1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Disagree if you live in Thailand,

You need to live to 71 to get your money back, 73 if you have other pensions and lose 20% of that extra in tax.

Doubt I'll make 71 .... let alone 73 in Thailand.

Agree if you live in the UK and have a better chance of living into your 70s.

 

Disagree about it being the worst state pension.

Australia, and NZ make you live there to get a state pension these days.

Your statements are mostly incorrect today, if you start claiming your pension today your payback date is between 67 (if you pay class 2) and 70, if you pay class 3
 

The payback time is virtually the same no matter where you live, yes for the few 1~4 years your pension will not increase in Thailand 

 

The payback time is totally unaffected by any tax you have to pay, (FWIW the pension is under the tax threshold) you do not get any less because you may have to pay tax on it. That is your planning. A reasonable amount of my income is, legally, untaxed but even so it’s not important.

 

I know several Australians who do not live in Australia who are receiving a full pension, others whose pension is reduced but still get it. 
 

I do not know about New Zealand 

Just now, sometimewoodworker said:

Your statements are mostly incorrect today, if you start claiming your pension today your payback date is between 67 (if you pay class 2) and 70, if you pay class 3

UK pension doesn't start until you're 67.

No point in talking about what you would have got in the past.

Edited August 30, 20205 yr by BritManToo

9 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

UK pension doesn't start until you're 67.

No point in talking about what you would have got in the past.

You are wrong please get your facts correct go to 

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age/y/age/1954-09-05

And https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age/y/age/1954-09-06

 

Anyone who’s reached pension age in the last few weeks/months are at 65+ those born under the second link need to be 66 the time that 67 kicks in in a few years time

 

please talk about today not about Months/Years later 

5 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You are wrong please get your facts correct go to 

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age/y/age/1954-09-05

And https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age/y/age/1954-09-06

 

Anyone who’s reached pension age in the last few weeks/months are at 65+ those born under the second link need to be 66 the time that 67 kicks in in a few years time

 

please talk about today not about Months/Years later 

OP said he gets his pension in 8 months time.

Not in the last few weeks/months.

 

Edited August 30, 20205 yr by BritManToo

If you were unemployed and receiving benefits your stamp would of been paid for you , no need to give a list of all the jobs you had DWP will get in touch with you a month or two before or you can contact them on an 0800 number if you do this you will need Skype that’s what I did it took all of 10 minutes they will ask for your NI number and bank details I have a UK bank account so it goes in to that account I then use transfer wise when I want to send money over , your circumstances might be different but as I said when I claimed my OAP I did it using Skype on my iPad with no issues at all .

2 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

If you were unemployed and receiving benefits your stamp would of been paid for you , no need to give a list of all the jobs you had DWP will get in touch with you a month or two before or you can contact them on an 0800 number if you do this you will need Skype that’s what I did it took all of 10 minutes they will ask for your NI number and bank details I have a UK bank account so it goes in to that account I then use transfer wise when I want to send money over , your circumstances might be different but as I said when I claimed my OAP I did it using Skype on my iPad with no issues at all .

Its changed then, when I filled out the forms for my pension I had to list all the jobs I had paying NI, and if we received child benefit before (I think) 1975, I recall I rang them up in case I missed a job out, they said don't worry, just quote what you can....

1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Your statements are mostly incorrect today, if you start claiming your pension today your payback date is between 67 (if you pay class 2) and 70, if you pay class 3
 

The payback time is virtually the same no matter where you live, yes for the few 1~4 years your pension will not increase in Thailand 

 

The payback time is totally unaffected by any tax you have to pay, (FWIW the pension is under the tax threshold) you do not get any less because you may have to pay tax on it. That is your planning. A reasonable amount of my income is, legally, untaxed but even so it’s not important.

 

I know several Australians who do not live in Australia who are receiving a full pension, others whose pension is reduced but still get it. 
 

I do not know about New Zealand 

UK OAP is not taxable you only pay income tax over a certain amount think it’s in the region of £12,600 . OAP is far less than that so if that’s his only pension it will be tax free if however like me you have a number of pensions and the total amount is over £12,600 then you pay tax on all income over the £12.600 this is currently at 20% . Up to a certain level then it goes to 40% I don’t want to mention my pension derails but I hate the amount of tax that HMRC deduct of me every month even tho I have lived in Thailand for 14 years . Illegal immigrants that come to the UK shores get everything free having never paid into any system they roughly get 3 times more than a UK pensioner who worked for 40 years and paid into the club that why these people are trying to get into the country we are the worlds best when it comes to free handouts  ☹️☹️☹️

I did this 2 years ago. Go to the gov.uk website and get their contact phone number. Their office is at Longbenton, just outside Newcastle.  You can do this up to 3 months before your retirement date. I did everything in a 20 minute phone call. No paperwork. Just give your N.I. number and answer a few security questions and give the bank account details where you want your pension paid, couldn't be easier. I live in Thailand and could have had it paid into Kasikorn bank but i chose Barclays in the UK (spending money for when i go back on holiday). I have been receiving UK state pension since Oct 2018, never a problem. A little tip about the phone call, when calling the UK from a Thai mobile, instead of dialling 0044, dial 00444, it goes to a lower rate, that applies to all UK numbers. Good luck

10 minutes ago, transam said:

Its changed then, when I filled out the forms for my pension I had to list all the jobs I had paying NI, and if we received child benefit before (I think) 1975, I recall I rang them up in case I missed a job out, they said don't worry, just quote what you can....

Don’t know when you did this I deferred my pension for a couple of years as I didn’t need it and I was getting a very good interest rate from the government by doing so think it was 10% then two years ago I decided to cash in so it would of been then when I contacted  DWP using Skype and the 0800 number as I said they asked me a few questions NI number , previous UK address  and when I wanted to start receive payment I had no forms to fill in when they have your NI number that gives them your employment history and it is they who tell you how many years you had . I only needed 30 years to qualify for full OAP even tho they confirmed I had 38 years I’m on the old system prior to the new changes my payment is £125 per week where my wife is on the new system and she gets £175 per week if I was living in the U.K. Mine would be around £133 per week but as l live in Thailand it’s frozen unless I go back to the U.K. for a holiday I ring DWP give them the dates and they pay me the £133 for the time I am there.

19 hours ago, pauleddy said:

That's useful, thx. I think I have my Birth Cert. Im gonna call them on Monday because I am 3 years short, and I want to know if I can buy the top-ups.

I don’t know if it’s worth buying those 3 years of top up you need 35 years  to get full pension you need to look at what it will cost you for the 3 years .why I say this is because I assume you live in Thailand permanently and have no intention of moving back to the UK permanently therefore your pension will be frozen and will remain frozen unless the U.K. government changes the rules regarding overseas pension increases in countries such as Thailand with no reciprocal agreements so as an example you could end up paying let’s say £5,000 for the missing three years to get an extra 15/20£ per week you have to work out if it is really worth it or just accept the amount of years they have on record . Hope you understand what I’ve said . I would be surprised if you have to send a copy of your birth certificate neither myself or wife had to do this in the last two years my wife being more recently.

Edited August 30, 20205 yr by crazykopite

If the OP contracted out then he could have more than 35 years to make up .

I paid in full for 40 years and still needed an additional 6 years to achieve full pension.

You can use the Gateway website/app to get your figures but a call to them is also a good idea to confirm the figures.

If the OP needs to add additional years at Class 3 they will cost him approximately £750 a year which will increase his weekly pension by a little over £5 .

Meaning it will take 3 years to regain the outcome for additional years.

 

 

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

OP said he gets his pension in 8 months time.

Not in the last few weeks/months.

 

It is still at age 66 for anyone claiming pension at the first possible age for the next few years. 

 

57 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

I don’t know if it’s worth buying those 3 years of top up you need 35 years  to get full pension you need to look at what it will cost you for the 3 years .

Unless you are in a few classes it is almost always a good choice.

 

The people for whom is may not be so good are in no special order,
 

those who know that they will be extremely unlikely to live 4 years after claiming.

those whose U.K. income is high enough that they are a higher rate taxpayer and who cannot reduce the amount that is taxed in the U.K. (Possibly in poor health)

those who cannot pay the contributions without taking a high interest loan.

There certainly can be others but in general if none of those apply to you it’s the best investment you can possibly make.

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

OP said he gets his pension in 8 months time.

Not in the last few weeks/months.

 

I am a 1955 baby and my pension starts in May 2021. The DWP site tells me I have 32 complete years and I can pay an extra 3 years now. Actually there are more gaps than just 3 years but it seems that to pay the gaps before 2016 will not help me to increase.

If I want to be paid into Barclays Bank Bournemouth, do I still need to do the "long form"? Somebody has suggested that payment into the UK bank is far simpler to arrange.

 

I use my Barclays card here a lot, and I suffer the 220b penalty every time. But having it paid to the SCB bank here would, I suppose, incur Thai bank rates so is is swings and roundabouts? Yes I do intend to stay here in LOS.

 

Eddy

On 8/29/2020 at 12:04 PM, sometimewoodworker said:

If you are currently making class 2 payments I agree there is no big hurry. If not then the option to make class 2 will go away and you will only be able to make class 3 (still an amazing ROI but not as good)

The Gateway ID makes little difference to getting the form for a pension forecast and contribution history as this has to be done by snail mail, it also may not be exactly the same as on the gateway.

 

FWIW a Skype call to the U.K. landlines runs at about 16 baht per hour and the quality is great

My husband got  his pension last year he  did most of it online had to send birth certificate to uk but got them back in a couple of weeks  all quite easy really

My turn in a couple of months not a chance to name all my jobs ????????had way to many to remember ????good luck .do it online 

2 hours ago, pauleddy said:

If I want to be paid into Barclays Bank Bournemouth, do I still need to do the "long form"? Somebody has suggested that payment into the UK bank is far simpler to arrange.

 

I use my Barclays card here a lot, and I suffer the 220b penalty every time. But having it paid to the SCB bank here would, I suppose, incur Thai bank rates so is is swings and roundabouts? Yes I do intend to stay here in LOS.

 

Eddy

If I remember correctly it's 220THB for the Thai Bank + 2.35 (or is it 2.65)% + a flat fee of £1.99 per transaction, get yourself a Thai bank account & use Transferwise or get a Transferwise Borderless Account/Card  & it's 220 THB for the Thai Bank + 2% on everything over £200 per month.

 

Plus transferring money to Thailand via TW will get you a better rate than you'll get from Barclays (Will update this post with an example)   

 

 

Edited August 30, 20205 yr by Mike Teavee
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52 minutes ago, Gilltom said:

My husband got  his pension last year he  did most of it online had to send birth certificate to uk but got them back in a couple of weeks  all quite easy really

My turn in a couple of months not a chance to name all my jobs ????????had way to many to remember ????good luck .do it online 

The pension claim is different from the forecast and record of your contributions.
 

It is certainly possible that the system has been changed. As I needed to get the forecast and contribution record a couple of years  ago I could be out of date. When I was asking, twice, I had to send a physical document and got the information back in writing. 
 

The claim involved much less as I remember.

 

FWIW I get my pension paid into my U.K. bank account then after a year I remit the money to Thailand using TransferWise. This means that I have no requirement to declare it for Thai tax. 

I took a gap year from employment after 25 years of working so my state pension is around 15 GBP a week less than the full amount according to the forecast I got in March.

The amount to pay in to make up the full amount is absurd and so not worth it.

It maybe for some people who have larger gaps.

1 hour ago, Andycoops said:

I took a gap year from employment after 25 years of working so my state pension is around 15 GBP a week less than the full amount according to the forecast I got in March.

The amount to pay in to make up the full amount is absurd and so not worth it.

It maybe for some people who have larger gaps.

I don't think you'd lose 15 GBP (more like 5GBP calculated as 175 / 35 * 34) for 1 missing year but Class 3 contributions are approx 15.30 GBP per week so it would only take 1 year for you to get your money back, after that you'd be in profit, if it is only 5 GBP it takes between 3-4 years to be in profit. 

 

If you can pay Class 2 it's 12-15 GBP per month so you'd be in profit in no time. 

 

 

 

 

 

17 hours ago, Gilltom said:

My husband got  his pension last year he  did most of it online had to send birth certificate to uk but got them back in a couple of weeks  all quite easy really

My turn in a couple of months not a chance to name all my jobs ????????had way to many to remember ????good luck .do it online 

What is a class 3 and a Class 2 please?

 

1 hour ago, pauleddy said:

What is a class 3 and a Class 2 please?

 

Basically, class 3 is the regular employed payment while class 2 is for self employed.

 

Here’s a link for the finer details:

 

https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-pensions/the-state-pension/voluntary-ni-contributions

1 hour ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Basically, class 3 is the regular employed payment while class 2 is for self employed.

 

Here’s a link for the finer details:

 

https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-pensions/the-state-pension/voluntary-ni-contributions

 

Class 2 is also for people working outside of the UK (I don't know if you can claim it retrospectively if you're no longer working but looking to pay for years when you were).

 

 

 

 

The UK sure seems to give their retirees the shaft.

A US pension with some of the years mentioned would be over 2,000 pounds a month.

Seems like a joke of a pension what is the UK doing with all that money?  

5 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

The UK sure seems to give their retirees the shaft.

A US pension with some of the years mentioned would be over 2,000 pounds a month.

Seems like a joke of a pension what is the UK doing with all that money?  

Taking care of boat people.....????

9 minutes ago, transam said:

Taking care of boat people.....????

Exactly what I thought.  Such a shame.

4 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

The UK sure seems to give their retirees the shaft.

A US pension with some of the years mentioned would be over 2,000 pounds a month.

Seems like a joke of a pension what is the UK doing with all that money?  

I don't know about the US but in the UK whether you've never work at all & are on Social Security benefits OR earn a very large salary, your state pension will be exactly the same (You obviously pay more into the Scheme if you're on a large salary, but this doesn't make a jot of difference unless for any reason you have a break in employment & stop paying NI, then your're probably not eligible for Social Security so end up with gaps in your payments & a lower amount... ). 

 

But the good thing is both our state & private pensions are tax free if we live abroad... I'm happy to take the frozen pension as long as the government doesn't get any tax from my private pension ???? 

 

On 8/30/2020 at 11:31 AM, crazykopite said:

UK OAP is not taxable you only pay income tax over a certain amount think it’s in the region of £12,600 . OAP is far less than that so if that’s his only pension it will be tax free if however like me you have a number of pensions and the total amount is over £12,600 then you pay tax on all income over the £12.600 this is currently at 20% . Up to a certain level then it goes to 40% I don’t want to mention my pension derails but I hate the amount of tax that HMRC deduct of me every month even tho I have lived in Thailand for 14 years . Illegal immigrants that come to the UK shores get everything free having never paid into any system they roughly get 3 times more than a UK pensioner who worked for 40 years and paid into the club that why these people are trying to get into the country we are the worlds best when it comes to free handouts  ☹️☹️☹️

All the more upsetting and simply wrong, as your are still paying Tax, yet your actual pension will never increase (if your living in Thailand for more than 6 months per year)

I'm confused.  I have lived and worked (and rested) in Bangkok for 16 years but I did work in the NHS and teaching since the 1970s. The DWP online tells me I have 32 complete years but I may top up to 35 years. As I was working for the state for over 30 years, are these top-ups Type 3 or Type 2?

 Which is the best one to have?

I am also confused because 4 people have now told me not to top-up for the years before 2017--but The DWP shows that I have about 10 or 12 missing years (here?) and seem to be inviting me to pay 750 gbp for each of the years (total 9.000 pounds I estimate). However, the DWP says that the maximum I can ever get is 175 quid pw. So is it true that paying 9,000 is "dead money" and I should only pay the 3 years seemingly "on offer", which will be 2100 pounds. It seems that doing this will lift me from 155 pounds to 175 pounds, so I am "in profit" after 3 years or so.

 

I dont know why they say I can pay back 9,000 for many years away, but by paying 2100 gbp I can get the max pension possible.

 

Is it in case I have a social guilt complex?

 

 

Eddy

On 8/29/2020 at 2:02 AM, Mike Teavee said:

But be careful about back paying before April 2016 as it's unclear whether these will count towards your 35 years, I back payed 7 years in (& including) 2017 for approx £955

I don't know how you have done that as it's approx £800 for each year you want to pay for.

As people have already noted just go to the government website and it will tell you all you need to know.

I have 36 years contributions but was contracted out so i would not receive the full government pension

However  due to the changes when the earnings related part of the pension was abolished i can now work another 6 years so as to still get a full pension

I retired at 50 so it's unlikely to happen but i could get a part time job and as long as i earn approx £7500 in any one year that qualifies me for that year

 

3 hours ago, Dene16 said:

I don't know how you have done that as it's approx £800 for each year you want to pay for.

As people have already noted just go to the government website and it will tell you all you need to know.

I have 36 years contributions but was contracted out so i would not receive the full government pension

However  due to the changes when the earnings related part of the pension was abolished i can now work another 6 years so as to still get a full pension

I retired at 50 so it's unlikely to happen but i could get a part time job and as long as i earn approx £7500 in any one year that qualifies me for that year

 

As mentioned I was working in Singapore so was allowed to pay at the Class 2 rates, here's the actual quotation from HMRC...

 

 

Very good point about being contracted out, maybe it was just a coincidence that I also needed an extra 6 years (It's now 4, hopefully 3 when I clear a 50p under pay) & I'd happened to have back paid 6 years before April 2016 when the rules changed but there are accounts in the press of people who have back paid & it's not counted, e.g. This guy back paid 2,500 (which would have been approximately what I would have paid at Class 3) https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-6928583/Saver-buys-ups-count-DONT-improve-state-pension.html & it didn't increase his pension

 

 

Edit: You don't need a job to pay AVCs, so why don't you just continue to pay for another 6 years (I'm 54, retired & that's what I'm doing, albeit I'm still paying at the Class 2 rate of 12 - 15 GBP pm, but I would still do it at Class 3 rates, as long as you live to be 71 you'll be in profit)   

 

 

Edited September 1, 20205 yr by Mike Teavee