PaDavid

In my early days here whenever I had a question I would send Joe a personal message. He never failed to reply and his advice was always most informative. I never met him personally, but I imagine him as a very caring person. RIP my friend 

14 hours ago, BarraMarra said:

Mmm short or longer journeys what's the difference PaDavid ? jump on your bike to pop round the Village shop jump on your bike don't look left or right bang your knocked off. What i'm saying is it does not matter what distance your traveling on a bike.

 

There are plenty of accidents for sure, but very few fatalities. Of course, there’s a much lower population density so comparisons with city statistics is problematic.
 

Personally, I only ride a non-motorised cycle - shorts & tee shirt (always white), no helmet. My biggest problem is the dogs. 

3 hours ago, garygooner said:

We hear this every year, but continue to see people not wearing helmets all the time. Nothing is enforced. 

In the sticks no helmet is the norm. In fact, it’s rare to see anyone wearing one. But, of course, there’s far less traffic and journeys are mostly shorter, so probably a much lower death rate. 

Who says nothing ever happens in Loei?

I know nothing will get done about this, especially now as it would cost too much, especially when the government is trying to make savings to offset the costs incurred through Covid. 
 

But, what makes me laugh is this 500,000 expats. The overseas pension desk has no idea how many it actually is. They only know of those who’ve notified them of their move abroad, and, from my correspondence with them, it’s clear they are making little effort to track down the others. 
 

4 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

"For example, a single pensioner who retired in late 1982 after having made the full contributions would be getting £32.85 a week, or £1,708 a year, if their pension were frozen then. If they had stayed in Britain, they would now be getting £141.85 a week, or £7,376 a year"

 

Slight extreme example, that would make them about 105, many in Thailand that age?

I’m 76 and have been here 7 years. My state pension is now over £2,000 a year less than it should be

1 hour ago, Eff1n2ret said:

You're absolutely right about these petitions, they're largely a waste of time, a bit of Blair window-dressing to pretend that "the people" have a voice. Almost none of them have made any difference. If the number is more than 100k, all that happens is there is a debate in Parliament, probably not well-attended, the Government trots out the official line and that's that. If the number is under 100k, Sir Humphrey can say, "Well, Minister, there isn't much support for the proposal, we don't need to review our policy." In my opinion these petitions are a snare and a delusion, and I don't sign any of them any more.

It might interest you to know that there is an All-Party Parliamentary Group on expat matters such as voting rights and our frozen pensions led by Sir Roger Gale MP, and they do succeed occasionally in getting a debate (unfortunately with much the same result on pensions,  but the Government has moved on voting rights, which will be restored to all British expats, however long they've been outside the UK). So it's not a bad idea to write to your MP.

I’ve also recently been advised by my district council that in future I’ll only need to re-register my vote every 5 years instead of annually as at present. Possibly another of Sir Roger Gale’s group’s successes. I’ll look the guy up on the parliament website. Maybe write to him too. 

I’m sure that most of you reading this will have seen the petition doing the rounds. I, like many others, have signed AND shared it. I can’t really see this doing any good. It may just reach 10,000 signatures, at which point the government is required to respond. But, I’m sure all it will do is trot out the old chestnut regarding social security agreements. The petition has no chance of reaching the 100,000 level at which point it has to be considered for debate in parliament. 
 

So, I have decided on another track. I’m still registered to vote in UK, so I’m writing to my MP. This is not the first time I’ve written, but my first attempt was a bit emotive and received the bog standard response. So, I’ve drafted a second attempt which I think is much more objective. 
 

Please read and let me know if you have any comments or observations. Once I’ve considered these, I’ll produce the final version for emailing to my MP. Assuming AN allow me, I’ll publish it here, so that those of you who too are registered to vote can lobby your own MP. Incidentally, I haven’t included here Photo 1 which is a map of the world showing countries which are and are not affected by the legislation. But, most of you will have seen this anyway. 

Dear xxxxxxx
 

The following is basically what you sent me in response to my first email. It is an extract from the gov.uk website. 

Your State Pension will only increase each year if you live in:

• countries that have a social security agreement with the UK (but you cannot get increases in Canada or New Zealand)

You will not get yearly increases if you live outside these countries.

For your information, the top photo below shows in red the countries which do have this supposed social security agreement. 

The following are the questions/points I would ask you to consider concerning this:

1. What exactly are these social security agreements? 
2. Why are Canada and New Zealand (and possibly Australia) excluded when such agreements do exist there?
3. Are such agreements still in place in all EU states now that the UK is no longer a member of the union?
4. A social security agreement implies some sort of benefit for expats living in a country where there is one. Surely then, if you were going to effectively reduce pensions, it would make more sense to do so in the countries where expats enjoy these benefits, not in countries where they don’t!
5. The state pension is effectively a contributory pension paid for from NI contributions. See photo 2 below. If any employer tried to use such a feeble excuse for reducing pension payouts to a group of its pension fund members, there would be an outcry. And, there is no organisation which can challenge the ruling. The pensions’ ombudsman, for example, will not deal with problems concerning the government. 
6. This, in my opinion, is a form of age related discrimination. Discrimination against pensioners who choose to spend there final days abroad. 

Please consider the above, and if you agree there is a case, could I ask that you raise the matter in The House.
 

I would be grateful for a response, if only to tell me how my points/questions are flawed, and why you have decided not to raise the matter. 

Kind regards

David

I knew what to expect when I moved here, like you, 7 years ago. But, it still irks. I’ve signed the petition but it needs to be spread far and wide, and I don’t know how to do that. I have friends in Turkey, but that’s one of the countries not affected. 
 

It needs someone with some drive and determination to push it through. 

19 hours ago, rooster59 said:

We expected him to be nailed down already in a coffin.

How do you put nails into a cardboard hip sop (box corpse)?

Are there any statistics which show the number of people killed in accidents involving HGVs?
 

It doesn’t matter how well protected a motorcyclist and passengers are, they don’t stand a chance when up against a poorly driven, badly serviced and overloaded monster - especially on Thailand’s poorly maintained roads. 
 

I feel really sorry for this family.

What alcohol control laws?  I live in rural Loei and cycle most mornings. I regularly stop at a village shop en route for a rest - around 7.30am. I’m used to drivers pulling up in lorries to neck a few drams of Lao Kao. I’ve even seen a school minibus pull up and whilst the children stocked up on candy, the driver imbibed a few 20฿ tots. Yesterday, a young girl about 7 or 8 arrived on her electric bike(!) and departed with a large bottle of the stuff. 
 

As I said, ‘What alcohol control laws?’

What happens if/when I die in Thailand?
 

I can’t find anything on this in the guide. As I have a yellow house book, I assume my death will be registered locally. But what happens then? Does the Embassy automatically get notified? If so, is the information passed back to UK and my death registered there also?

You got your ‘like’ Rooster. I wish I could have made it 50 to make up for some of the times I skipped past that part to read the comments. 

4 hours ago, KeeTua said:

The list in the op shows his name as the owner in the two columns on the right.

Thitisan Uthanaphol - the aforementioned general