JB300

Thanks, I can understand how interest rates can affect the transfer out value of the pension as the money they would need to give you to purchase annuities to give you an equivalent pension is less (my Xfer out value dropped by about 30% when annuity/interest rates shot up), but I can’t understand why the early retirement/taking the pension numbers would do anything but go up. Will do December’s quote middle of next week & then I’ll have 3 months of data to go back to WTW with (though I won’t be holding my breath waiting for a sensible answer from them).

Very useful, thank you for your contribution… 👍🏻

Yes the plan includes a Cost of Living increase each year (Trustees discretion max 5%) but even if this changed I can’t see how they would decrease the pension. I do the quotes to hit the same date (2nd of the month) to match my Birthday & for the past > 18 months it’s gone up by more or less the same amount each month, but in October (5 months before it’s due to mature) it (& the PCLS) went down for no reason I can think of.

I haven’t asked them yet, I was giving it 3 months worth of quotes so I could see if I could see some kind of pattern that I might be able to make sense of. Will be able to do December’s quote mid next week & if that’s still below September’s quote I’ll ask them but my reason for asking on here is that I’m really scratching my head to understand how that could be.

As I said, “Investment Performance” shouldn’t affect what I get as it’s solely based on the salary I was on when I left the company. The pension matures when I’m 60 (Feb 2026), so I’m quite close to being able to get a final quote but if the December’s numbers are still less than September’s then I’m just going to take the money early.

Scratching my head at this one… Each month I get a quote for how much I will get from my UK Defined Benefits pension if I were to retire in 6 months (max I can get a quote for) & every month the number has been going up by more or less the same amount until I got to October’s quote where it went down. I thought this might be an anomaly so did November’s quote at the start of this month & it’s up on October but still less than September’s. This makes no sense to me as if I took my pension in September not only would I get an extra 2 month’s pension but I’d also get more money & a higher PCLS! Im going to do a quote for December next week & if it’s still down then will contact my pension provider to find out why but can anybody think of any reason why this would happen? NB This is a defined benefit pension so is solely based on my final salary, any changes in “Investment Performance” would not impact how much I get, good or bad.

I’ve seen grown men p1ssing on the side of the road & taking a <deleted> on Juhu beach so it’s a real thing in India. Seems they’ve exported it to Thailand as well https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/travel/news/indian-tourists-urinating-on-pattaya-beach-this-is-what-actually-happened/articleshow/117454745.cms

I see why they quickly released the fact that he was White/British (to stop the right wing Nutters from kicking off) but you’re absolutely right & it is 1 rule for some, 1 rule for others…. Trademark of 2 tier Keir.

Krabi when it’s rainy season, drive 5 hours from Satun so we could do a tour to Similan Islands & trip was cancelled because of the weather, spent 4 days in the hotel just waiting for the flight back (I’d have bailed but she won’t leave an already paid for hotel). Great if you want to eat Indian food for breakfast, lunch & dinner, not so great if you like Thai food & especially Pork (much more Muslim oriented than when I visited 17 years ago). Won’t be back.

Was in Ao Nang 10 days ago & I’ve never seen so many Indian restaurants in 1 place (except when I spent 18 months working in Mumbai), really struggled to find somewhere to eat as although I really like Indian food, it’s not something I’d eat regularly + the GF is (quite rightly) wary about getting Thai food from a non-Thai restaurant. As an aside we’d been to visit her family in Hat Yai & Satun before that & I honestly though I was back in Malaysia when I went into Satun central, >90% of the females were wearing headscarves.

Absolutely & my bank accounts would stand up to an audit to show I followed the rules, but I was just highlighting the only example I could think of where a stamp from an Agent assisted extension could look different to a DIY one. Simple answer if somebody was worried about this is to go see your agent within the 45/30 days permitted by your IO office & the stamps would look identical.

I live on passive income (Rent, Dividends & Capital Gains), my accountant files my return & I have no tax pay by UK rules… 1. (net) Rental income, below the £12,570 personal allowance, no tax to pay. 2. Dividends, reported as “Disregarded” Income so no additional tax to pay over the tax already withheld. 3. Capital Gains, I’ve been an expat for 17 years so any (Non Property)) capital gains are not taxable. Not evading anything, just following the rules… Have filed returns since I was 19 (this year will be my 40th return) before becoming an Expat, as a higher rate tax payer, there there was always some extra tax to be paid on dividends & benefits in kind (Conpany car, Private Health insurance etc)… but apart from property sales, the Uk is very generous to Non-UK Tax residents.

The UK passport you’re renewing already has the Biometric data (Introduced in 2006 & I believe this is photo only as I don’t ever recall being fingerprinted when applying for a passport) so as long as your new photo isn’t massively dissimilar than your old photo then you’re ok.

Even if they went “Full USA” Thailand couldn’t tax non-Tax residents on anything unless they were Thai Citizens (maybe argue a case for PR holders) so the approach of spending <180 days in-country would still work.