UK Pensions and related info

[billd766]

29 minutes ago, anchadian said:

Bill

 

I don't know if you saw my post in another thread re Wise transfers but I used Kasikorn for a TW transfer and it took seconds.  My other bank Krungsri, previously sending it on a Friday approx 3:00pm always arrived on the following or next business day afternoon at about 200 pm.

 

Still not sure if Wise's partner bank here is Bkk or Kasikorn bank.  Let's see next time I do a transfer to KBank.

Wise partners here are both BBK and KBank.

 

The main difference is that BBK show up on their statements that the transfer is FTT and if necessary you can download the transfers as pdf files.

 

KBank doesn't.

 

I made a little Excel spreadsheet that I log every Wise transaction into my wise account and out to my BBK account along with the transfer numbers and the forex rate given at the time of transfer.

 

I do my extension as a marriage extension based on incoming funds and at KPP the spreadsheet has been accepted in my case as it is easier for the IO instead of ploughing through bank statements. She just looks at the monthly income and sees at a glance how much came to Thailand per month.

 

Both Wise and BBK send me an email telling me what stage the transfer is at. KBank didn't.

 

[UKresonant]

Rodger Gale https://www.rogergale.com Member of Parliament for North Thanet (Margate, Herne Bay & The Villages)

Just raised in the house, the issue of frozen expat pensions, during the Queen's Speech debate, stating that they should be un-frozen, and also commented on the ability of expats to vote in future General Elections. Good Man!????

 

[Orinoco]

7 hours ago, UKresonant said:

Rodger Gale https://www.rogergale.com Member of Parliament for North Thanet (Margate, Herne Bay & The Villages)

Just raised in the house, the issue of frozen expat pensions, during the Queen's Speech debate, stating that they should be un-frozen, and also commented on the ability of expats to vote in future General Elections. Good Man!????

 

Yes good guy.

But nothing will come of it ever, as we are seen as nothing more than traitors to the crown. by the people and the government, End of. 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Orinoco

[anchadian]

10 hours ago, anchadian said:

Bill

 

I don't know if you saw my post in another thread re Wise transfers but I used Kasikorn for a TW transfer and it took seconds.  My other bank Krungsri, previously sending it on a Friday approx 3:00pm always arrived on the following or next business day afternoon at about 200 pm.

 

Still not sure if Wise's partner bank here is Bkk or Kasikorn bank.  Let's see next time I do a transfer to KBank.

Yes, you should get paid on a Wednesday,  My last two digits are 84 Friday, the day Wise acc is credited.

 

I'd give international pensions a call.

 

Good luck.

[dasboot]

My ongoing saga, i managed to retrieve my invitation, which i know is to late but it gave me a reason to phone them again. I phoned and after 15/20 minutes, i was answered and cut off immediately, i phoned again and after a similar time the call was answered and a female voice announced herself, hello i replied, to which got hello, hello, this dam head set click cut off again.

My phone rang and there was Sam a young lady who had tried to answer but cut me off, she had the decency to call me back. After giving her my details she could see i had called before but that had been done about my claim, i will phone my manager immediately so i will put you on hold. 5 minutes past and Sam came back on the line, this will be actioned immediately i was told, Sam asked me some questions, to which i answered with basically what i put in the forms. 

I missed a call from the IPC roughly 30 minutes later, who would have thought they would call back again, so this afternoon i will call again to see if i can find anymore information on my pension, 8 weeks and counting now.

[clivebaxter]

13 hours ago, nausea said:

I'm paying tax., on my pathetic llittle pension, can't believe it. So does this give me some rights in the UK if I return? Like paying tax must be a p.us in reestablishing residency. 

Tax is never stopped on your state pension, on other ones after all income exceeds 12750 pounds a year personal tax allowance

[theoldgit]

13 hours ago, nausea said:

I'm paying tax., on my pathetic llittle pension, can't believe it. So does this give me some rights in the UK if I return? Like paying tax must be a p.us in reestablishing residency. 

 

What sort of "rights" are you looking for? Some take time to establish, whilst others, like NHS cover, are available as soon as you've returned, providing you can satisfy those in authority that you have returned to the UK permanently.

[steve187]

On 5/9/2021 at 9:59 PM, KannikaP said:

Of course Skype to Skype is free. This started out as the best way to call the 0800 number of the UK Pension service, which will not be free, which is what you have just confirmed, and was established a few hours ago.

i think you are being perninickety, apart from a very small connection fee the call  to a uk 0800 number is free. the fact that you have to have credit with skype does not change that fact, after the call you still have that credit,  you show a cheaper than free way to call a uk 0800 number from Thailand.

 

 

 

 

[KannikaP]

4 minutes ago, steve187 said:

i think you are being perninickety, apart from a very small connection fee the call  to a uk 0800 number is free. the fact that you have to have credit with skype does not change that fact, after the call you still have that credit,  you show a cheaper than free way to call a uk 0800 number from Thailand.

 

 

 

 

So from where is the connection fee funded please?

[a3tsw]

Strange thing happened today , received a letter here in Thailand from DWP informing me of my of my pension increase.

Has the UK state pension been un-frozen for Thailand?

The new increased amount (by 2.5%) was paid in to my account today.

Anyone else received this?

[lungbing]

I suspect they don't know you're in Thailand.

[a3tsw]

They know that I am in Thailand , as they sent the letter to my Thai address , furthermore several months ago I had occasion to speak to them on the phone and they knew that I was in Thailand , as I had received a tax rebate by cheque from IR and somehow they must have shared my address info with DWP.

So . I was pleasantly surprised to receive this years pension increase.

 

[billd766]

14 hours ago, anchadian said:

Yes, you should get paid on a Wednesday,  My last two digits are 84 Friday, the day Wise acc is credited.

 

I'd give international pensions a call.

 

Good luck.

It is working OK for me and TBH I think I will leave it as it is.

 

[Kwasaki]

On 5/12/2021 at 9:07 PM, a3tsw said:

They know that I am in Thailand , as they sent the letter to my Thai address , furthermore several months ago I had occasion to speak to them on the phone and they knew that I was in Thailand , as I had received a tax rebate by cheque from IR and somehow they must have shared my address info with DWP.

So . I was pleasantly surprised to receive this years pension increase.

 

If you back UK and stay for a certain number of days you can maintain a annual increase I believe.

If you rely on your UK pension for living expenses in Thailand like I do it's possible that DWP (IPC) will realize there mistake and will ask for the over-paid amount back so put it to one side just in case.

 

I got paid winter allowance 2019 and they never asked for it back, they obviously mess up sometimes.

 

I kept the money to one side and in 2020 asked them where is my winter allowance payment.

They emailed back saying I was not entitled to winter payments in Thailand. ????

[nong38]

When I tried to phone DWP with the 0800 number it would not go through I had to phone the number for overseas and yes the usual 20 minute wait.

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, nong38 said:

When I tried to phone DWP with the 0800 number it would not go through I had to phone the number for overseas and yes the usual 20 minute wait.

I get through to IPC using True home phone using 004 or 006 then 44 191 2187777.

I find emailing them is good enough to ask a question unless they withhold my pension payment.

[dasboot]

My still ongoing saga part 2, I have phoned now numerous times, always polite curteous phone calls, I spoke to Claire who told me it was all processed and the money had been paid out the day before, this was Thursday last week. As my pay day is a Friday I thought  the money would arrive the next day, nothing, so I phoned again and spoke to Clare. She checked with the department that pays and now I get told it takes three working days, I was told here on the 25th, which is today. I checked at 6am here, nothing, so my question to the panel is what time does everyone who is using Wise get there money, this is dragging on now.

[Tanoshi]

40 minutes ago, dasboot said:

I checked at 6am here, nothing, so my question to the panel is what time does everyone who is using Wise get there money, this is dragging on now.

Payments through Wise are always processed by the Thai banks and deposited in your account at 2pm on the day it's received.

[dasboot]

37 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

Payments through Wise are always processed by the Thai banks and deposited in your account at 2pm on the day it's received.

Ok, but what time does it get put into wise by the DWP, i was told on Friday it had all been done and would take three working days to get into my account, the original call was on Thursday. All my other annuities hit my UK bank at midnight, 6am here, I then move them to wise and then onto my Bangkok Bank account, absolutely faultless for years. I was told my payment would hit wise on the 25th, its not there, so the question is at what time does the DWP pay out ?

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, dasboot said:

Ok, but what time does it get put into wise by the DWP, 

Your losing me and confusing me some, the DWP uses Citibank UK for transfers of UK pensions to Thai banks not " Wise " unless something has changed.

 

From conversations with IPC who you contact if receiving a UK pension from abroad I  have been told on many occasions that UK pension funds can take up to 8 days to be received by the Thai bank. 

 

The fact you have not received your UK pension for some 8 weeks the only reason I can think of is that there is definitely something wrong, maybe your Thai bank details are incorrect.

 

I would ring up again and check with IPC your correct Thai bank swift No. and Thai a/c bank details that your UK pension is being sent to. 

[dasboot]

55 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Your losing me and confusing me some, the DWP uses Citibank UK for transfers of UK pensions to Thai banks not " Wise " unless something has changed.

 

From conversations with IPC who you contact if receiving a UK pension from abroad I  have been told on many occasions that UK pension funds can take up to 8 days to be received by the Thai bank. 

 

The fact you have not received your UK pension for some 8 weeks the only reason I can think of is that there is definitely something wrong, maybe your Thai bank details are incorrect.

 

I would ring up again and check with IPC your correct Thai bank swift No. and Thai a/c bank details that your UK pension is being sent to. 

You misunderstand it took 8 weeks to process my claim, after numerous phone calls and at one time being told my forms had been lost in a pile, everything went through. I opted for Transferwise as a UK bank as i use it for everything else, with no issues. My Thursday phone call told me it had all gone through, she even read the letter to me that i should receive,my Friday phone call told me it should be with me in three working days, the 25th and still nothing. From what i have read here several members are using Transferwise, or Wise as their called now. There are no Thai Bank details as i choose to use a UK bank and do the transfers myself, this was my choice.

[Kwasaki]

25 minutes ago, dasboot said:

You misunderstand it took 8 weeks to process my claim, after numerous phone calls and at one time being told my forms had been lost in a pile, everything went through. I opted for Transferwise as a UK bank as i use it for everything else, with no issues. My Thursday phone call told me it had all gone through, she even read the letter to me that i should receive,my Friday phone call told me it should be with me in three working days, the 25th and still nothing. From what i have read here several members are using Transferwise, or Wise as their called now. There are no Thai Bank details as i choose to use a UK bank and do the transfers myself, this was my choice.

Apologies I use "Wise" for getting my private UK pensions savings to Thailand and find them great.

For my UK govt pension I chose payments to be made every 4 weeks into my Thai bank a/c and find that good too.

Get paid in Thailand on Thursdays this 20th May got 44.77 to pound.

[dasboot]

Panic and stress over, the payment went into Wise at 3.30pm today, less than a minute later it was in my thai bank. Thanks guys for your help.

[maechanman]

Anyone out there managed to apply for their UK state pension by telephone from here in Thailand using their invitation code?

My pension is due and I'm wondering will it be simpler than filling out their 26 page form for overseas claimants.

Presumably they should have my details which would negate a lot of the questions on the form.

[Kwasaki]

3 hours ago, maechanman said:

Anyone out there managed to apply for their UK state pension by telephone from here in Thailand using their invitation code?

My pension is due and I'm wondering will it be simpler than filling out their 26 page form for overseas claimants.

Presumably they should have my details which would negate a lot of the questions on the form.

I don't know what's done at the moment with this covid about.

 

When my pension was due they posted the forms to me at my Thai address to fill out and send them back. 

 

Best telephone them and get it from the horses mouth so to speak and find out what you need to do. 

[OJAS]

On 5/12/2021 at 6:39 AM, Orinoco said:

Yes good guy.

But nothing will come of it ever, as we are seen as nothing more than traitors to the crown. by the people and the government, End of. 

 

 

 

I fear that you are probably right. In the immediate term Rishi Sunak is unlikely to want to have anything get in the way of balancing UK plc books following his little COVID-19 spending spree. And then we have to contend with the seemingly immovable force of DWP's Sir Humphrey who, unfortunately for us, has established a pretty impressive track record over the years in getting politicians of whatever persuasion to perform 180-degree U-turns on the frozen pensions issue once they have got into power.

 

The only way in which I personally could see any government tackling this apparent injustice would be, ironically, through scrapping triple-lock increases for all and sundry, except, possibly, in the case of those for whom the State Pension is the sole source of income. And, even then, there would still exist a sizeable disparity between pensioners whose pensions had been frozen for a number of years, and those hitherto entitled to triple-lock increases, unless the government were prepared to grant one-off increases to "frozen" pensioners in order to achieve a level playing field across the board before scrapping the triple-lock in most cases.

Edited May 29, 2021 by OJAS

[Kwasaki]

On 5/29/2021 at 5:11 PM, OJAS said:

 

I fear that you are probably right. In the immediate term Rishi Sunak is unlikely to want to have anything get in the way of balancing UK plc books following his little COVID-19 spending spree. And then we have to contend with the seemingly immovable force of DWP's Sir Humphrey who, unfortunately for us, has established a pretty impressive track record over the years in getting politicians of whatever persuasion to perform 180-degree U-turns on the frozen pensions issue once they have got into power.

 

The only way in which I personally could see any government tackling this apparent injustice would be, ironically, through scrapping triple-lock increases for all and sundry, except, possibly, in the case of those for whom the State Pension is the sole source of income. And, even then, there would still exist a sizeable disparity between pensioners whose pensions had been frozen for a number of years, and those hitherto entitled to triple-lock increases, unless the government were prepared to grant one-off increases to "frozen" pensioners in order to achieve a level playing field across the board before scrapping the triple-lock in most cases.

My take would be the covid pandemic is likely to have cost UK enough, the last thing for MP's even just to mention frozen pensions would only be a ploy to get overseas UK citizens voting for them. 

 

It seems to me that any UK govt is leading towards scrapping govt pensions in the future.

All my kids at home are into private pensions plus company contributing pensions so they have a choice of retiring earlier than their govt pension kicking in at say 68 and maybe being moved to 70.

 

Those that have not or could not contribute towards private or company pensions will just use social security as a retirement income. 

[BobBKK]

21 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

My take would be the covid pandemic is likely to have cost UK enough, the last thing for MP's even just to mention frozen pensions would only be a ploy to get overseas UK citizens voting for them. 

 

It seems to me that any UK govt is leading towards scrapping govt pensions in the future.

All my kids at home are into private pensions plus company contributing pensions so they have a choice of retiring earlier than their govt pension kicking in at say 68 and maybe being moved to 70.

 

Those that have not or could not contribute towards private or company pensions will just use social security as a retirement income. 

The point is - this is not what we signed up AND PAID for

[maxcorrigan]

9 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

The point is - this is not what we signed up AND PAID for

That's true, but it's been going on for more than 70 yrs now and there seems to be no political will or even interest in changing it at the moment!

[Kwasaki]

31 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

The point is - this is not what we signed up AND PAID for

Not sure what you mean I knew when I came to Thailand when my UK pension was due it would be frozen the same as Australia,  New Zealand, Canada, and many other countries.

It was my choice.