50 minutes ago, Emdog said:

Regarding "sun never sets", was referring  to very long history of Britain and it's colonies all over the world that were manned by a large number of British citizens (I reckon); whom I assume would have wanted to vote, and  I wonder why that whole issue of absentee voting wasn't solved at least a century ago (dang, long sentence!)

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

There are very few British overseas territories now, so not really an issue.

 

My suggestion is that the vote is withdrawn after 5 years outside of the UK. It's unlikely that overseas postings for government officials and members of the armed forces will exceed that length of time, but exceptions could be written into any legislation in such cases.

On 10/31/2023 at 1:55 PM, FruitPudding said:

British expats can make national insurance contributions for the state pension 

 

No. They can top up to a limited extent, depending how long they worked in the UK and how long ago that was, but they cannot actually create a pension whilst working in Thailand.

50 minutes ago, Gaccha said:

 

No. They can top up to a limited extent, depending how long they worked in the UK and how long ago that was, but they cannot actually create a pension whilst working in Thailand.

 

WRONG!

 

You can pay Class 3 National Insurance. 

4 hours ago, Gaccha said:

 

No. They can top up to a limited extent, depending how long they worked in the UK and how long ago that was, but they cannot actually create a pension whilst working in Thailand.

 

3 hours ago, FruitPudding said:

 

WRONG!

 

You can pay Class 3 National Insurance. 

 

From the gov.uk website re eligibility to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions:

 

"Living and working abroad: (Eligible to pay) Class 2 contributions but only if you worked in the UK immediately before leaving, and you’ve previously lived in the UK for at least 3 years in a row or paid at least 3 years of contributions

 

Living abroad but not working: (Eligible to pay) Class 3 contributions but only if at some point you’ve lived in the UK for at least 3 years in a row or paid at least 3 years of contributions"

1 hour ago, RayC said:

 

 

From the gov.uk website re eligibility to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions:

 

"Living and working abroad: (Eligible to pay) Class 2 contributions but only if you worked in the UK immediately before leaving, and you’ve previously lived in the UK for at least 3 years in a row or paid at least 3 years of contributions

 

Living abroad but not working: (Eligible to pay) Class 3 contributions but only if at some point you’ve lived in the UK for at least 3 years in a row or paid at least 3 years of contributions"

I would presume there will be a few exceptions, but nearly all British nationals will be able to meet the requirement 'if at some point you've lived in the UK for at least 3 years in a row '.

22 hours ago, stevenl said:

but nearly all British nationals will be able to meet the requirement

 

And yet I do not. Which is why I made my original post. Which has turned out to be entirely correct. 

3 hours ago, Gaccha said:

 

And yet I do not. Which is why I made my original post. Which has turned out to be entirely correct. 

So you're one of the few exceptions I mentioned. A pity you omitted that part from your quote.