UK Pensions and related info

[hotandsticky]

2 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I live in rural Kamphaeng Phet and people like that are a bit thin on the ground here, at least those who speak, read and write English

 

There is always the post office, but I haven't been in there for more than a year, the amphur police and they cost me a case of cold Chang beer when I went.

 

At least I am registered at the hospital.

 

 

A Thai has no idea what they are signing ???? (many police, bank staff and Immigration have refused to sign). They are eligible though (see above)

[transam]

1 minute ago, hotandsticky said:

 

Someone in a recognised profession* can witness your ‘LIFE CERTIFICATE’ if you’re claiming State Pension abroad. They do not need to live in the UK, or have a British passport. Please note that Consular Officials at your local Embassy are no longer supposed to act as witnesses for this purpose. Examples of people working in (or being retired from) recognised professions resp “persons of good standing in their community” are:  accountant  airline pilot  articled clerk of a limited company  assurance agent of recognised company  bank/building society official  barrister  chairman/director of limited company  chiropodist  commissioner of oaths  councillor (local or county)  civil servant (permanent), but not someone who works for Her Majesty’s Passport Office  dentist  director/manager of a VAT-registered charity  director/manager/personnel officer of a VAT-registered company  engineer (with professional qualifications)  financial services intermediary (eg a stockbroker or insurance broker)  fire service official  funeral director  insurance agent (full time) of a recognised company  journalist  Justice of the Peace  legal secretary (fellow or associate member of the Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs)  licensee of public house  local government officer  manager/personnel officer (of a limited company)  member, associate or fellow of a professional body  Member of Parliament  Merchant Navy officer  minister of a recognised religion (including Christian Science)  nurse (RGN and RMN)  officer of the armed services  optician  paralegal (certified paralegal, qualified paralegal or associate member of the Institute of Paralegals)  person with honours (an OBE or MBE, for example)

 

 pharmacist  photographer (professional)  police officer  Post Office official  president/secretary of a recognised organisation  Salvation Army officer  social worker  solicitor  surveyor  teacher, lecturer  trade union officer  travel agent (qualified)  valuer or auctioneer (fellows and associate members of the incorporated society)  Warrant Officers and Chief Petty Officers

 

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/814507/5_Life_Certificate_Witness_Options.pdf

 

 

So my mate of 2 years down the pub is out....

[hotandsticky]

3 minutes ago, transam said:

So my mate of 2 years down the pub is out....

 

 

If he is your mate, and from down the pub, he will probably fail the “persons of good standing in their community” criteria...????

[BobBKK]

On 2/4/2023 at 12:33 PM, transam said:

A Thai wife now gets sod all from the husband's UK state pension....

If a Thai widow has paid N.I. in the UK, she can claim it when 65 years old, but only a % of 35 years, with a minimum of 7 years N.I. contributions.

 

That is how I understand it....

 

wow that's a serious change and is RACIST  - I get a NHS pension I wonder if it's the same

Edited February 8, 2023 by BobBKK

[proton]

14 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

If he is your mate, and from down the pub, he will probably fail the “persons of good standing in their community” criteria...????

But the pub landlord can sign, always been a strange list, I sign myself just make it up.

[hotandsticky]

1 hour ago, BobBKK said:

wow that's a serious change and is RACIST  - I get a NHS pension I wonder if it's the same

 

 

To be fair Thai wives never got anything from Their husband's state pension......they did get bereavement benefits - but they stopped (unless they are resident in the UK).

 

 

Occupational pensions are different and there is invariably a widow's benefit attached. I have nominated my GF to receive a widow's pension when I have gone.

 

I suggest that you contact the NHS pension trustees to nominate your missus  -  you won't have a clue hat to do when you are brown bread.

[billd766]

42 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

To be fair Thai wives never got anything from Their husband's state pension......they did get bereavement benefits - but they stopped (unless they are resident in the UK).

 

 

Occupational pensions are different and there is invariably a widow's benefit attached. I have nominated my GF to receive a widow's pension when I have gone.

 

I suggest that you contact the NHS pension trustees to nominate your missus  -  you won't have a clue hat to do when you are brown bread.

IIRC from my occupational pensions she will get a percentage of your pension depending on the pension company and how long you have paid into it.

[hotandsticky]

2 minutes ago, billd766 said:

IIRC from my occupational pensions she will get a percentage of your pension depending on the pension company and how long you have paid into it.

 

 

In my case my partner will get 50%, less 5 percentage points for our age difference of 19 years. She will still get 45% of a tidy monthly sum. In fact she will be a lot better off when I an dead............................I don't intend making her aware of that! ????

[MikeandDow]

18 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

A Thai has no idea what they are signing ???? (many police, bank staff and Immigration have refused to sign). They are eligible though (see above)

I just get the local copper to sign and she signs it all in thai   form does not say English have done this for the last four life cert no come back dont know what they expect when living in Thailand reading and writing hard to come by if u live in a small village out in the sticks  also starting to get expensive to send back to uk they should give a refund on post 1000baht on ems 

[transam]

1 minute ago, MikeandDow said:

I just get the local copper to sign and she signs it all in thai   form does not say English have done this for the last four life cert no come back dont know what they expect when living in Thailand reading and writing hard to come by if u live in a small village out in the sticks  also starting to get expensive to send back to uk they should give a refund on post 1000baht on ems 

I just paid 250bht.....????

[OJAS]

18 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

A Thai has no idea what they are signing ???? (many police, bank staff and Immigration have refused to sign). They are eligible though (see above)

I have come to the conclusion that DWP have deliberately engineered their acceptable witness categories with the sole and avowed aim of ensuring that, if their rule book is followed to the letter and the witnessing charade is only performed in the physical presence of your witnesser, only Thai nationals with usually a minimal grasp of the English language at best can perform this particular responsibility. But are DWP prepared to provide us with dual English/Thai language versions of the Life Cert to assist us in this task? Of course not, since their overriding desire is to make the witnessing task for us just as difficult as is humanly possible (when, for instance, their flat refusal to accept witnessed Life Certs submitted by email is also thrown into the mix).

Edited February 8, 2023 by OJAS

[OJAS]

19 hours ago, billd766 said:

I finally received my CoL form today 07 February 2023, dated 8th January 2023.

 

To be returned to them within 16 weeks of 08 January or 30 April 2023

You're the second person on here to confirm 16 weeks from 8 January, as has @BlueScouse up thread. So we can, I think, take it that this applies to us all.

 

The curious thing as far as I am concerned, though, is that 8 January fell on a Sunday! Was the IPC really a hive of activity that day (at considerable overtime expense to us taxpayers, of course) so as to get a whole load of new life certs off to Thailand? And will they likewise be a hive of activity in the small hours of 1 May (which, I believe, is a Bank Holiday in the UK), with itchy fingers gleefully poised over buttons at 00:00:01 hours sharp to cut off State Pension payments to everyone who has missed the 30 April deadline??????

Edited February 8, 2023 by OJAS

[OJAS]

56 minutes ago, transam said:

I just paid 250bht.....????

Presumably International Registered rather than International EMS in your case, then? I've used both services for sending trackable mail to the UK, with no discernible differences in delivery times.

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by OJAS

[billd766]

4 hours ago, OJAS said:

You're the second person on here to confirm 16 weeks from 8 January, as has @BlueScouse up thread. So we can, I think, take it that this applies to us all.

 

The curious thing as far as I am concerned, though, is that 8 January fell on a Sunday! Was the IPC really a hive of activity that day (at considerable overtime expense to us taxpayers, of course) so as to get a whole load of new life certs off to Thailand? And will they likewise be a hive of activity in the small hours of 1 May (which, I believe, is a Bank Holiday in the UK), with itchy fingers gleefully poised over buttons at 00:00:01 hours sharp to cut off State Pension payments to everyone who has missed the 30 April deadline??????

I suspect that all they did was post a date on the letter and perhaps they would print thousands of copies overnight, and then do a bulk postal delivery for them all to be sent out.

 

All they need to do to stop your pension temporarily, is just to program the computer for the non returns.

 

I will send mine back via EMS as it does not happen every year anyway.

Edited February 8, 2023 by billd766
added extra text

[Kwasaki]

3 hours ago, billd766 said:

I suspect that all they did was post a date on the letter and perhaps they would print thousands of copies overnight, and then do a bulk postal delivery for them all to be sent out.

 

All they need to do to stop your pension temporarily, is just to program the computer for the non returns.

 

I will send mine back via EMS as it does not happen every year anyway.

I will send my LF back dated 8th January received 7th Feburary as always medium post recorded at local post office.

Get my LF signed by witness tomorrow.

[steve187]

On 2/4/2023 at 12:33 PM, transam said:

A Thai wife now gets sod all from the husband's UK state pension....

If a Thai widow has paid N.I. in the UK, she can claim it when 65 years old, but only a % of 35 years, with a minimum of 7 years N.I. contributions.

 

That is how I understand it....

 

all pensions are now claimed at a minimum of 66 years old, rising to 67, everyone has to claim the pension based on their own NI record, with at least 10 years of contributions.

[steve187]

22 hours ago, BobBKK said:

wow that's a serious change and is RACIST  - I get a NHS pension I wonder if it's the same

all wife's have to earn their own pension by NI contributions, not just Thai wife's

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, steve187 said:

all wife's have to earn their own pension by NI contributions, not just Thai wife's

They do now and was told for my Thai wife to get any benefits related to me now she would have been living with me in England.

[hotandsticky]

33 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

They do now and was told for my Thai wife to get any benefits related to me now she would have been living with me in England.

 

I don't believe that there are now any pension benefits available relating to you............. bereavement payments, yes, if she is UK domiciled.

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, hotandsticky said:

 

I don't believe that there are now any pension benefits available relating to you............. bereavement payments, yes, if she is UK domiciled.

Thanks but yeah that ain't gonna happen so it doesn't matter to me anyhow. 

When I found out on thaivisa years ago I started making provisions for my wife to get some income after my demise. 

[lamyai3]

On 2/7/2023 at 10:03 AM, brewsterbudgen said:

I had a State Pension forecast (I can get it in 2027) 5 years ago, and recently requested another one.  It was basically the same. Shouldn't it have increased by RPI/average earnings since the forecast made in 2018?

Yes, it should have increased, though only future NIC years are included in the projected figure, so it may also have decreased if unpaid contribution years become back years. 

[OJAS]

On 2/8/2023 at 9:29 AM, proton said:

I sign myself just make it up.

Nothing wrong at all with doing this IMHO if you're really stuck in finding someone to perform the witnessing function who complies in every respect with DWP's over-fussy eligibility criteria - provided, of course, that you are, in fact, still in the land of the living (and you would, of course, be in considerable difficulty in doing all the necessary in any event if you weren't!). DWP almost certainly have no way of checking the authenticity of any name you choose to use for this purpose.

 

Only serves to underline the whole futility of the Life Certificate charade in the way it is being administered in practice by DWP, I think.

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by OJAS

[Kwasaki]

11 hours ago, OJAS said:

Nothing wrong at all with doing this IMHO if you're really stuck in finding someone to perform the witnessing function who complies in every respect with DWP's over-fussy eligibility criteria - provided, of course, that you are, in fact, still in the land of the living (and you would, of course, be in considerable difficulty in doing all the necessary in any event if you weren't!). DWP almost certainly have no way of checking the authenticity of any name you choose to use for this purpose.

 

Only serves to underline the whole futility of the Life Certificate charade in the way it is being administered in practice by DWP, I think.

 

I telephoned IPC once to say no-one will witness the life form only have a Thai friend who's a Agency teacher, they said that will be OK just ask him to put his telephone contact number.

[Chomper Higgot]

44 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

I telephoned IPC once to say no-one will witness the life form only have a Thai friend who's a Agency teacher, they said that will be OK just ask him to put his telephone contact number.

That must have messed up your annual cost of living increases.

[Kwasaki]

1 minute ago, Chomper Higgot said:

That must have messed up your annual cost of living increases.

They will ring you back.

[Chomper Higgot]

3 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

They will ring you back.

Not me they won’t 

[Mutt Daeng]

Today I received my first life certificate form, dated January 8th. As others have already stated, the completed form has to be received by the pensions service within 16 weeks from Jan 8th.

[Kwasaki]

16 minutes ago, Mutt Daeng said:

Today I received my first life certificate form, dated January 8th. As others have already stated, the completed form has to be received by the pensions service within 16 weeks from Jan 8th.

Yes got my LF to dates same, have sent back already and sent message to IPC telling them so.

 

50 baht postage medium post which is semi-recorded and you get a receipt with IPC address on it date etc as proof.

[maxcorrigan]

On 2/16/2023 at 12:17 AM, OJAS said:

Nothing wrong at all with doing this IMHO if you're really stuck in finding someone to perform the witnessing function who complies in every respect with DWP's over-fussy eligibility criteria - provided, of course, that you are, in fact, still in the land of the living (and you would, of course, be in considerable difficulty in doing all the necessary in any event if you weren't!). DWP almost certainly have no way of checking the authenticity of any name you choose to use for this purpose.

 

Only serves to underline the whole futility of the Life Certificate charade in the way it is being administered in practice by DWP, I think.

 

Agreed futile, but what do you do about the witness official "stamp" being required, just leave blank?

[Kwasaki]

4 minutes ago, maxcorrigan said:

Agreed futile, but what do you do about the witness official "stamp" being required, just leave blank?

What i do in the stamp box is just get the Thai person to sign name in Thai,  write in capitols name in English, put their Thai ID number and telephone number.