Can My Thai Wife Get My UK Pension?

[Neeranam]

I will get a UK State pension of 140 quid a week in 8 years.

I'll probably die before my wife of 23 years.

Is there anything I could be doing to enable her to get my pension if I don't reach 67, or for her to continue to get it if I die after 67 but before her?

 

[Bangkokhatter]

No.

[Crossy]

AFAIK not for a state pension

 

If you have a private pension then things are different, but you would need to check the rules of your actual plan.

 

[Thailand]

You have 8 years to put some money away for her.

A simple endowment product with initially some insurance value perhaps?

[FritsSikkink]

Give her some Bitcoin, she should be a multi-millionaire by then according to your predictions and won't need the pension.

[Chomper Higgot]

No your wife will not get your UK state pension when you pop your clogs.

 

Why is it only £140/week?

 

If you’ve missed making NI contributions consider making voluntary contributions, they are a bargain in terms of investment v return. 
 

They won’t give your wife a pension but they’ll provide you with an increase in secure income after age 67.

 

 

[OJAS]

On 2/15/2024 at 2:26 PM, Crossy said:

If you have a private pension then things are different, but you would need to check the rules of your actual plan.

 

On 2/15/2024 at 3:04 PM, Thailand said:

You have 8 years to put some money away for her.

A simple endowment product with initially some insurance value perhaps?

 

As I recall the OP is one of those lucky so-and-so's who has actually succeeded in obtaining Thai citizenship - likely meaning that he has an extensive employment track record here in LOS and hence could be eligible for an occupational pension locally from which his wife may be able to benefit after he has popped his clogs.

[it is what it is]

On 2/15/2024 at 9:00 AM, Chomper Higgot said:

No your wife will not get your UK state pension when you pop your clogs.

 

Why is it only £140/week?

 

If you’ve missed making NI contributions consider making voluntary contributions, they are a bargain in terms of investment v return. 
 

They won’t give your wife a pension but they’ll provide you with an increase in secure income after age 67.

 

 

 

agree, definitely make up your missing years, it's a bargain.

[Mutt Daeng]

15 hours ago, it is what it is said:

On 2/15/2024 at 4:00 PM, Chomper Higgot said:

No your wife will not get your UK state pension when you pop your clogs.

 

Why is it only £140/week?

 

If you’ve missed making NI contributions consider making voluntary contributions, they are a bargain in terms of investment v return. 
 

They won’t give your wife a pension but they’ll provide you with an increase in secure income after age 67.

 

 

 

agree, definitely make up your missing years, it's a bargain.

Especially if you are eligible to pay voluntary Class 2 contributions @ £3.45 a week, as opposed to Class 3 contributions which are £17.45 a week.

See https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/who-can-pay-voluntary-contributions for more info.

[Neeranam]

On 2/15/2024 at 4:00 PM, Chomper Higgot said:

No your wife will not get your UK state pension when you pop your clogs.

 

Why is it only £140/week?

 

If you’ve missed making NI contributions consider making voluntary contributions, they are a bargain in terms of investment v return. 
 

They won’t give your wife a pension but they’ll provide you with an increase in secure income after age 67.

 

 

I only worked there for 5 years. 

I pay 160 quid a year in voluntary payments. 

[Neeranam]

On 2/17/2024 at 9:18 AM, Mutt Daeng said:

Especially if you are eligible to pay voluntary Class 2 contributions @ £3.45 a week, as opposed to Class 3 contributions which are £17.45 a week.

See https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/who-can-pay-voluntary-contributions for more info.

In 2017 I paid back 10 years for 66,000 baht, well worth it. 

[Neeranam]

On 2/16/2024 at 5:45 PM, OJAS said:

 

 

As I recall the OP is one of those lucky so-and-so's who has actually succeeded in obtaining Thai citizenship - likely meaning that he has an extensive employment track record here in LOS and hence could be eligible for an occupational pension locally from which his wife may be able to benefit after he has popped his clogs.

I got a lump sum a few years ago. Only 160,000 baht. The alternative was 3,000 b as ht a month. 

[Neeranam]

On 2/15/2024 at 3:04 PM, Thailand said:

You have 8 years to put some money away for her.

A simple endowment product with initially some insurance value perhaps?

Hmm. She'll be OK, she can work and kids should have well paid jobs. 

[retarius]

On 2/15/2024 at 2:08 PM, Neeranam said:

I will get a UK State pension of 140 quid a week in 8 years.

I'll probably die before my wife of 23 years.

Is there anything I could be doing to enable her to get my pension if I don't reach 67, or for her to continue to get it if I die after 67 but before her?

 

I think the simple answer is no to a state unless you are prepared to live in the UK.

You probably have time to take her to the UK where she could live and work and pay taxes, and become naturalised. I think then she has a shot of a part of your pension.

You could also name her as beneficiary of your private pension (but usually if you have to marry before enrolling in the pension plan). 

[Chomper Higgot]

3 hours ago, retarius said:

I think the simple answer is no to a state unless you are prepared to live in the UK.

You probably have time to take her to the UK where she could live and work and pay taxes, and become naturalised. I think then she has a shot of a part of your pension.

You could also name her as beneficiary of your private pension (but usually if you have to marry before enrolling in the pension plan). 

This isn’t correct.

 

For around the past 25 years or so UK State Pensions are ‘individual accounts’ based upon the NI contributions of each NI Number holder.

There may be some pension credits awarded between married couple before that period, but they would have had to be married and at least one making NI contributions for that sharing to occur.

 

A foreign national who legally works in the UK will be allocated an NI number and can therefore pay NI Contributions to build their own State Pension account. This includes the opportunity to pay Voluntary NI Contributions if they later leave the UK.  
 

Company Pensions are a different matter, the rights to a spouse/partner pension are governed by each Pension Scheme’s own rules.

 

However, it is very likely that a wife will receive a pension from a Company Pension regardless of when they married. 
 

 I personally know of one British expat in Thailand who had been single all his life who married his house maid on his death bed in order that she would get his company pension, which she did indeed receive.

 

The general rule is a formal registered marriage, or civil partnership has to exist and be notified to the pension trustees. It is also always advisable that the pension rights holder completes an expression of wishes on which they tell the Trustees who they wish to receive their pension upon their owns death.

 

Finally UK private / company pensions should never be listed in Wills, doing so has serious tax implications.

 

 

 

[steve187]

On 2/15/2024 at 2:08 PM, Neeranam said:

I will get a UK State pension of 140 quid a week in 8 years.

I'll probably die before my wife of 23 years.

Is there anything I could be doing to enable her to get my pension if I don't reach 67, or for her to continue to get it if I die after 67 but before her?

 

UK state pension is not transferable

why will you only get 140 a week, not enough NI years, if so buy some more years

[OJAS]

On 2/18/2024 at 9:55 AM, retarius said:

You probably have time to take her to the UK where she could live and work and pay taxes, and become naturalised.

 

Not sure whether that would put the OP's own Thai citizenship in jeopardy, though. But assuming that it didn't then both he and his wife would be able to poke the middle finger at both British and Thai immigration bureaucracy, of course. True Utopian paradise, I think! 😁

[noobexpat]

On 2/18/2024 at 1:16 PM, Chomper Higgot said:

The general rule is a formal registered marriage, or civil partnership has to exist and be notified to the pension trustees. It is also always advisable that the pension rights holder completes an expression of wishes on which they tell the Trustees who they wish to receive their pension upon their owns death.

 

Finally UK private / company pensions should never be listed in Wills, doing so has serious tax implications.

 

 

That general rule of marriage has stopped. Financial co-dependence now. E of W and asset/legacy preservation trust can be used together. 

 

You can't put a pension in a will?? ...they are written under a master trust already, which means your estate does not own the assets.

 

 

[UKresonant]

The state pension is number full years, divided by 35 (but a minimum of 10 years to get anything) Then there is the change in 2016 to the new state pension. 

If you had been contracted out even more complicated. They tell me I will need to have a total of 46 years NI to get the full new state pension!.  

So all sorts of speculation how it is 140. 

 

I dint think his wife will get any of the state pension, was it not second / additional state pension that could be inherited?

 

Private pensions should have the wife nominated under the pension scheme, and provide proof of her age perhaps. Of course the trustees have discretion, but normally 99% just follow the pensioners wishes. 

But they would give it to the wife and kids, rather than a Mae noi of two weeks. Most private scheme rules recognise partners outside marraige now.

 

Edited February 21 by UKresonant