efficientI left the UK at 58yo, in 2002 I was with Equitable Life, for a guaranteed payout when 60 yo. As members know they were going bust so we had a choice except a cut on our pension, or they go bust we lose everything. I lost £18,000. The government stepped in to sort it all out after 4 years of claiming, i got compensation of £345 the dragged their feet so we would all die before settled it's still going on and some of us are still alive.
Then at 65 in 2007 I applied for my State Pension for Thailand, all very efficient , no problems at all. At this time, I didn't know about frozen pension. I was living ok, I had money to carry on. Then I started reading about the immigration into UK and how much the Government were giving them £49 per day. I wrote to the pension service about my pension, they directed me to the rules on being abroad and frozen pensions, which really make no sense at all if I had chosen to live in the Philippines, I would get the full pension. I have estimated I have lost out on about an average of 1500baht per month ( little for the first few years ) total would be about £ my pension is £107 pw, the state pension now is £169.50 per week if born before 1951, why? I have a short fall over the last 4 years of around £20,000. This is how our government treat its people like me, I never claimed benefits, worked all my life paying into the system. But if go into UK on a rubber boat or in a lorry and get £17,885 per annum, never having paid in a penny. Is something wrong here?
I'm going back in April 2005 to claim my full pension stay 6 months 1 day, and come back to Thailand on a higher frozen pension.