Chris Johns

Yeah, which for me is quite something, I can assure you.

And that was one of the first things that went with me, because if you'd seen me this day last week, I had a full beard.

My wife died on February the 14th and the funeral was on March the 25th.

Well, the other thing that, again, lots of people will know this, is that when somebody dies, what I call death admin, dealing with all of the different bits of the will, the probate, the bank accounts.

the pensions and a whole host of other things that I could mention.

It just goes on forever.

And one of the things that you discover here in the UK is that the government in all its various guises from the vehicle licensing agency, the driving license agency, the department of work and pensions, you name it, whatever got with the NHS, they haven't discovered email.

Everything arrives by post.

So you get this mountain of posts everywhere.

every other day, because we don't get daily deliveries here in the UK, no matter what the post office says.

And most of it is just a nonsense.

It's just bureaucratic rubbish.

I've had a long running fight with the Department of Work and Pensions who keep with sort of vaguely menacing letters saying, send us the death certificate, send us your marriage certificate.

And I keep saying to them,

This is about her state pension, which died with her on your own rules.

And they keep saying, no, no, no, you've got to send us this, you've got to send us that.

And only yesterday I got the final letter out of dozens from the Department of Occupation saying, yes, you are right, you're not entitled to her state pension, which of course we knew all along.

The day after the funeral, I got a written letter from the British equivalent of the Revenue Commissioners demanding that I send her tax return for the year up until the day she died.

And they won't accept an online tax return.

It has to be done on paper.