Impatience costs Brits as much as £2,000 a year
MORE than half of people admit to spending more than they need to for products and services because they are not willing to wait.
Ordering takeaways, upgrading postage for a speedier delivery and taking a taxi instead of waiting for a bus or train were common ways for people to regularly spend extra, according to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which protects savers’ cash when financial firms go bust.
Based on the findings, the FSCS estimates that some people are paying as much as £2,000 extra a year because they prefer not to wait.
People aged between 25 and 34 are the most likely to spend more to reduce waiting times, with nearly three-quarters (72%) saying this.
More than nine in 10 (92%) people surveyed think society generally is becoming more impatient – with technology and busier lifestyles given as popular reasons for people wanting goods and services faster.
More than 2,000 people took part in the survey for the FSCS, which has produced some “money means” guides to help people save. A HIGH-FLYING financier accused of being a “downright liar” and “faking” symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome has been vindicated by a judge.
Charles Miley, 51, was condemned as a lead-swinger by insurance giants Friends Life who put private detectives on his tail.
They filmed him out shopping, at the pub with his friends and even at his daughter’s nativity play in a bid to prove him a liar.
But Mr Justice Turner ruled him an honest man and opened the way for him to claim millions in insurance payouts.
Mr Miley, from Rugby, was poleaxed by debilitating tiredness after suffering what seemed a minor chest infection in 2009.
He was then earning a sixfigure salary as head of institutional equity sales with city brokers Piper Jaffray.
His condition put paid to his career and, unable to earn a living, the former triathlon competitor claimed on his income protection policy.
Friends Life paid up for four years until 2013, but then dramatically changed its tune, accusing Mr Miley of being a faker.
At the High Court, Friends Life’s QC, Caroline Harrison, painted him as a “downright liar” determined to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.
Surveillance footage showed him “driving himself and his dog to the pub” and attending a beer festival at his local, she said.
During five separate periods, he was covertly filmed out shopping, going to the dentist and attending his daughter’s nativity play.
Miss Harrison said he had been spotted eating out with friends and family and even riding a Boris bike on a visit to London. But Mr Justice Turner said the surveillance footage “fell very far short of undermining Mr Miley’s case”. There was “nothing inherently implausible” about his account that he has “good days and bad days,” he added. His wife, mother and friends all supported his account and he would have to be great actor to deceive everyone for so long. And the judge observed: “Even the most callid performer would struggle to fool all of these people all of the time. “Such a performance would take such a sustained and unremitting effort of self-control on Mr Miley’s part as to render his quality of life almost as impaired as if he were suffering from a genuine medical condition...” Mr Miley, who said he had “nothing to hide” had been encouraged by doctors to be as active as possible and the judge said he had seen him losing concentration in the witness box and holding his head in his hands.
Mr Justice Turner concluded: “I find that Mr Miley has not deliberately fabricated or exaggerated the extent of his disability.”
The ruling means Friends Life must pay Mr Miley around £300,000 to cover the period since his payments were severed in 2013.
And if he continues to be incapable of working until he draws his pension, the policy will net him a total of about £2.4 million.
Mr Miley earlier told the court that he sometimes lacks the energy to get out of bed or quit his living room sofa.
He said he hit an all-time low in 2010 when his illness became so debilitating he sometimes couldn’t even leave his home.
“My wife, Rachel, would be out in the garden if it was a sunny day and call me outside, and I wouldn’t be able to do it.
“There were times when I could barely speak,” he told the court.
The ruling means friends Life must pay Mr Miley around £300,000 to cover the period since his payments were severed.