Why do we continue to receive smaller pensions than European expats?

[Pravda]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Why would you assume we don't pay UK taxes?

 

I'm paying Canadian taxes and I don't get any benefits at the moment due to my non resident status. I can't even see a doctor when I go visit.

 

I'm not arguing about right or wrong, I'm simply saying this is the future.

[clivebaxter]

8 minutes ago, SunsetT said:

1) Move to the Phillipines?

 

2) Set up a dummy address in the Phillipines?

 

3) If you have family or friends you could stay with, return to the UK for a 6 months holiday , say every 5 years to get your pension updated to the current rate?

 

4) And following 3) possibly keep a permanent UK address with said friend or family and get index linked pension paid into a UK bank account and transferred via Wise to Thailand? Would understaffed HMRC be any the wiser?

What about when pensioners go home to renew their passport, don't they take an interest in all the tell tale stamps showing where you are living and pass that on?

[BritManToo]

12 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

10k for basics (rent, ele/w/int/petrol), 20k for actual living (food, etc).  Doesn't leave much for socializing or out & abouts.   The 800k for emergncy medical.

For the pensioners in the Brit village where I lived, socialising was Friday morning 'drop in' at the village hall. No charge at all, free biscuits, tea and warmth ............. I know, I would attend now and again as part of my public duties. 

[Expat68]

28 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

How was he caught, someone must have told on him ,

Not sure, he was also claiming winter payments as well???????? he just told me he was having to pay it all back

[fredscats]

4 minutes ago, SunsetT said:

1) Move to the Phillipines?

 

2) Set up a dummy address in the Phillipines?

 

3) If you have family or friends you could stay with, return to the UK for a 6 months holiday , say every 5 years to get your pension updated to the current rate?

 

4) And following 3) possibly keep a permanent UK address with said friend or family and get index linked pension paid into a UK bank account and transferred via Wise to Thailand? Would understaffed HMRC be any the wiser?

Why not set up a "dummy" address in UK, no PoL needed    Thats number 1 and 2 dealt with..........Number 3? why 6 months?  nothing in regulations  DWP that states 6 months......number 4? call them/write to them/ .gov.UK em...change of address to UK,..its not HMRC its DWP and could not give a toss as no law being broken

[BritManToo]

5 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

What about when pensioners go home to renew their passport, don't they take an interest in all the tell tale stamps showing where you are living and pass that on?

Don't think anyone looks.

Last time I went back to get a new passport, I did it in person.

Hand over old passport at the window upstairs, collect new and old passport 2hrs later downstairs.

Not much time to open a passport as they were handling hundreds of passports an hour.

 

Apart from at the airport, I've always claimed not to have a passport as I've never been abroad.

No need to tell anyone your business.

[fredscats]

1 minute ago, Expat68 said:

Not sure, he was also claiming winter payments as well???????? he just told me he was having to pay it all back

200 quid a year ,for 3 years   600 quid   maximum

[Expat68]

27 minutes ago, fredscats said:

You say someone you" know"  has been caught,at what precisely?   sickness benefit? jobseekers?  housing benefit?   Come on fill in the details

State pension increased yearly

[bert bloggs]

3 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

What about when pensioners go home to renew their passport, don't they take an interest in all the tell tale stamps showing where you are living and pass that on?

When i did mine,she mentioned it ,but that was all , what about when you do it at the Embassy in BKK? 

[Expat68]

Just now, fredscats said:

200 quid a year ,for 3 years   600 quid   maximum

He is in his 80s

[fredscats]

1 minute ago, Expat68 said:

State pension increased yearly

Do you dream this stuff up,in wartime you would be shot ,why not spend a bit of time reading DWP regulations,what they can do/what they cannot do,   Good chap  keep the BS in check

[KhunLA]

36 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

 

1. Income tax 40% (for the state to use as they wished)

2. NI 20% of my income (health care and state pension).

3. Council tax (local roads/education/local government).

 

That's more than 1/2 my income for the past 50 years.

Whoa

That 'free' universal healthcare isn't cheap, especially if you don't need it.  Most of my salaried jobs, I netted an averae 85% of gross, after income & Soc Sec (pension) tax taken out.  

 

Another reason why I'm happy to be here, as USA jumped on the universal healthcare thingy, now expensive (relative if paying) and useless if needing ... and mandatory to pay into.   That and RE Taxes, make Thailand not cheap, but puts all that extra in my pocket, and more than enough to 'exist' on alone.

 

Never had heathcare or needed it (thankfully) and why I liked the old non existent plan.  About half of the families in the USA pay very little or no income tax, along with no mandatory healthcare payment.  And from what I read, most everything, consumer good is cheaper in the USA vs UK/EU.

[fredscats]

3 minutes ago, Expat68 said:

He is in his 80s

Again read regulations   There is a time bar ,could be 100 no diff  read regulations   keep BS in check

[fredscats]

11 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

What about when pensioners go home to renew their passport, don't they take an interest in all the tell tale stamps showing where you are living and pass that on?

If they but unfortunately   no they don't    If in doubt  lose it   same price to renew

[fredscats]

4 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Whoa

That 'free' universal healthcare isn't cheap, especially if you don't need it.

 

Another reason why I'm happy to be here, as USA jumped on the universal healthcare thingy, now expensive (relative if paying) and useless if needing ... and mandatory to pay into.   That and RE Taxes, make Thailand not cheap, but puts all that extra in my pocket, and more than enough to 'exist' on alone.

 

Never had heathcare or needed it (thankfully) and why I liked the old non existent plan.  About half of the families in the USA pay very little or no income tax, along with no mandatory healthcare payment.  And from what I read, most everything, consumer good is cheaper in the USA vs UK/EU.

One way out of exp healthcare in Th is India,way way and way again far superior than Thai

[SunsetT]

11 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

What about when pensioners go home to renew their passport, don't they take an interest in all the tell tale stamps showing where you are living and pass that on?

I very much doubt it. Completely different (understaffed) Govt. depts. Left hand usually doesnt know what the right hand is doing.

 

[Boomer6969]

4 hours ago, itsari said:

Reality for most foreign pensioners living in Thailand . 

Manageable to live on 15000 a month if you own your home . 

You appear to be the one out of touch with reality 

What nonsense !...

 

If you don't have 65k (or 40k for some) a month you break the laws of your country of residence.

 

And the OP never said that his UK state pension is only income.

[KhunLA]

4 minutes ago, fredscats said:

One way out of exp healthcare in Th is India,way way and way again far superior than Thai

Healthcare is not expensive in Thailand, if you don't mind Gov't hosp & have a lot of patience.  I'll go there if having something actually done, but for my almost yearly check up, I've done private hospital mostly for that.

[Expat68]

12 minutes ago, fredscats said:

Do you dream this stuff up,in wartime you would be shot ,why not spend a bit of time reading DWP regulations,what they can do/what they cannot do,   Good chap  keep the BS in check

Ok. I give up to you know it alls. I am just quoting what my 83 year old friend told me, who I am now helping sending money over from England

[Nicholas Paul KNIGHT]

4 hours ago, wombat said:

Welcome to the realization that somewhere in the Civil Service is a member of staff who was promoted for saving the treasury money 

Actually it was Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer  Gordon Brown who instituted this not some nameless Civil servant but a greedy man who also sold UK gold reserves at a really silly price `

 

[Expat68]

13 minutes ago, fredscats said:

Again read regulations   There is a time bar ,could be 100 no diff  read regulations   keep BS in check

See my previous quote, who also said I was BS

[SunsetT]

15 minutes ago, fredscats said:

Why not set up a "dummy" address in UK, no PoL needed    Thats number 1 and 2 dealt with..........Number 3? why 6 months?  nothing in regulations  DWP that states 6 months......number 4? call them/write to them/ .gov.UK em...change of address to UK,..its not HMRC its DWP and could not give a toss as no law being broken

Yes DWP. I was under the impression that 6 mths. UK residency was required to get the upgraded pension but I stand to be corrected. I would think that some proof of (dummy) address would be required; e.g., utility or council tax bill, but u may be right. Are you speaking from experience?

[Boomer6969]

3 hours ago, verticalift said:

Consider yourself lucky receiving £177/month from the UK.
 

As a recently retired Canadian Expat previously employed as a pilot in Abu Dhabi, I receive a meager $440.80CAD, or between 11,000 to 11,500 Baht each month (depending on the ROE) from the Canadian Gov’t.

Yeah it varies a lot from one country to the other:

 

I worked about 6 years in France and get about 320 Euros a month;

about 4 years in Switzerland, 280 Euros a month;

23 years for the UN, 8000 USD a month;

7 years in Australia, ZERO...

 

Go figure..

[BritManToo]

7 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Healthcare is not expensive in Thailand, if you don't mind Gov't hosp & have a lot of patience.  I'll go there if having something actually done, but for my almost yearly check up, I've done private hospital mostly for that.

I go every 3 months to the local Thai government hospital.

Takes all morning, so I take my kindle, 7-11 across the road, no big discomfort/effort to me.

 

Usually 250bht including 3 months of meds.

Another 200-250bht per item if I need blood tests or urine tests which I normally don't.

Less than I'd spend on parking at my local NHS hospital.

[robertson468]

3 hours ago, vandeventer said:

I think most foreigners from most countries get a lot less  pension living outside their home country. Things like rental assistance and health insurance for starters. But we all knew that before we came here. So if you feel like you are being cheated, go back home and get the extras.

People are allowed to debate things that affect them personally, like pensions.  Stop being so bloody obtuse, unless of course you would like to live in an autocratic Country like Russia?  Whilst I am disappointed that my Government Pension does not get the increase that UK Residents do, what really annoys me is that I am paying tax on my Pensions, to subsidize the UK.  But that's life!

[fredscats]

36 minutes ago, Kalasin Jo said:

As you say it's nothing to do with Asia in general. Scandalously in my opinion the British government will only index link for

 1. expats  living in the EU and benefitting post brexit from a provision in the brexit Withdrawal Agreement to continue to do so because previously they were obliged to do so under EU law.

2. Other expats where they live in a country with a reciprocal arrangement in place for their own expat pensioners living in the UK. The Philippines surprisingly does as does the USA. Canada does not, nor I think Australia and New Zealand. So it's a lottery and many Brits the world over have frozen UK pensions. Over the years this mounts up to a significant shortfall.

 

Check out the pressure group endfrozenpensions.org

There you will find a map by country showing who benefits from uprating and who does not.

 

I'm sure some here and elsewhere retain a UK address and bank account linked to it, to preserve uprating, in to which the pension is paid.

 

But then there is the cost of sending it onto Thailand and there is always some cost to do that.

 

I think doing this is tempting but risky as when periodically asked to return a certificate of life it would need to be done in the UK to avoid the risk of being found out. If not the cost of returning to the UK to do it would far outweigh the advantage

 

If found out the UK Pension Service would be entitled to  and surely would, recover overpayments with interest, by deduction from future pension payments. They might also prosecute for fraud.

 

Maybe some have a way round that? I'd be interested in how people do it and if anyone has been caught and what the consequences were.

 

Cut it short,nothing for "UK Pension Service" to find out No laws being broken "might prosecute for fraud" ? no that wont ,no fraud being undertaken,read DWP regulations    Nobody EVER been caught,no consequences'    not ever     ...and no PoL needed in UK

 

 

[KhunLA]

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

I go every 3 months to the local Thai government hospital.

Takes all morning, so I take my kindle, 7-11 across the road, no big discomfort/effort to me.

 

Usually 250bht including 3 months of meds.

Another 200-250bht per item if I need blood tests or urine tests which I normally don't.

I stay off the internet if I know I'm going for 'service' any where soon here, and play catch up when at said location; Imm, MG / oil change, hosp, DLT ????

[metisdead]

Some off topic deflection posts and the replies have been removed.

[fredscats]

6 minutes ago, SunsetT said:

Yes DWP. I was under the impression that 6 mths. UK residency was required to get the upgraded pension but I stand to be corrected. I would think that some proof of (dummy) address would be required; e.g., utility or council tax bill, but u may be right. Are you speaking from experience?

Yes and yes     just get on with it  not a chance in hell of anything untoward happening   unless you inform  but then your fault

[Martin Brit]

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

The way things are going 185 per week might buy a loaf of bread in the UK

You cannot rely soley on a State pension from the UK. The point is and always has been you are expected to make further provision for retirement yourself. Then you can afford that loaf of bread as prices rise and we all get older and live longer.