omopapa:
Words ok the street have it that it’s normal but here’s something that might interest you

Wow, wish I knew this 4 weeks ago..

I am surprised there are no priority services via vfs.

Meanwhile, has anyone been able to get a refund from UKVI for priority service that was not honored?
Reaching them is so difficult, it is frustrating.

Mamatukwas:

Is anyone else having issues booking biometric appointments for Schengen Visa?

I’ve tried Netherland and Paris options for a few weeks now with no luck. Anyone know if this is a thing now?

I tried some weeks back and gave up. France, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, and a couple of others....
The appointments are there but are months out. I think the beginning of every week, a new week of available appointments open up, so if you are happy to wait like 2 months, you should be able to find something on Monday/Tuesdays I think.

Ibk2020:
Apart from gumtree and Facebook market place, where can one find used home furniture/mattress to buy, especially in Sunderland?

Charity shops for sure.

Good evening guys,

Any advise for someone trying to get CBAP certified? Best place to enrol for pdus, (on or offline) exam materials, support groups etc.

Lexusgs430:



My sister, firstly..... Thanks for using my referral code......

My pipu go say, make you allow me drink water drop cup ..........

Just used your link now...

Lexusgs430:



Charging points ........

I see the name be like pesin wey de find trouble...

BuildingProject:


And the TV license man go soon dey knock on people's door now when they hear the sound of Africa magic. Lol

Does Africa magic qualify as live broadcast? I thought that was what they looked out for...

Lexusgs430:



All go open eyes like okpomiliki......... Somoe must rise, others must fall . . . ...

Sorry to digress but what is "okpomiliki" e joo?

I've been itching to ask since you used it first...

Mamatukwas:


Age 3 till when you start primary gets 15 or 30 hours foc.

Time of day is 9am to 12noon or 1.15 to 3.30 ish (could vary slightly) for 15 hours mon to fri.

You can also customize your 15 hours to 9am to 3pm twice a week and half day on the 3rd day of it works well for you.

9am to 3pm mon to fri for 30 hours.

Again all of this might vary slightly depending on your nursery/provider. Once you start applications you’ll see the options.

Primary school times is 9am to 3pm as well.

Got it. Thank you.

Mamatukwas:


She’s referring to where some Private Nurseries partner with your council and can admit your child for the same 15 or 30 hours foc because the council will pay them directly. So your child in nursery must not go to a council school or provider for instance. If you then want additional hours or after school care you pay separately.

School start is btw 4.5 to 5.5 years in Scotland. I think in England it’s the September after you turn 5 if you’re born before the 1st of September.

Thanks, I understand that.
What age gets 30hrs foc?
I was asking for the time of day actually

deept:


I just started enjoying this benefit and from what I understand it works out to 30 hours a week during term time. So during school holiday periods no free childcare. Works out as 23 hours a week if you spread it out the whole year.

You start to get this after your child turns three the next April or October.

Ps. This is Scotland, I don't know about down south
If you need more hours you pay.

Thanks, I bet England is different..

LagosismyHome:


I think private nursery take the 15hours. Some allow you to pay some extra hours to make it a full day or spread it across fewer days and longer hours but that only in private nursery and not primary school nursery..... for example there is no way I could do 15hours or 30hours. That would have been so stressful dropping a child for 3 hours,I just couldn't. The nursery worked the 30 hours to be 3 full day for my kids so I did that and paid for 2 extra days. Something like that so check with a private nursery in your area and see how they can structure 15hours but don't know if they still do that

From what age is it 30hours pls?
I think 30hrs is the ceiling offered by the govt to everyone until they get to primary school, and if you need more hours, then you gotta pay. is this correct?

What times do the primary schools normally start and end?
Pardon my plenty questions �

yolkman20:


the one for 4.99pounds?
I sent my provisional drivers license application form with BRP on the first working day after easter and my BRP was returned yesterday. Expecting the license to be delivered this week. I wanna start practising for the theory test as well.

Yep.

tushqueen:



I couldn't find where to read the rules and all. I only found questions....

See where it says "Highway Code"?

Hanzzyyy:

So if the child is 6 years, or less than 16 they will pay remaining 15hrs on State funded school?
But it is written in the GOV.UK site that dependants of Tier 2/Tier 4 are entitled to study in State Funded Schools.
So can you share more light on this 15Hrs??

The GOV. UK site didn't put any limits to the entitlement? I've always known only 15hrs entitlement for all under 5s.
I'm sure persons with more knowledge of this will chip in.

Missposh:
Being on tier 2 visa, please is my 3 year old eligible to free 15 or 30 school hours? Trying to play by the book so I don't do anything unknowingly to jeopardize processing my ILR later. Thank as you share your insight.

15 hours

Adebayo82:
Please, how can somebody get material that one can read through and pass the uk driving test for both theory and practical.

Driving test success' Theory 4 in 1.

TheGuyFromHR:


But the customary marriage is a strange concept unlike the statutory marriage when it comes to ending it - most people usually don't bother to go through a customary court process (which is what Nigerian law states if I remember clearly) when it comes to dissolving it, they just end it by their own tradition (returning bride price or gifts, etc), and move on from there.

Basically the principle roughly boils down to if you got married by carrying wine to collect your wife, you divorce by collecting back your wine and returning the lady (apologies to feminists).

I totally agree with you.
I think some ppl still go ahead to document by taking a letter or something from the traditional ruler to the court to obtain a certificate...I'm not sure of this though.

Lexusgs430:



His visa would be curtailed, once all is said and done ...........

You have proof ?....? Traditional wedding is not a legal union... ......

Traditional wedding is a legal union I believe, it is recognised by law. And the man has not yet committed bigamy until he marries the other lady in court or church, I stand to be corrected.

.

IjJudy:
I was thinking last week of May, but with this whole confusion about not being able to come back in when passport is about to expire has paused the trip....if anyone can assure me I will get my passport in a month or 6 weeks time, then I plan towards end of June

My dear, there is no confusion anywhere. quit stressing about nothing! If your passport isn't expired, then it isn't expired, why should anyone stop you boarding?

Alexia20:

I am not referring to a particular individual but to the particular skilled occupation that took you to UK eg if nursing as profession is taken off from the shortage occupation list ,what will be the fate of the other nurses that are currently on the visa that are yet to get attain ILR visa.

From the way things work generally, that should only affect prospective nurses.
Take the health and care visa for HCAs, after one year if the home office has met their quota of number of HCAs needed or coming into the country, I don't expect they will then send these HCAs back home again. Logically, they will not just be able to offer visas to prospective HCAs anymore.

Adapapaokoye:
Goodevening everyone
Please I am confused and need guidance
I want to open a Junior ISA and I am stucked inbetween going to my bank Natwest or opening with Nutmeg

My baby already has his account linked to mine because of his age
Should I leave the money in his account or open a junior ISA for him?

If I decide to go for Nutmeg
Which investment style to use?
I was given the option of
*fully managed
*Smart Alpa
*Socially responsible
*fixed allocation

What is the best option?
Thanks

I would think that opening an ISA will be better in the long run than just leaving the cash in the bank account.
If "fully managed" means they will handle for you It may be best to go that route being a novice. Of you change your mind in future, I imagine you can take over the management then.

specialenvoy:
When I try to get a quote, they do ask for a vehicle registration number which I don't have at the moment, how do I fill in these details to get an idea of the monthly insurance before buying the car

that is not a mandatory field I believe, before I bought a car I was able to check what insurance would be like for the sort of specs I was interested in. try "go compare" if you have not.

Ticha:
Pension and wealth planning for the future - very long read.

We have a Global Vanguard All Shares account (the name has changed over the years) - managed by Henderson Securities. We've had it jointly for more than 12 years (husbot for much longer) and have dipped into it sometimes (mainly to pay for IVF). We haven't touched it for years now and the funds have grown exponentially. If we continue paying into it consistently, we should have about £600k worth of shares (yay compound interest) by the time I'm 55 and husbot is 52. To give an idea, we've always paid a minimum of £150 each monthly into it since 2010. Henderson does the investing and taxes on our behalf. We haven't bothered to check what they invest it in, but we picked an aggressive growth fund for a long time and that really paid off (hence using the profits for IVF). Now it's in a mid-range growth fund and will remain there. We have upped our monthly minimum payments to £250 each a month now because we can afford to do so. The SOA comes every March, but we don’t check it or even look at it beyond seeing how much is there when the SOA comes.

The move to New Zealand has been the best thing for us financially. I have no employer loyalty. No one goes into education to make money as the pay is poor compared to the level of work and qualifications involved. I often jump ship every 2 years because that's the only way I can increase my wages. Wages in education are much higher in NZ than in the UK which is weird (5m v 67m) but good for me!
Anyhow, when we moved to NZ, we took opportunity of the higher wages and saved and saved and saved but buying a house seemed out of our reach. Then we met another couple who seemed to have the same values as us (family, financial, moral you name it). We pooled our resources and we bought a house in our name (we bought first because we had higher incomes and better credit). With property values going crazy, we within 6 months refinanced that property and gifted the cash to this family (basically paid them back their initial contribution and extra) so they bought one too in their name. They then refinanced and gifted us the cash and we bought another in our names.
Because we want to exponentially grow the money, we are demolishing the first house to build 5 new ones and then leverage that to give them enough to buy a 2nd property for themselves. They can choose to develop or hold or sell but we will have both walked away with 2 initial properties each.

Shareswise - we've now opened targeted growth fund accounts for the children with Lansdown Hargreaves. We pay £100 a month into each child's account. They will get full access at 18. Hopefully, they can use that to pay uni fees, supplement apprenticeship wages, down payment on a house or even go traveling before uni/ work starts.

We have also created a family trust. I look at the truly wealthy and what they have for going for them is generational wealth and good financial planning. In my family, I'm the first to be in a position to actually start building generational wealth. The trust will hopefully go on forever as it's for the direct progeny of my husbot and his siblings (both his siblings have no children and want none) and me and my siblings so it means my nephews and nieces will get payments annually out of it once they hit 21 but their parents can’t access any of the funds. We've currently set it so it can only be dissolved by a court and no beneficiaries can sell assets out of it including us once the asset has been placed in it.

2 reasons we have done this – divorce/ separation for us or our children. Even though we all hope to remain married till death, the truth is that divorce and remarriage happens. The trust is set up to protect the financial interests of all beneficiaries. If either of us divorces, we will continue to be paid out of it. Should any of us re-marry, the spouse will not be able to access any funds from the trust. Same with the children. Stats also show that first generation immigrants usually create the biggest wealth and subsequent generations waste the accumulated wealth. It is very likely that our children will not have the kind of drive we have because they have been born into or have lived in plenty enough to be happy with state handouts in the future. Therefore, they might actually see us as a burden as we grow older and infirm.

So hopefully at retirement, the trust can top up our pension but also ensure we remain at home till end of life and not be a burden on the children.

This is not financial advice. Just sharing what we have done.

Omo!
I'm short of words! This is so insightful!
I'm particularly interested in this topic as I am already thinking and planning retirement now. The trust route is an interesting one I would like to explore and understand better....will have to do some more research on that.
I find it also very fascinating/admirable/inspiring that the people can still be trusted as in the case of pooling funds with the other couple....if people can be honest in their dealings, there will always be more to be more gains in working together..

Thank you for always taking your time to share knowledge even though you are not obliged.

LagosismyHome:


No I haven't tried other Africans but this same agencies used to provide nanny from Caribbean. Two of my friends had from there and it was good. I also got one which was a live out from Caribbean, much better than naija

Transactional is usually the best but with naija naija ,after sometimes the lines must blur and you see the nanny using style to get a way with doing whatever . So sometimes I pick my battles what I can't absolutely take i check it, other things I just smh and remove my eyes

Google gen122

Thank you, will check them out.

Mamatukwas:


I checked the route for myself but residents of the UK do not qualify. You qualify if you are coming in to the UK and going within 12 months max I think so I dumped that idea.

I tried applying for my cousin to come visit, but they bounced her. I think we didn’t prove enough ties to Nigeria. A few friends who are sourcing are planing to use the domestic worker route on a family members visiting visa, then the person will stay back. I think it’s quite risky but….

Edited to say: if you’re not in a remote part of the UK, you should be able to source local.

Ouch! I hadn't done any research on it but it sounded like a good possibility....Pity!

Your friends are taking a risk...won't that affect their history with immigration when they want to invite genuine visitors in future? More important I don't know how they are comfortable with the idea of making someone an illegal immigrant here unless the person simply has nothing going for them (now and potentially).... even at that, once they dabble into illegalities, they will keep looking over their shoulder in future..
Not worth it IMO.

LagosismyHome:


I have always had ...... needs patience sha dealing with Nigerian. Initially when I had my kids the agency had a lot of European so I started with having Romania. The two I had for about 4 years were brilliant , so gentle with kids and very hardworking. When I come home the house is spotless ...dont know how considering it was twins toddlers but they took their work very seriously. Then came brexit and they don't come again. The agency I use now has mostly naija motherhelp. The difference is 7up. Naija want to do very minimal job but collect full money with full chest ... it takes a lot of patience and you having to do a lot more when its a Nigerian worker but na so we see am. The one i have now takes 2 hours to eat breakfast, another 2 hours to eat lunch and then dinner, someone who suppose to be working....

I can give you the agency I use via pm. I am no way affiliate to them. I just have used them .

Our ppl and their typical behaviour....with helps/nannies, I hate being 100% transactional but that may be the way to go for this type of persons...
Have you ever tried other African nationals or heard about other person's experience of their work ethics in general?
Yes, I would appreciate the contact for the agency.
Apologies for the late response, been travelling a lot these past few days.

lightnlife:
Good morning, elders.

Can I drive in the UK with my regular Nigerian driver's licence?

Gov.uk (attached) states I can use my country license for 12 months. But words on the street say one must have a Nigerian International license NOT the standard license to drive in UK.

Biko, which is the case here?

You can use the regular license

omopapa:
E be like sey Moneybox wan scam me o. Paid £4K in March with the hope of getting the £1k bonus for the last tax year on my LISA acct. New tax year don start them never credit the £1k na £0.96 I dey see abi when are they meant to?

I think the payments are monthly or so. If you check your account you will see where it shows the pending bonus amount... I would start worrying after April end or early May...

Hello everyone, hope we all had a good break.

I'm wondering, has anyone here gone through the domestic worker visa route as a solution for childcare?
Would be great to learn more about that option..

Also has anyone used a Nigerian or African live in, how did you source and what was your experience generally?

Bluetherapy:
Any recommendations for tested and trusted ergonomic office chairs?

Secret Lab Chairs was the brand mentioned many pages back.