Keith5588

@scottiejohn the link you posted takes me to https://www.myukpost.com/ and I think they now charge £20/month so you now have a good deal I think. My mistake and appologises @sandyf stated "I also use Ukpostbox" and I thought it was the same as you. Similar name but different. I now see that someone else mentioned Ukpostbox. My mistake.

I think for someone younger than myself that would be good advice. I will be 72 next year, it will become more and more of an agrevation to sell it. Also I can see no financial advantage in keeping it at my age. Also it will be very unlikely that I will ever want to return to the UK but if that unlikely event happens I can rent a place to live.

@scottiejohn Thanks again Scottiejohn I referred to Myukpost in my opening post as I had seen you mention them before in another thread. I have just had another look and I think they charge £20 per month and not £12, and they charge more for other work. Maybe you pay £12 as you started with them 8 years ago. Saying that as with many things I would rather pay more if the service is better. @sandyf thanks for the extra information. You and scottiejohn have both used Myukpost for many years and you are both are satisfied with them which is good information for me.

@scottiejohn Thank you so much. Thanks for the advice about doing it while I am in my house before I sell it, I might have not done that. Can I ask something, you say that they provide a full UK address. My thinking is that it cannot be an individual UK address just for you and that most of their customers will have this address which is a house that they use to receive all mail, maybe also where they work. For instance you give this address to your bank and then your bank sends you a letter via Royal Mail to this address. If Myukpost has 5,000 customers it cannot provide 5,000 houses? I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with this setup at all. I’m just trying to understand. Thanks again for the information, it has helped me.

@phetphet Thank you for all the good advice. I do have one good friend that I can totally trust and he has already helped me in the past with receiving my letter post as he lives very close to my house. Next year if all goes to plan I will not have a house. My friend has a large family and usually very busy, I think he would continue to help but he is also thinking of downsizing to a smaller house. I have done a lot over many years to minimise my possessions, in todays digital world you don’t need many physical items. Next year I will be opening some new bank accounts while living in my house and getting it ready to sell, these banks will have no physical branches. I will have no need for UK debit or credit cards, over the last few years I have only used my credit card to buy my house insurance. Thanks a lot for your comment about Driving Licence, next year I will also renew it. Last time I renewed it online I used my UK credit card but I guess a bank transfer would be OK and I do intend to have a Wise card. Now thinking about I will not be concerned if I cannot renew my UK driving licence as I don’t intend to visit the UK after my house is sold. I also now have a Thai Driving Licence. So another item I not need 😊 I was aware of keeping a UK address with all my UK banks, mostly why I am doing this address planning. Thanks for the comment, I might ask my friend if he would mind me entering his address at a couple of banks. Concerning your UK driving licence. I renewed mine while I was in Thailand a few years ago. I did it all online I think at www.direct.gov.uk/DrivingLicence DVLA processed it and sent me an email. At that time I had a UK address. I had no trouble at all but there might have been some automatic checks that I passed and you may not? It might be worth you trying if you haven’t already.

Thanks @topt I have used Royal Mail Redirect in the past but they refused to continue after about 3 years. It might be possible to do it again but there will always be a time limit of them doing it and when that happens I will have to update to a new corrospondance address at my banks etc. I am starting to like the thought of a permanent address at a mail forwarding company as long as it does not cost too much. As my message above I am not sure what address these companies give you, what exactly they mean by virtual address. I have just send 3 messages to 3 different mail forwarding companies to ask.

I think I will use a mail forward company but at the moment am having difficulty fully understanding. Concerning the UK address that they give you. A “Street address” has been mentioned or “A virtual address”. I assume that they cannot give everyone an actual physical address, that would be totally unmanageable. So what address do they give you? Some offer up to 10 different address locations. Let’s say we select Manchester. Do they give the same Manchester “Street address” to all their customers which is actually their office? Then they sort all deliveries by the persons name? Or maybe they give the same address to every customer but add a reference number at the end which is different for each customer. Thanks for any help with this Keith

Thank you @dayo202 ukpostbox also looks good, and it helps to know that you have been using them for 8 years. Cheers Keith

Thanks @oliverphoenix2 I have had a look and see what you mean. £29 per year then £2.50 per letter. + a min of 2 X £1.55 (Royal Mail large letter charge) if they forward the letter Or if they scan and email is just 15p per side of paper then 20p for disposal. All fees + VAT So assuming I have 10 letters and have them all forwarded it would be £29 + £25+ £31 = £85+VAT = £102 As you write it will be less if I have some scanned and emailed. Thanks again, it sounds good and is helping me decide what to do.

I am a UK male. I have no children or immediate family in the UK. I bought my first house in the UK aged 21 then worked for 40 years in the UK, a very simple life. Next year I plan to sell my UK house, so after that I will not have a UK address. I do have some friends who would say it’s OK to use their address for correspondence but I don’t like to impose too much, I think I am very independent. I have been living in Thailand the last few years with my Thai gf /partner and love life here in Thailand. It’s a new concept to me to not have an address in the UK! I’m trying to come to terms with it and am about half way there. Sort of a planned no fixed abode as I now know that I want to spend the rest of my life in Thailand. I haven’t started my UK state pension yet. For those that think I am planning to later deceive the DWP into thinking that I am still in the UK that is not the case, when I am receiving my state pension and I move permanently to Thailand I do not have a problem in informing them. Saying that I also have no moral judgement upon those that do not as freezing UK state pensions in one country and not another I think is unfair and wrong. I have tried to go totally paper free but some UK banks and also some investments still insist on sending letter post. I have done quite well as over the past 5 months I received just 5 letters in the post. I am thinking of paying for a mail forwarding company for the initial few years after selling my house. I did post in this forum on a different topic and had a suggestion of https://www.myukpost.com/ It does look good but the prices are £20 per month + £1.50 per letter handled. Assuming 10 letters per year that would be £240+£15 = £255 per year. I would not want any opening of letters or scanning done. I would instruct them just to send all letters to my friend in the UK. I would like to find somewhere cheaper than the above. Ideally a place that someone has used and recommends? Thank you Keith

@Goodison Thank you very much for the information and the links.

@Goodison Thank you for the information below. I know it is off topic but I am very interested, if we write more maybe we should start another post something like “Views and experiences of Thai government hospitals compared to private hospitals”. Aug 2017 when I came to Thailand I decided to self insure and not buy health insurance which is why I am interested. I also lived with my Thai gf in Khon Kaen for the first 4 years before relocating to Hua Hin 3 years ago so I can relate to what you are writing. I do not have much first hand experience as I have been lucky and had no health problems apart from some very minor problems. I was aware about the choice of paying a bit more as a foreigner at Hua Hin government hospital but you have explained more. If I do need to go to hospital I have had it in mind for a long time that I will go to Hua Hin government hospital and find out as much as I can. You said that you put a link that shows the Foreign Customer/VIP office at Udon government hospital but I cannot see the link?

Thank you @Goodison I agree with you, if Les is correct it is very strange that you can just go to the Philippines for 185. I think the guy Stephen worded the question well to the Telegraphs pensions doctor and the reply was good. That article enforces what you have been saying. It states that if you move from Thailand to the UK and make sure that DWP knows you are "ordinary resident" (which I believe is the same as habitually resident or permanent resident) then on return to Thailand (after changing your mind about staying in the UK) then your pension will be frozen at the higher current amount. If however your visit to the UK is simply regarded as visiting with no intension of permanently staying (same I believe as spending 185 days in the Philippines) then on returning to Thailand your pension will revert to the origin lower frozen amount. I have now also watched Les’s recent video again. Concerning the first “pause”, the person states that the International Pensions Centre will not reply in writing. This does annoy me, when I write to them I will do my best to get the reply in writing, I cannot see how you can make important decisions without getting the facts in writing. The next “pause” I found to be a bit confusing. Les also talks about speaking to DWP but the first guy contacted the International Pensions Centre. The 3rd “pause” I found totally irrelevant. The guy went to the Philippines Sept 2024 and has had his pension increased, nobody is disputing that this will happen? Maybe I am being a bit petty, I think Les was always contacting the International Pensions Centre. Hopefully we will eventually be confident of the facts. I have learnt a lot from the messages in this post

Thanks @Goodison for your thoughts and the link. I do keep changing my mind, sorry for that. Sometimes I think it best to say nothing, keep head down, act as if do not know much if questioned. I heard second hand of someone that went to the UK to have a knee operation. He opened his mouth too much telling them he was living in Thailand so he ended up paying for the operation. To receive free NHS (which I think I should be entitled to as I worked long hours for 40 years) I am glad that I know what to say if ever asked. Maybe it's a similar situation with the UK state pension. I think it also depends a bit on age. I am currently 71, in about 15 years time I will be 86, probably find it difficult to remember what day it is, and couldn't care less about the DWP, and in practice even if I returned to the UK I could not imagine the DWP dragging an 86 year old into court for not informing them that they had travelled to another country! But basically I was raised to be totally truthful and feel uncomfortable if I am not. Also there might be awkward communication in the future if I feel the need to hide the fact that I am not living in the UK. Also as you point out DWP may find out themselves. I also like to know. I spent a lot of time researching Thailand’s immigration requirements. It was worth it as I spend very little time at immigration, find them helpful, have never paid any “extra” and never used an agent ………. And it makes me feel good! So I would like to find out what would be needed to permanently increase a frozen UK state pension. Concerning Les and his videos, myself, you and some others don’t think he is correct. But some other people think he is totally correct. Hopefully we will get some information from Les in the future but if not I will probably try to get an answer sometime after March next year.

@jori123 I think you are right. Most Thai people I think we are crazy wasting time on something that has not happened.

Hi @Goodison I definitely thought along the same lines as you when I sent Les an email a few months ago suggesting that he could be wrong. If I was a holiday tour operator I would be organising 6 month holiday’s in the Philippines for UK retirees in Thailand who have frozen state pensions. Like you I would have thought that someone would have already done it and posted. The truth is I am myself becoming a bit confused and so I intend to try to find out next year. Saying that @BritManToo has a good point in that it might be better to say nothing at all and be a bit ignorant to it all when it suits.

@BritManToo You make a good point, sometimes it is best to say as little as possible, leave it to them, after all we are old, at least I am.

@Goodison Thank you again. Concerning your point 1) I actually intend to have my UK state pension paid into a UK bank even though I will be living in Thailand. I agree with what you say at the bottom, I actually thought about that, which is why I mentioned in my starting post that the pension may stay high for the whole of the UK financial year and then revert to the lower level. The questions to DWP need to asked very clearly with no ambiguity and I will try to do that March next year. So even if this guy returns to Thailand in December and states that his UK state pension has remained at the current higher amount it may still revert to the lower amount after 5 April 2025. Hopefully he will be informed if that will happen but not necessarily. I plan to arrive in the UK March next year. I will then try to send my example to DWP or the International Pensions Centre. I will call the man in my example Fred. If their answer is £200 pw then I will ask other questions like. 1) Please confirm that while Fred is in the Philippines he only needs to be in the Philippines for the 185 days and that he does not need to apply for habitual residence? 2) What does Fred need to do and what information does he need to provide to satisfy you that he is living in the Philippines for 185 days? What is the best way for Fred to provide this information? Can he email you? 3) Fred’s UK state pension has always been paid to a UK bank. Please confirm that it is OK for this not to be changed while he is in the Philippines. Hopefully we will get there in the end 😊

Maybe Les in his Youtube is correct? I have just had a look at this telegraph article written on 14th Aug 2024. I had to give my email address and form a password to read it. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/state-pensions/what-is-frozen-state-pension-how-unfreeze-it/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first Here is a copy of some parts:- How can I unfreeze my state pension? If you move to a country eligible for state pension rises for more than 183 days a year, your state pension will “unfreeze” and jump to the amount you’d be entitled to if you’d stayed in an eligible country the whole time. It will also start to increase annually with the triple lock. However, this cannot be backdated, so any money you missed out on when you didn’t live there is lost. For example, if you get the full new state pension but left the UK in 2020, you’d still receive state pension payments of £168.60 a week (the rate it was in 2020). But, if you moved back to the UK, or to another country where uplifts are provided, your pension would be increased to £221.20 a week, the full rate for 2024-25. You wouldn’t receive anything for the increases you missed. If you spend more than half the year in an eligible country, you’ll still get annual increases even if you spend the rest of the time in one that isn’t. If you scroll down to the FAQ What if I return to the UK and then leave again? When you return, your state pension will be topped up to the full level for the duration of your time in the UK – but it will freeze again at that rate when you leave. For example, if you claimed your state pension in January 2020 and left the UK for a country not eligible for increases, it would be frozen at £168.60 a week. If you returned to live in the UK in 2024, you would start getting the current rate for 2024 to 2025, of £221.20. If you lived in the UK until 2030 and then left, your state pension would be frozen again at the 2030 rate. If you visited or came to the UK temporarily, you would get £221.20 rate until you left, when it would revert to the rate you were getting when you initially left – £168.60.

Thanks again @Goodison Thank you for spending the time obtaining the information. In the thisismoney article that you gave a link to it states the following John Duffy is chair of the International Consortium of British Pensioners which runs the End Frozen Pensions campaign. He says: Quite astonishingly, a 'frozen' state pensioner will find their UK state pension 'thawed' if they return to the UK, even if only for a short period. Indeed, the pension is unfrozen during any visit to a list of 'unfrozen' countries, not just the UK. This means that somebody could receive – for example - £46 in one week living in a 'frozen' country, visit the UK, where their weekly pension will be tripled, only for this to revert to the frozen rate when back in their country of residence. This totally contradicts what Les is saying in his Youtube videos. I know it is not directly from DWP but it is in writing and from a person who should know.

Thank you @Goodison I tend to agree with you. I think we may find out if Les is correct or not in the near future. Les first posted a video about 8 months ago informing us that we could just go to the Philippines for 185 days to permanently increase frozen UK state pensions. To be fair he did state phone numbers of DWP and so made it easy for anyone to check for themselves. A few months after this first video I did email Les saying that I think he could be wrong. I had read a lot of a long post on the subject about 2 years ago, I won’t do that again! I think it was mainly about a group of people from Canada actually travelling to the UK to help lobby the UK government concerning freezing of state pensions. I cannot remember exact details but I also cannot remember reading that there is a way to increase the frozen state pension to a current higher amount simply by staying in the UK 185 days. I am sure some on frozen UK state pensions travel to the UK to see family and could increase their length of stay, in fact I know a friend who has lived in Thailand for about 25 years did just that this year. I find it hard to believe that Les is the only person to discover this loophole but I hope I am wrong. In the last few days Les has doubled down and released another video on this subject. One person commented that they followed Les’s suggestion and went to the Philippines in June and will return to Thailand in December and they have contacted DWP who said that they will keep the updated payment on their return to Thailand. For me this could be ambiguous, it could mean that the person will keep the higher payments that they received while in the Philippines, it does not necessarily mean that they will continue to receive the higher payments. You have to be so careful. I have enjoyed watching some of Les’s Youtube video’s and I believe that his intention is honourable in wanting to help people, and of course he may be right.

Thanks for the information @Marvo

@Chivas Thank you for the very good information.

@BritManToo thanks. I was wondering if I could just leave my UK address as it is with DWP. I guess it depends if DWP etc do send out letters and the reaction of the new owners of my house. I will decide after I find out more concerning mail forwarding costs. Also thanks for the Skype UK landline information, I will also look into that. I know I am going off topic myself, maybe I should start another post of something like “All actions to take in the UK before moving permanently to Thailand” I have had a problem with Nationwide Building Society. About 4 years ago they had some sort of update that removed all my payee’s. Since then I have not been able to form a new payee without my debit card + card reader. I can login online and I have sent secure messages but all they do is apologise. I have a card reader but my friend in the UK has my debit card. He would send the card to me and even offered to synchronise so I get the OTP but luckily I have moved enough money into my Thai bank to last until I am in the UK. Probably I could take it higher up in Nationwide but then I think I would have to give them all sorts of information that I live permanently in Thailand. So I will be opening some of the newer online banks like Starling, Chase, Monzo etc. and have my state pension paid to one of them.

@scottiejohn thanks for the mail forwarding link and the good advice. This is one thing that I will now give thought to. I have prepared well for going to the UK except for mail forwarding. I have a very good friend who has been scanning my mail and emailing to me. I have done as much as I can to stop letter post and have just had a look and I only received 17 letters over the last 1 year. It should be even less after I sort a few things when in the UK. This was my dilemma, do I pay for Mail forwarding for such few letters? But I am now going to think seriously about it again. Concerning PAYG SIM cards I have already made a note to do as you suggest. I am now 71 and sometimes forget things so for our holidays with my Thai gf, we have been together 24/7 for the last 7 years and get along well, I have been lucky, I make plans in a WORD file. For my UK trip I have made 8 WORD files “Selling my house” “Decorating my house”, “Actions” etc. I bought a Vodafone PAYG SIM over 7 years ago before coming to Thailand, without it I would have had problems accessing my bank accounts. Twice I have been worried when it stopped working even in a different phone, luckily a good clean of the SIM card fixed it. So yes I will make sure I have 2 or 3 PAYG SIM cards. I would even buy an eSIM but my phones do not have eSIM capability and I don’t think I will be buying a new phone just for that.