...hang on, no gun license?
:P
Have you thought about forwarding the post, cancelling the milk, papers, telling isp for broadband?
Post a Comment