Frozen pension policy turns British expat's dream into a nightmare

[proton]

6 hours ago, JoePai said:

I know of 2 in Pattaya who had to pay back the 'over claimed' UK pension when the Gov found out where they lived  

 

How did they find out, were they posting evidence on facebook or did somebody report them?

[Autonuaq]

This is not only the case for the British, the Dutch also start to have the same issues. When you read the emdai more European countries seem to adopt this policy too soon or consider this..

[mommysboy]

26 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

I don't believe that Trans, I think there are things you have not been told. No one can take 1000 Quid from your state pension, as myself and others have said.

 

The most likely scenario would be that the pension reverts back to its original level, and overpayments would be deducted at a rate of 5% or less of monthly entitlement, which would be deducted at source.

[Autonuaq]

This is not only the case for the British, the Dutch also start to have the same issues. When you read the media more European countries seem to adopt this policy too soon or consider this.

 

People forget the international rules that apply to the income. and how this effect the overall life. The income location is based on where your life is and is based on the 3 months out 12 months, 4 months out of 12 months, 6 months out of 12 months and 10 year time periods.

you can look all easy up.
 

[mommysboy]

14 minutes ago, proton said:

 

How did they find out, were they posting evidence on facebook or did somebody report them?

 

The usual story is that someone they know reports them due to careless talk : cue lovely old song 'Whispering Grass',  covered by 2 members of 1970's comedy series 'It aint half hot mum', which seems somewhat apt at present.

 

Wise words : 

 

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, Chongalulu said:

But generally not enough was paid in NI to cover the real costs.

Didn't the government reduce NI contributions just a couple of weeks ago, and not for the first time.

The Tories have been buying votes with the revenue that was intended for pensions for years. It is all a deliberate plan to make  pensions fully funded from income tax and dispensing with NI, making it easier to run the scheme down as time goes bye.

Income tax may eventually have to be raised to pay for abolishing national insurance, Jeremy Hunt has suggested the day after delivering the government’s spring budget.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/07/income-tax-likely-to-go-up-if-national-insurance-scapped-hunt-suggests

[itsari]

4 hours ago, superal said:

I know it is possible to buy postal addresses in the UK . If in the Philippines that would be interesting . Play the UK government at their own game . They say it has been in place for 70 years , well its about time it was brought up to date . Unfair and unjust but the general UK population are not concerned as they remain in the UK .  I would like to see the UK pension minister , Mel Stride , cross examined on live TV by an informed assertive pension expert . Not only is the UK pension one of the lowest in Europe but they don't want to pay it unless you stay in the UK where the weather can have some bad effects on the pensioners health .

All positive until the last sentence. 

[Jonathan Swift]

20 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

What year did the frozen pension policy come into effect ?

 

During the ice age no doubt

[Ralf001]

3 minutes ago, Jonathan Swift said:

During the ice age no doubt

 

and yet ignored since... thats why we have whingers !

[sidjameson]

5 hours ago, simple1 said:

 

Immigrants from outside the EU countries made a net fiscal contribution of about £5.2 billion, thus paying into the system about 3% more than they took out. In contrast, over the same period, natives made an overall negative fiscal contribution of £616.5 billion.

 

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/economics/about-department/fiscal-effects-immigration-uk#:~:text=Immigrants from outside the EU,contribution of £616.5 billion.

You have premier league footballers paying tax on 50 million a year and an Albanian family next to my mother claiming every benefit going.  

This "net contribution" of a whole group is useless imo.

[transam]

28 minutes ago, itsari said:

All positive until the last sentence. 

Te last sentence applied to me, one of the reasons I am here was because of an incurable disease that a warm climate makes all the difference........🤗

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, theoldgit said:

It would be unfair to blame Thailand for the lack of one, though l suspect Thailand has never raised the subject. The UK has intimated that there would be no further agreements, the Canadian government broached the subject a year or so back, but the UK government declined to negotiate such an agreement.

Indeed, I think it was 1981 whe the UK government said it would not be entering into any new reciprocol social security agreements, until brexit came along.

Canada does have a reciprocal agreement in place but at the time it was drawn up the Canadian pension could not be exported so pensions were  not included. Some time later the Canadian policy was amended to allow pensions to be exported but UK has consistently refused to revisit the agreement.

The whole issue stems from the fact that politically the state pension is viewed as a benefit and the legislation is embedded in the Social Security Act. The government could  extract the state pension and make it stand alone legislation but there is no political will. About the only politicians that have said anything significant in the House are Jeremy Corbyn and Ian Blackford, in 2015 it was the topic of Ian Blackford's maiden speech.

Every year the Social  Security Act comes before parliament but debate is only allowed on the government changes, any attempt to bring up the state pension gets sidelined.

[barney42bb]

So many folks quite understandably choose to make their lives broadband become bona-fide Ex-Pats.

 

Sadly many initiate a poor fiscal policy to sustain themselves and lifestyle, to keep the effects of inflation at bay.

 

Those so doing and those considering doing the same, within a nation that does not enjoy the State Pension Cost of Living rise...should ensure.

 

Maintain a UK Postal Address.

UK Bank Account

GP Registration.

 

UK is fast catching up with how the authorities in Australia keep tabs on their citizens movements in and out ... Tax Investments and Pension Status.

[FruitPudding]

19 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

If I was in the UK, I would receive an uprated Pension , Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, Winter Fuel Allowance, free NHS treatment ( which in my case would be quite expensive), a Bus Pass and probably other benefits and allowances. It should easily double, and more, what I cost the state!

 

Can't you go back for holidays to use the NHS?

[FruitPudding]

Has this policy changed recently?

 

I thought this was an old policy.

 

Why is everyone talking about it again now?

 

[ed strong]

Is this one of your AI posts, as this sounds completely made up with fictitious characters!?

 

 

[ed strong]

2 minutes ago, FruitPudding said:

Has this policy changed recently?

 

I thought this was an old policy.

 

Why is everyone talking about it again now?

 

Its made up to create discussion on the forum

[transam]

5 minutes ago, barney42bb said:

So many folks quite understandably choose to make their lives broadband become bona-fide Ex-Pats.

 

Sadly many initiate a poor fiscal policy to sustain themselves and lifestyle, to keep the effects of inflation at bay.

 

Those so doing and those considering doing the same, within a nation that does not enjoy the State Pension Cost of Living rise...should ensure.

 

Maintain a UK Postal Address.

UK Bank Account

GP Registration.

 

UK is fast catching up with how the authorities in Australia keep tabs on their citizens movements in and out ... Tax Investments and Pension Status.

Noooooo, whodathought, but you forgot, use your daughter to do all the paperwork and signing for you, plus pay your pension to your daughter, then she can send out here to you in LOS..

Cos DWP would never work that one out........................🤣

[bkk_mike]

18 hours ago, fondue zoo said:

I'm lazy, how does the UK decide which countries to subject to frozen pensions while others remain unaffected?

It used to be all foreign countries.

Then they signed reciprocal agreements with a few countries (i.e. you uprate the pensions of your pensioners living here, we'll upgrade the pensions of our pensioners living there...)

But the UK stopped signing reciprocal agreements in 1981 - so that's quite easy to blame on Thatcher.

 

The introduction of the Single market in 1992 forced the UK to extend it to the whole of the EU and EEA (Some EU countries already had reciprocal agreements in place), and they didn't undo that with Brexit (as even the Conservatives knew it would be particularly nasty to start freezing the pensions of people who'd retired to the EU back when the rules said their pension wouldn't be frozen - but also nasty to only freeze the pensions of those retiring to the EU after Brexit, while letting older pensioners keep the yearly inflation uplift.).

 

The only other country that I'm aware of that freezes the state pensions of people because they've chosen to retire abroad is New Zealand.

 

As for the idiots saying it's because of the cost of the migrants.. - asylum seekers are funded out of the foreign aid budget. Fewer asylum seekers would simply give more money to aid projects around the world, not to pensioners.

 

[itsari]

29 minutes ago, transam said:

Te last sentence applied to me, one of the reasons I am here was because of an incurable disease that a warm climate makes all the difference........🤗

I fully understand what you are saying , however if you were not inflicted with a disease you would of been offered your pension  anyway.

[pattaya1234was]

2 hours ago, NoshowJones said:

So is mine. If you have been in the same job all your working life, even working for different companies, you could easily end up with about 12000 GBP a year state pension.

You have missed the point I was trying to make. Of course it is possible to get a 12000 pounds .But you would have to be living in the UK or.....?

[transam]

4 minutes ago, FruitPudding said:

Has this policy changed recently?

 

I thought this was an old policy.

 

Why is everyone talking about it again now?

 

Because a member on the fiddle keeps bringing it up and taking the p_ss out of the non-naughty folk.......

But this time it was TVF/AN, probably about due.....😂

[transam]

2 minutes ago, itsari said:

I fully understand what you are saying , however if you were not inflicted with a disease you would of been offered your pension  anyway.

But I would not have been here in LOS.............😉

[bkk_mike]

8 minutes ago, FruitPudding said:

Has this policy changed recently?

 

I thought this was an old policy.

 

Why is everyone talking about it again now?

 

 

Probably because inflation has risen quite a lot, so people are feeling the pinch of not getting the inflation adjustment more.

[Andycoops]

2 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Why do you tip a policeman doing his job?

Non of your business 

[FruitPudding]

How does this frozen pension thing affect guys who have been abroad decades?

[Andycoops]

Just now, FruitPudding said:

How does this frozen pension thing affect guys who have been abroad decades?

Simple, there are people who emigrated to Australia who have frozen pensions that generate below 100 GBP every month...

[trainman34014]

I paid in huge amounts of NI for the full 50 years of my working life but will never get a rise in Pension living here !   However; i knew that before coming here and prepared myself financially.     Those that don't do so are just poor Managers of money and should live where they can get the increases, simple is it not  ?

[bkk_mike]

38 minutes ago, transam said:

Te last sentence applied to me, one of the reasons I am here was because of an incurable disease that a warm climate makes all the difference........🤗

Would it be feasible to move to the Philippines.

Similar climate, but with the pension increases.

[Andycoops]

6 minutes ago, pattaya1234was said:

You have missed the point I was trying to make. Of course it is possible to get a 12000 pounds .But you would have to be living in the UK or.....?

Correct there have been recent articles in the UK press about the state pension being tax free because the threshold for paying tax is being outstripped by the triple lock increases, putting pensioners in the the tax bracket...