44 minutes ago, kingdong said:

Dear toadlad perhaps the uk should take control of the civil service and if they don,t or don,t want to fo!low legislation,sack them

Toadlad!

 

I don't know many civil services but I know the UK service. Many ministers, many people will tell you that large parts of our civil service are not fit for purpose. Ally to that the massive interference by ministers and others who simply do not know when to stop interfering and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

Brexit, sorry to bring it up, has the mantra, take back control of our borders: I think many brexiteers believe that the EU is at fault for the disaster of UK immigration policy and that once the UK leaves the EU, all immigrants will be controlled or will melt away. How many illegal immigrants are there in the UK today? As far as I know, the estimate ranges from 0.5 to 1.2 million. Why do we not know how many there are? Why are the illegals who should be deported not being deported? Good questions.

 

How about HMRC, tax and customs? Fit for purpose or a sink hole? When someone owes tax, do they have to pay? Or are some of us allowed to negotiate vast amounts away? One rule for all? Efficiency of staff? 

 

Social welfare payments are a nightmare for many, especially since they reformed it recently and consequently have wreaked havoc for many. Anyone who is in any way disabled and has to go through the PIP system will tell you how long it takes, how demeaning it is, how uncertain possible outcomes are.

 

Overall, it is not that the civil servants don't follow legislation so much as they cannot: legislation in some areas changes too much; in others, the legislation is not clear and in other cases, the staff are badly recruited or mollycoddled so much that the actual number of people at and fit for work is way below the establishment.

13 minutes ago, todlad said:

I think many brexiteers believe that the EU is at fault for the disaster of UK immigration policy and that once the UK leaves the EU, all immigrants will be controlled or will melt away.

What utter tosh. You think wrong.

4 minutes ago, IvorBiggun2 said:

What utter tosh. You think wrong.

Like i or not, that is exactly what they think.

 

Just listen to Farage. Watch the news reports of what the man in the street thinks.

 

This is one of the main reasons so many people voted for Brexit even though they will personally suffer from leaving the EU, including the fact that their job relies on the EU.

We voted to leave the EU for many reasons but you being a Remainer has highlighting only one of those possible reasons. You did this in an attempt to make out we're basically racists. Try reading  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_vote_in_favour_of_Brexit

1 minute ago, IvorBiggun2 said:

We voted to leave the EU for many reasons but you being a Remainer has highlighting only one of those possible reasons. You did this in an attempt to make out we're basically racists. Try reading  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_vote_in_favour_of_Brexit

Why do you say I am a remainer?

 

I highlighted one of many area of major concern. The rest is in your imagination but you can answer this, what did everyone mean by taking back control if not controlling immigration? One does not have to be a racist to want to control immigration. On the other hand, it really is clear that some people want no one to immigrate to Britain even though we have seen and are seeing that many areas of professional life are suffering due to a lack of workers in all sorts of walks of life.

2 minutes ago, todlad said:

Why do you say I am a remainer?

 

I highlighted one of many area of major concern. The rest is in your imagination but you can answer this, what did everyone mean by taking back control if not controlling immigration? One does not have to be a racist to want to control immigration. On the other hand, it really is clear that some people want no one to immigrate to Britain even though we have seen and are seeing that many areas of professional life are suffering due to a lack of workers in all sorts of walks of life.

By the way, that wikipedia page does brexiteers no favours at all.

On 12/3/2019 at 11:52 AM, nchuckle said:

You seem a credulous chap. For £100 I’ll sell you Tower Bridge,simply pay  into the account details I messaged you... A decent chap laying wreaths on terrorist graves is your kinda guy hey?

Credulous is believing the Daily Mail. https://skwawkbox.org/2018/08/14/there-are-no-munich-terrorists-in-hamman-chatt-cemetery/

On 12/3/2019 at 10:56 AM, buffallobill said:

People in England prefer low taxes rather than good public services and decent pensions, I personally would rather pay a bit extra tax now

"Patriotism is paying your taxes"..."Taxes buy civilisation"

23 hours ago, saengd said:

Good luck with that, if you want to stamp that out then you'll have to stamp out the wealth creators also, you know, the people who create jobs!

 

Everything I've ever read about Corbyns spending plans tells me he's detached from reality, he has no realistic way to pay for even one tenth of what he plans. Remember when Labour were ousted and the Cons. took over last time, the Cons guy at the Treasury read the note that was left for him by his Labour predecessor, "sorry, there's no money, we spent it all", that's just a fraction of what a Corbyn gov. would be like. And most thinking people understand that it was the catastrophic financial actions of Labour in that government that made the ensuing austerity program necessary, don't blames that on the Cons., they just cleaned up the mess that was left for them.

Maybe you'd like to read this as well - "On average Conservative budget deficits are twice the size of Labour's"

 

http://www.primeeconomics.org/articles/conservative-budget-deficits-on-average-theyre-twice-the-size-of-labours

17 hours ago, kingdong said:

He,s not even a decent liar.

I think I'd rather believe those who know him islingtontribune.com/article/the-jeremy-corbyn-we-know-the-most-decent-man-in-politics

 

Anyway, to get back to the original post about the frozen pensions ambiguity- I wrote to the Labour Party and here is their official response.

 

"The Labour Party believe that overseas pensions should be partially uprated to bring parity to all pensioners overseas and end this anomaly. We want to see frozen pensions begin to track inflation from their current baseline."

8 minutes ago, ianh68 said:

Anyway, to get back to the original post about the frozen pensions ambiguity- I wrote to the Labour Party and here is their official response.

 

"The Labour Party believe that overseas pensions should be partially uprated to bring parity to all pensioners overseas and end this anomaly. We want to see frozen pensions begin to track inflation from their current baseline."

If this ever sees the light of day then the obvious course of action would be to return to the UK, claim the full pension and then leave again.

On 12/3/2019 at 10:10 AM, ianh68 said:

It is worth remembering that the Labour Manifesto is not just the product of Jeremy Corbyn's brain - it is a distillation of policy democratically decided at Labour Party conference.

Assuming Corbyn has a brain, that is. Perhaps he's borrowed Abbott's and/or McDonnell's. 

5 hours ago, sandyf said:

If this ever sees the light of day then the obvious course of action would be to return to the UK, claim the full pension and then leave again.

Would it not be possible to go for example the Philipines claim full pension and leave

15 hours ago, todlad said:

Toadlad!

 

I don't know many civil services but I know the UK service. Many ministers, many people will tell you that large parts of our civil service are not fit for purpose. Ally to that the massive interference by ministers and others who simply do not know when to stop interfering and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

Brexit, sorry to bring it up, has the mantra, take back control of our borders: I think many brexiteers believe that the EU is at fault for the disaster of UK immigration policy and that once the UK leaves the EU, all immigrants will be controlled or will melt away. How many illegal immigrants are there in the UK today? As far as I know, the estimate ranges from 0.5 to 1.2 million. Why do we not know how many there are? Why are the illegals who should be deported not being deported? Good questions.

 

How about HMRC, tax and customs? Fit for purpose or a sink hole? When someone owes tax, do they have to pay? Or are some of us allowed to negotiate vast amounts away? One rule for all? Efficiency of staff? 

 

Social welfare payments are a nightmare for many, especially since they reformed it recently and consequently have wreaked havoc for many. Anyone who is in any way disabled and has to go through the PIP system will tell you how long it takes, how demeaning it is, how uncertain possible outcomes are.

 

Overall, it is not that the civil servants don't follow legislation so much as they cannot: legislation in some areas changes too much; in others, the legislation is not clear and in other cases, the staff are badly recruited or mollycoddled so much that the actual number of people at and fit for work is way below the establishment.

from my dealings with local council they seem to be staffed by dossers who feel hard done by,just renewed my parking permit,they screwed it up,got a ticket and it took over an hour face to face to sort it,unfit for purpose.

14 hours ago, cleopatra2 said:

Would it not be possible to go for example the Philipines claim full pension and leave

Theoretically yes, as anywhere that gets the full rate. I do not know what is required in other countries regarding residency to claim the full rate.

I would think that for many the UK would be the simpler solution.

11 hours ago, kingdong said:

from my dealings with local council they seem to be staffed by dossers who feel hard done by,just renewed my parking permit,they screwed it up,got a ticket and it took over an hour face to face to sort it,unfit for purpose.

There is a bit of a Catch 22 in all of this because (UK) civil service salaries were always intended to be lower than private sector salaries; but civil service pensions were more generous than private sector pensions. Lower salaries tended to attract lower quality/less ambitious staff and that is why many aspects of the civil service have generally offered lower levels of service than the private sector.

 

By the way, no one should take offence at this because there are many people for whom a high salary in the private sector is not such a big deal: working in the civil service mode suited them and they were perfectly suited to the work they did.

 

On the other hand, last year, the Sunday Times ran an article on the highest civil servants that had been recruited to work on Brexit/Trade Deals. Their CVs were very good to excellent. However, these people said things like, when I saw that X was joining the team, I made sure his office was smaller than mine! Marvellous!

6 hours ago, todlad said:

 

 

On the other hand, last year, the Sunday Times ran an article on the highest civil servants that had been recruited to work on Brexit/Trade Deals. Their CVs were very good to excellent. However, these people said things like, when I saw that X was joining the team, I made sure his office was smaller than mine! Marvellous!

Your last sentence said it all about the calibre of civil dossers,sorry servants.

I was able to get my UK state pension unfrozen and uprated two years ago, here's what I did:

 

I'd been in Thailand full time for about 18 years and wanted a bolt hole back in the UK for my plan B, the plan was to buy somewhere, live in it for a few months each summer and rent it out for the rest of each year.

 

I found a retirement flat near The Lakes and in July 2017 I took possession, I then contacted DWP and said I was now living in the UK. They sent me a form that asked silly questions such as where are your personal possessions such as photographs stored, when you travelled to the UK did you buy a one way or a return ticket, the form is designed to help them understand where you live permanently. I sent it off but heard nothing back for three weeks so I thought I would write to my MP and copy in the Minister of Pensions, in the letter I set out the case that all aspects of my life were now UK based, by this time I'd already registered for the usual UK things, tax, doctor, council tax etc. Crucially I wrote in my letter that I expected to continue to travel as much as possible, something I had done since age 16, this was part of my settled and established way of life.

 

Pretty soon I got a reply saying it had been accepted I am now UK resident and my pension was uprated, start to finish time around seven weeks.

 

After two and a half months in the UK and a very pleasant summer I found a tenant for the flat and I returned to Thailand, the following year I repeated the process but this time I stayed for four months. I'm not sure what I'll do this year, I am ticketed to return mid May (ticket purchased in the UK) and may well do so for a short while, we'll see. All in all it's a very simple process that is quite quick, I'm certain I could have completed it without buying a flat and instead just renting or similar. Best part is we've had two great holidays in the UK which cost very little.

If you believe the bull <deleted> and lies of any of them you are too gullible, they cannot deliver from a democratic vote because no doubt it will curtail all the back handers and freebies so to believe any of them is insane and frankly idiotic...don't get sucked in by their false claims

On 12/6/2019 at 6:23 AM, saengd said:

I was able to get my UK state pension unfrozen and uprated two years ago, here's what I did:

 

Was it really worth it just to get a paltry small percentage annual increase? Or was it a matter of principle?

On 12/5/2019 at 2:09 PM, kingdong said:

Your last sentence said it all about the calibre of civil dossers,sorry servants.

As my last comment remained unopposed it would appear what your occupation is.

On 12/4/2019 at 1:59 PM, sandyf said:

If this ever sees the light of day then the obvious course of action would be to return to the UK, claim the full pension and then leave again.

What will see the light of day is the unfreezing of pensions from their current level abroad (partial uprating). Going back to the UK does admittedly raise the pension to the current level in the UK (full uprating) but it falls back to the partially uprated figure on returning to Thailand.

On 12/6/2019 at 6:23 AM, saengd said:

I was able to get my UK state pension unfrozen and uprated two years ago, here's what I did:

 

I'd been in Thailand full time for about 18 years and wanted a bolt hole back in the UK for my plan B, the plan was to buy somewhere, live in it for a few months each summer and rent it out for the rest of each year.

 

I found a retirement flat near The Lakes and in July 2017 I took possession, I then contacted DWP and said I was now living in the UK. They sent me a form that asked silly questions such as where are your personal possessions such as photographs stored, when you travelled to the UK did you buy a one way or a return ticket, the form is designed to help them understand where you live permanently. I sent it off but heard nothing back for three weeks so I thought I would write to my MP and copy in the Minister of Pensions, in the letter I set out the case that all aspects of my life were now UK based, by this time I'd already registered for the usual UK things, tax, doctor, council tax etc. Crucially I wrote in my letter that I expected to continue to travel as much as possible, something I had done since age 16, this was part of my settled and established way of life.

 

Pretty soon I got a reply saying it had been accepted I am now UK resident and my pension was uprated, start to finish time around seven weeks.

 

After two and a half months in the UK and a very pleasant summer I found a tenant for the flat and I returned to Thailand, the following year I repeated the process but this time I stayed for four months. I'm not sure what I'll do this year, I am ticketed to return mid May (ticket purchased in the UK) and may well do so for a short while, we'll see. All in all it's a very simple process that is quite quick, I'm certain I could have completed it without buying a flat and instead just renting or similar. Best part is we've had two great holidays in the UK which cost very little.

That is quite interesting. It could also include registering to vote - if you have gone past the 15 years abroad you could re-register and the clock would be set back to zero.

The FSA migrated from USA to UK.

 

 

I guess only trouble is Labor doesn't stand much of a chance. Last poll I'd seen had Conservatives up by ten solid.

1 hour ago, ianh68 said:

What will see the light of day is the unfreezing of pensions from their current level abroad (partial uprating). Going back to the UK does admittedly raise the pension to the current level in the UK (full uprating) but it falls back to the partially uprated figure on returning to Thailand.

That is as much an assumption as any uprating taking place in the first place.

13 hours ago, IvorBiggun2 said:

Was it really worth it just to get a paltry small percentage annual increase? Or was it a matter of principle?

You're too funny! In fact it was partly a matter of principle.....I also receive the US SSc payment every month and this is taxed and not recoverable, unless I live in the UK, I used to be able to claim the tax back by filing a tax return but then Trump removed the ability of non-resident aliens to do that. Once I started to be UK resident once again US tax stopped being deducted.

 

So the combination of the UK Pension uplift, tax recovery on my SSc payment every month, plus the ability to access the NHS once again and owning a flat in the UK I could use and rent out, all made the proposition financially attractive. Even setting aside the rent I receive, the current setup is self financing and our holidays every year are free.

 

On 12/6/2019 at 6:23 AM, saengd said:

I was able to get my UK state pension unfrozen and uprated two years ago, here's what I did:

 

I'd been in Thailand full time for about 18 years and wanted a bolt hole back in the UK for my plan B, the plan was to buy somewhere, live in it for a few months each summer and rent it out for the rest of each year.

 

I found a retirement flat near The Lakes and in July 2017 I took possession, I then contacted DWP and said I was now living in the UK. They sent me a form that asked silly questions such as where are your personal possessions such as photographs stored, when you travelled to the UK did you buy a one way or a return ticket, the form is designed to help them understand where you live permanently. I sent it off but heard nothing back for three weeks so I thought I would write to my MP and copy in the Minister of Pensions, in the letter I set out the case that all aspects of my life were now UK based, by this time I'd already registered for the usual UK things, tax, doctor, council tax etc. Crucially I wrote in my letter that I expected to continue to travel as much as possible, something I had done since age 16, this was part of my settled and established way of life.

 

Pretty soon I got a reply saying it had been accepted I am now UK resident and my pension was uprated, start to finish time around seven weeks.

 

After two and a half months in the UK and a very pleasant summer I found a tenant for the flat and I returned to Thailand, the following year I repeated the process but this time I stayed for four months. I'm not sure what I'll do this year, I am ticketed to return mid May (ticket purchased in the UK) and may well do so for a short while, we'll see. All in all it's a very simple process that is quite quick, I'm certain I could have completed it without buying a flat and instead just renting or similar. Best part is we've had two great holidays in the UK which cost very little.

this is exactly what i needed to know cos i.m out come april 02 back to UK cheers !

On 12/8/2019 at 8:45 AM, Liverpudlian said:

this is exactly what i needed to know cos i.m out come april 02 back to UK cheers !

Don't forget to tell yer mates when/where yer leaving do will be.....  ????

On 12/2/2019 at 10:11 PM, vogie said:

Yes, vote for the everything is free party, a four day week, free broadband, only today Labour anounced that it would cut a third off rail travel. Remember folks this is a once in a life time opportunity, it doesn't have to be paid for, it is all free. Labour will plant 2 billion trees, everything is free under Labour, you'd be a fool not to vote Labour and they're coming to take me away ha ha hee hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time...................

The four day week is not something that need cost anything at all.

it just means that you schedule the work in 4 days rather than 5. In low demand periods workers only need 4 return journeys to work, in high demand 5 days with OT rather than 6. Cuts your carbon footprint, can be productive. Those against a four day week, sometimes are against it because of the low capability in efficient scheduling, and efficient management of resources. Can be a win-win and profitable, if it is the right kind of core 4 day week!