Expatwannabee

I am only guessing but to me the only way this would be workable would be....All 75% of foreigners may vote but, if all 75% vote the same, the vote is capped 49%. This leaves the vote of the Thai owned condos (25%) being actually worth 51%. This way the 75% foreigners cannot automatically out vote the Thai quota. I'm probably wrong but I don't see how else it would work.

The article says she is 87 yrs old and left 24 yrs ago at age 63.( women qualified for their pension at age 60 then. Men at 65). The article does not tell us if she was getting a full state pension or not. Only that it was frozen at £300. If she remained in the UK she might also have claimed a supplementary means tested benefit to help her survive. Also she would have been able to claim help with her rent and council tax. So while it does seem small it could easily be correct. You also have to factor in that the UK state pension is one of the least generous of the main European economies. So losing all her extra help (if any) and getting no increase on her pension for 24 years leads to where she is now. It's not right but it is the case for many.

It is a pittance but that was the amount she was receiving when she left the country 24 yrs ago.

I believe if she left the UK again it would revert to the previous frozen level

Some years ago I wrote to my Labour MP Kate Hoey about this. She was sympathetic ( or at least said she was) and forwarded my letter to the Pensions Minister at that time (can't now remember who). His reply when it came was to quote the extra cost to the Government for doing this and to add that it's always been done this way. I replied to him telling him on that basis that slavery could also be justified on the grounds that it was always done that way. I was a bit annoyed at his pathetic answer so I copied my reply to Kate Hoey and the Primeminister. Next time I wrote to Kate Hoey I got no reply. I'd been blacklisted. The basic problem is that an adequate properly funded pension scheme was never implemented. The contributions a worker makes over his working life do not accumulate into a fund. Instead those contributions were used to pay the current pensioners. When my turn came to draw my pension it is being paid by those in work today. This allows the Government to cynically claim it is a benefit even though it is contributory and mandatory to pay NI. The next step will be for future pensioners to be told it will be means tested. This means anyone who has a private pension may not receive it or may get a reduced pension. Another scam in this set up is that 35 yrs contributions are enough to claim a full basic pension. Many people like me contributed for 49 yrs but receive nothing extra for those additional 14yrs. As always Governments invariably cheat the workers.