NanaSomchai

Also it's not limited to Facebook pages, twitter accounts, VK profiles and other well known blogging sites, nor it is limited to the UK. Let me introduce you to Bjørn Lisd*rf, or simply Bjorn, is a Danish former YouTuber, live streamer, and internet personality. https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Bjorn_TV Basically this guy is married to a Thai woman whom he travels the World with, live streaming "worthless trashy content" from Denmark but also most notably the USA, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, all that while receiving a Danish Disability pension along with the equivalent of Universal Credit for unemployment. During 2015 he was reported to the Danish authorities by one of his livestreaming competitors (presumed), shortly after the tipping, the Danish authorities carried a thoughtful investigation resulting in stripping him from his disability pension, his unemployment pension, but also forced him to reimbursed the ill-gotten funds as he was sentenced to 3 months of jail time for having committed a benefits fraud. After serving his 3 months of jail sentence, as he got out the revenue service launched then a separate and second investigation based on the allegations that during these livestreams he was getting substantial donations and tips from it's viewers. While the amounts were ridiculously low (we're not even talking of 300£ per month in donations here), it was still considered as palatable income. Income which he failed to declare to the Danish tax office, so he was forced to pay some taxes on these donations with you guessed it... hefty fines and penalties for 1) failing to declare income and 2) overdue payments. While this case may seem rather extreme, it should serve as a reminder that committing benefit fraud, pension fraud is never risk free and should you get caught, well... it rarely ends well. In all and all, what prevails here is discretion, at all times.

The proper and safest way to do it in my opinion. Get your funds/benefits/social security/pension deposited in your account and then do transfers or ATM withdrawals at your own leisure. Don't feed the governments. The less they know, the better. Yeash, that's usually how it works everywhere else in the World. Countries just have different regulations. In my opinion: Keep it quiet and carry on. Discretion is key.

Yet I'm willing to bet a lot of these expat-style pensioners are not telling the British government they have retired abroad and are keeping an address somewhere in the UK with good reason; following the law would most likely be detrimental to their entitlement rights as it has been hinted in this thread.

Who cares what the thread title is, really. The idea behind the post was to demonstrate that countries have different rules and requirements on how long can you receive funds without even being there. Some being 30 days, some 60 days, others 90 days while the rest can be as high as 180 days, very often these rules/requirements may (or may not) enforced by respective countries and more often than not they also appear to apply to retirement schemes, state pensions, etc.

I never said it was. If you re-read again I clearly bolded and underlined the information I merely provided was unrelated to pensions but catering to other benefits. As I'm not old enough to be eligible for pensions for a very long time, my knowledge on state pensions is albeit very limited. And yes... I'm aware I am very off topic, the idea behind the post was to demonstrate that countries have different rules and requirements on how long can you receive funds without even being there.

As weird as it may sound, I have a weird hobby of collecting citizenships just because, well... it's a hobby, here are a few things I can tell you about: These are pre-retirements, not pension related: Portugal: Must live and be settled permanently in Portugal to receive any forms of benefits, if you leave the country for more than 30 days, you become ineligible for any state provided benefits. You must report you have left for another country. Benefits are paid monthly by the 21th of each month. Spain: Must live and be settled permanently in Spain to receive any forms of benefits, you may be allowed up to 2 months per calendar year of leave, if you are out of the country more than 60 days over the span of one calendar year, your benefits are stripped. Not reporting is considered as committing fraud. Benefits are paid monthly by the 15th of the month. France: Must live and reside permanently in France to receive any forms of benefits, must have a resident permit to claim benefits, you are allowed to be out of France 90 days per year, but must return and fill taxes in order to retain benefits eligibility in France. Benefits are paid monthly between the 5th and the 7th, by law the funds must be available in your account by the 7th, so if the 7th is a saturday or a sunday, you'll then get paid by the 5th instead. UK: Must live in the UK, be either a UK citizen or fully settled status (which you acquire after 5 years of full residency) to get any benefits. You must also demonstrate a second right to residency (working, self employed, jobseeker, etc). Also if you leave for more than 30 days you must report to the Department for Work and Pensions. If they can demonstrate you have left without telling them, you are considered committing fraud. The DWP has acquired a bot software from an Israeli firm which scrapes facebook pages, twitter accounts, VK pages, search metadata, etc to gather evidences whether you are a law breaker. Also UK benefits are weekly (over complicated for no reason, makes no sense). Switzerland: Must live in Switzerland, have the Swiss citizenship, be a permanent resident at least 180 days per year to be eligible for benefits, with that being said each "part" of Switzerland applies it's own rules along it's own subsequent set of rules, so it depends on where you are registered, Geneva is known to have the most relaxed rules, if out of the country more than 180 days over a rolling period (not calendar year), benefits are stripped. Belgium: Must have a registered address in Belgium any P.O. Box or charity where you can receive mail is sufficient, you don't have to live there by law, you may be eligible for benefits after only 1 month of staying in Belgium, given non citizen living for more than 90 days in Belgium are subject to mandatory self-registration at their local city hall/town hall. Once they are fully registered they receive a Belgian resident card which then can be used to access other states benefits. Presence requirements are not enforced as far as I've been told since there is no control/very little checks. I am not sure about the rest of the World, but it is knowledge being passed around: - Other countries easy to get benefits and retirement pensions from are: The Netherlands, Sweden and soon Scotland. - Other countries hard to get benefits and retirement pensions from are: Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland. I wish I knew more.

Looking at that map the only things I could think of (minus Turkey) were: - Drinkable tap water. - Clean and Green renewable energy. - Decent animal/pest control programs. - Rule of Law. - Proper unbiased judicial system (state provided pro-bono lawyers, chance at a fair trial, possibility of appeals, etc) - Nearly non-existent officials and civil servants corruption. - Well trained police forces. - High standards healthcare. - Sensible retirement/pension programs for its citizens/residents. I don't really have a conclusion to my post other than; When you can live in the relative safety and comfort offered by a blue colored nation, why would you even want to live in a red colored one? I just don't get people sometimes.

Money, money. money... Thailand: Money number one.

They wouldn't have done it for me, yet they should have done it for the dog. Indeed it was extortion. Thailand Money Number One.

This.

It wasn't even really my dog to begin with and yet it hurt like hell, in fact it still hurts to this day, so in your case I can only imagine the pain you have felt at the time, allow me to empathise. And indeed asking money for this is straight up extorsion, it is plain wrong. I'm baffled at the volume of posters in this thread who lack the common sense to understand and comprehend something as basic as this. Yeah I had been there for a year tops, I don't speak Thai and they were not fluent in English either, I could only guess that didn't help one bit. I'm sorry it "offends you". What they did is terribly wrong, when I come to think of it after all these months, I begin to wonder if I somehow hadn't bonded more with the dog "nan" than with any of these villagers. Probably her father, a good for nothing drunkard. Might not have been the "best" wife either, but I'm digressing. Thank you for your heartfelt post. This thread has run its course. /thread

I know I've stated that I was essentially done with this thread, but I felt this post deserved a "thank you" from me. So there it is: Thank you. I was merely trying to do the right thing.

Thanks to those who posted sensible heartfelt comments, the intent behind this thread was to share my story of my experience in Thailand (at least bits of the final year) while disclosing the reason why ultimately I was left with no other options than selling and leaving. Again my motives are mine and solely mine, in the very end I sold what I could, recouped some of my losses whereas possible and applicable and to this day I have very little regrets of leaving the Kingdom for good. I wish I could recommend visiting or retiring to Thailand to anyone (not on these forums obviously, duh) but I actively advocate against it for different reasons obviously, mainly tied to politics, not related to my unfortunate dismissal. Again, this thread should serve as a mere glimpse of what my life experience in Thailand was at the very end, your mileage will most likely vary, the next time you see me posting, you'll be able to comprehend which angle or should I say which POV I'm from. As a few closing words, I'd like to state that I used to love Thailand, 10+ years ago, I fell in love with the place, the girls, the energy, the vibe, with a lot of things, it was puppy-love at first sight but as the time wore on, I caught on that Thailand is nothing but a fairy tale (again according to me). Thailand is its own place and, in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven. /thread

There we are. You have no idea what (at least this part of) your post means to me. Nobody should be asking money to bury a loved deceased animal (unless you are a professional and do this for a living). They were clearly trying to extort me in an obvious moment of distress. Thai style. Thanks for chiming in.

20 baht?! See, even paying 45 baht each shows how they have no problems double pricing a foreigner... oh well, at least these bowls served a good purpose.

I wasn't even "fishing" for sympathy or anything. The "beauty" of Thailand is that everyone that comes here has either a positive or a negative opinion of the place, lots of people have lots of stories to tell about the place, the food, the culture, the sights, the girls, the Thais, the scams, the politics, yet no one is an expert. I merely (and I use this word with parsimony here) merely wanted to share MY experience of what life in Thailand was and how it ENDED for me and now I'm being denied of even that, being called a liar, that my post is BS, etc, etc.

I believe we are on the edge of insanity.

The only reason why I quoted you is to prevent you from editing your... your... "work" so the others get to read it. What a true gentlemen!

All I know is that if we were friends, mates, buddies or even just neighbors, if YOU called me and asked me to bury your cat or your dog because you're out of town for a couple of days, I'd most likely do it for free and try to comfort you the next time you're back in town, but that's just me.

Disgusting post. Specially the bolded part. How clumsy of me to hope other villagers would anonymously have done the right thing in our absence. And again it wasn't officially MY dog, it was the entire village's dog as far as I'm concerned.

I can see that now, based on my previous encounters and based on the tone of some posters here. Sadly not possible in rural village life. I have my eyes set on Saigon life at this very moment. They seem more educated even though generalizations always suck. That's the thing, I am not a dog hater either (even after being bit as a kid), I merely consider myself a guy who tried to do the right thing (tm). Thank you for your empathy. Much appreciated.

We had 2 properties in Pattaya, both have been sold by now. As for the assumptions, you're entitled to do your own assumptions, I guess. Nakhon Phanom (plus 5km to the wife's village) to Pattaya, 795km. Sad that I have to justify myself but yet we are. Wife was met in Pattaya, she worked in a mall (day and evening). Would you like pictures of our wedding?

Excepted to me it never was about money, it could have been 30 THB, 300 THB, 3000 THB, 30000 THB, it's still the same; it's morally and ethically wrong to take advantage of someone in a such moment of grief let alone they were pushing it only because I am a foreigner.

Holy Moly that one hits like a truck. Not a chance of freezing in hell anyone would have cared for that dog, it was already in very poor shape as I explained in my post, fleas, mange, etc, clearly that dog would have been exterminated. The poor thing died of old age, nothing else, geeze, how could it have been infested with parasites to begin with. I'm sure however 8 days later when I picked the decaying corpse it was infested, I wore plastic gloves, used a bee mask, a large trash plastic bag to carry the corpse over, at no point my skin came in contact with the decaying body itself and I buried it in a hole behind the house. Two years later I'm still here and still (physically) fine. Yeah okay, not even worth reading to the end at this point Your attitude is horrendous.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Where and when does the greed stop?