bleecker street burger

have had a bit of a 'mare getting a national insurance number. let's see if i can summarise this without boring you with my #immigrantwoes. so every month 10% of my paltry salary goes into "national insurance" ie a common pot for NHS and benefits. this is non-negotiable, and separate from the 10% that would go into "nhs pension" if i hadn't opted out. however, the tier4 student visa i'm on, despite 1) not being a student 2) being in full-time employment 3) contributing NI every month clearly states that i've "no access to public funds". so in the event i'm in a position to need benefits, i'm ineligible for them. this is doubly unfair because being on a tier4 visa means i'd to pay a £450 (?) "NHS surcharge" when i applied for the visa in june in case i were to access the health services while i was in the UK. if i were a student and not contributing NI, this would be fair and fine. but if i'm already contributing to NI every month, why on earth am i having to pay the surcharge on top of it??? also, don't get me started on not being entitled to statutory maternity benefits despite being forced into NI payments every month. 

did not help that i met a nasty job centre officer who told me i was on the wrong visa and refused to believe there was an exception for foundation doctors to be on a tier4 student visa despite not being a student. she almost didn't want to help me apply for an NI number (which my employers had given me 3 months to get from the day i started work) but i'd to cajole her into submitting the application all the same and letting the powers that be decide if i should get an NI number or not. honestly whether i got one or not makes no difference to me, personally, and i'm just following employer's instructions to get one. because even without a NI number, 10% of my salary vanishes monthly and i'm not entitled to benefits so having a NI number does absolutely nothing for me. did send my employers an email asking if i was on the correct visa and received a reply telling me to inform the job centre manager that their employees are not in a position to offer immigration advice, much less the wrong advice. haha. you're telling me.

the only upside was that the job centre was near old spitalfields market and i finally got to try the burger. done rare, obvs. and sweet potato fries plus milkshake to drown my frustration.