Your Taxes & Government Waste

spen666
spen666 Posts: 17,709
edited July 2008 in Campaign
As part of my role, I am often required to travel to a different office.

To get there, I usually need to take an early train out of London. To get on that train ( circa 8am) and have an open ticket to return anytime the same day has recently increased from £80 to £206 return owing to changes in the ticketing system

We are told that there are budgetary restraints at work.

So I have sourced tickets as follows- advance purchase ticket from london to X £11.50
Saver return X to Destination £49.00
Open single X to London £20.00

This means getting 1 train from london to destination and one train back. No need to change train just use different tickets for each portion of the trip. Indeed on the outward journey, I have a seat reservation in same seat all the way from London to Destination.

Total cost £80.50
Number of trains travelled on 2 (return trip)
Tickets held 3


Was I praised for saving work £125.50?

No, I was told it is not appropriate to travel on that many tickets and I should not have arranged those tickets but got the £206 ticket


Good to see Tax payers money is being treated appropriately
Want to know the Spen666 behind the posts?
Then read MY BLOG @ http://www.pebennett.com

Twittering @spen_666

Comments

  • squired
    squired Posts: 1,153
    Yet in the private sector, where I work, my company recently sent out an email telling us to do the exact sort of thing you've done. Also, for flights it is recommended that we check options with budget airlines. I guess the difference is that we have a finite amount of money before we make a loss. In government you either borrow more or tax more. That is a particular issue under the current government of course.
  • MrHulot
    MrHulot Posts: 173
    Yet not all Government are the same - my place encourages what spen666 did - cash is certainly not thrown at travel. For trips to Europe some have even gone as far as using the coupons that sometimes appear in the national press.
  • spen666
    spen666 Posts: 17,709
    MrHulot wrote:
    Yet not all Government are the same - my place encourages what spen666 did - cash is certainly not thrown at travel. For trips to Europe some have even gone as far as using the coupons that sometimes appear in the national press.


    I wish I knew what to do.

    The trips are essential (well my management tell me I have to go)

    I am told I have to save money where possible

    I am told it is not appropriate to book a specified train back as meetings may over run & if fixed train ticket, these cannot be changed

    What i have done is what Martin Lewis advises both on TV & on his website. If it was not correct, I'm sure the train companies would have been jumping up and down before now

    It seems that using your initiative is banned- at least in this organisation
    Want to know the Spen666 behind the posts?
    Then read MY BLOG @ http://www.pebennett.com

    Twittering @spen_666
  • Parkey
    Parkey Posts: 303
    spen666 wrote:
    Good to see Tax payers money is being treated appropriately

    You mean the numerous billions that have been spent privatising the railways and keeping them running since? After all, why have a state-subsidised public sector monopoly when you can replace it with numerous private sector monopolies for five times the cost?

    I'm no socialist and I accept British Rail was never perfect but my god the fares were reasonable and it didn't cost the taxpayer over £2bn a year!
    "A recent study has found that, at the current rate of usage, the word 'sustainable' will be worn out by the year 2015"
  • Mr_Cellophane
    Mr_Cellophane Posts: 690
    After 9/11 internal flights were forbidden and we had to use the train instead.
    Some enterprising people booked their train to Scotland and got a receipt. Booked an Easyjet flight for a fraction of the cost. Got a refund of the train ticket - less an admin charge and then submitted the original receipt on their expenses. 8)
  • NervexProf
    NervexProf Posts: 4,202
    Click here to be enlightened!

    http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/
    Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom
  • nwallace
    nwallace Posts: 1,465
    Parkey wrote:
    spen666 wrote:
    Good to see Tax payers money is being treated appropriately

    You mean the numerous billions that have been spent privatising the railways and keeping them running since? After all, why have a state-subsidised public sector monopoly when you can replace it with numerous private sector monopolies for five times the cost?

    I'm no socialist and I accept British Rail was never perfect but my god the fares were reasonable and it didn't cost the taxpayer over £2bn a year!

    Christian Woolmar - On the Wrong Line.
    I am not saying it's an independent view of the birth and death of Network Rail.

    Privitisation:
    CS1: Right we have these bits of BR er lets turn them into companies and sell them off
    CS2: Ok so er how much do we sell these companies for
    CS1: Dunnoh, we won't know unti lthey are sold and working
    CS2: Ok so we can't put the right price on them yet
    CS3: Na Nah all we need to do is make the package as lucrative as possible and sell them on the open market
    CS1: So you mean, we give them free reign on everything and then let the buyers name their price?
    CS3: Yes

    So that's what they did, and that is how companies which turned out to be worth a lot more than they were sold for, made the government very little money.
    Do Nellyphants count?

    Commuter: FCN 9
    Cheapo Roadie: FCN 5
    Off Road: FCN 11

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  • biondino
    biondino Posts: 5,990
    Parkey wrote:

    I'm no socialist


    It's okay to be a socialist, you know.
    My Focus / My Bob Jackson
    Blog (incl. bikes)
  • iainment
    iainment Posts: 992
    biondino wrote:
    Parkey wrote:

    I'm no socialist


    It's okay to be a socialist, you know.

    Dude.
    Old hippies don't die, they just lie low until the laughter stops and their time comes round again.
    Joseph Gallivan
  • MattBlackBigBoysBMX
    MattBlackBigBoysBMX Posts: 398
    Should've taken the car. :wink:
    Wheelies ARE cool.

    Zaskar X
  • OffTheBackAdam
    OffTheBackAdam Posts: 1,869
    Should be a Euro MP, claim the First Class Rail trip on your expenses, then go by car! :wink:
    Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.
  • pliptrot
    pliptrot Posts: 582
    Well, let's take a look at the private sector's record on financial diligence:

    Enron, MCI Worldcom, Northern Rock, anyone? The entire credit crunch and our current economic woes are as a result of the craven behaviour of the free marketeers. And who ends up bailing them out? The Government, of course. The very same people who rail against all regulation run squealing like cut pigs to the Government every time their greed catches up with them.

    Funny how we've lectured Europe on how to deregulate and become truly free market, and now they're better off, buying our banks, and generally thinking, "WTF were the Anglo Saxons thinking?"

    Americans apparently deride the Europeans for taking long holidays and working short weeks. and for having better healthcare and pensions. That's the free market for you - work yourself hard all your life for someone else. Oh yes, but half that nation have to tape instructions for their toilets to the cistern. So go on, bitch about the only institution that has any accountability, because they may just help you when your job is outsourced to China.

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