Frozen in time: British expats losing out on pensions in Thailand

[Celsius]

6 minutes ago, NickyLouie said:

 

really , maybe the Geezers worked hard their whole lives and paid well into a system that is handing out free dosh to every filth that shows up on UK soil with their begging hands out.

 

 

 

I hear this dumb argument often. If they worked hard they would have a pension income besides the pittance they get from the government.

 

no, most likely they were on government dosh most of their lives. Then they watched some YouTube influencers that claim you can live in Thailand on 500 pounds a month and here they are.

 

 

[ElwoodP]

One rather rude post removed.

Please be polite and civil to other forum members.

@Blueman1

[gerrybpattaya]

6 hours ago, Nemises said:

They knew their pensions would freeze if they left the UK.

Next.

When I started started paying my compulsory government pension 50 years ago did I know that the government would freeze it if I retired in Thailand. This new Labour governments first major financial decision was to cut pensions. Shame on them.

[sambum]

51 minutes ago, Photoguy21 said:

It is called discrimination no matter which way you look at it. A long time friend of mine retired a few years ago. He still banks in the UK but because he is living in the Philippines he gets no increase.

The UK is very critical of discrimination but only when it applies to others not themselves. In my opinion he should get the increases as he banks in the UK irrespective if there is an agreement between the relevant countries.

The UK government is good at speaking but total liars when it comes to doing the right thing, unless you are an illegal immigrant of course.

 

If he lives in the Phillippines he is entitled to the annual increases/increments.

[harryviking]

Here we have another example of useless ignorant politicians!! May they rot in H*LL!!

[sambum]

6 hours ago, Gknrd said:

That is been going on for ever, why retire there if you loose?  Best to make it seem like you live in the UK I would think. Surely there are ways around it.

 

Don't tell them you moved to Thailand! "Say nowt!"

[sambum]

6 hours ago, Nemises said:

They knew their pensions would freeze if they left the UK.

Next.

 

Maybe they didn't? Unlike immigrants who are helped every step of the way - they even have people advising them about what they can claim for and what they can't, while the UK pensioners who have lived and worked all their lives in the UK have to find out for themselves - or plough through a pile of gobbledygook to find out what applies to them and what doesn't!

[baansgr]

2 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

For some poor souls there just isn't enough racism about these days , They feel the need to see it everywhere and mention it at every opportunity as part of their virtue signalling regime.  After all there is not much fun in being outraged alone.   Same goes for those with the anti Trump obsession 

That doesn't answer my question, what was rasist?

[sambum]

13 minutes ago, gerrybpattaya said:

When I started started paying my compulsory government pension 50 years ago did I know that the government would freeze it if I retired in Thailand. This new Labour governments first major financial decision was to cut pensions. Shame on them.

 

No, it was to stop paying the Old Age Winter Fuel Allowance to all pensioners.

[baansgr]

3 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

So, if you keep a UK phone number, a UK address and you leave for 1 yr without saying anything, the authorities will know you're gone?

I doubt it but you are required to inform DWP if you are in receipt of state pension 

[sambum]

6 hours ago, spermwhale said:

"After 40 gruelling years as an electronics buyer"... who writes this stuff? 

Also: This isn't true: But his dream retirement turned into a financial nightmare when he discovered his UK state pension had been frozen.

He didn't have his pension frozen. He just doesn't get cost-of-living increases. Big difference. he still gets his money, so I'm not sure how that is a "financial nightmare." 

"He didn't have his pension frozen."

 

He had his pension frozen at the amount that it was when he first moved away from the UK - depends how you read it!

 

[denishuahin]

efficientI left the UK at 58yo, in 2002 I was with Equitable Life, for a guaranteed payout when 60 yo. As members know they were going bust so we had a choice except a cut on our pension, or they go bust we lose everything. I lost £18,000. The government stepped in to sort it all out after 4 years of claiming, i got compensation of £345 the dragged their feet so we would all die before settled it's still going on and some of us are still alive.
Then at 65 in 2007 I applied for my State Pension for Thailand, all very efficient , no problems at all. At this time, I didn't know about frozen pension. I was living ok, I had money to carry on. Then I started reading about the immigration into UK and how much the Government were giving them £49 per day. I wrote to the pension service about my pension, they directed me to the rules on being abroad and frozen pensions, which really make no sense at all if I had chosen to live in the Philippines, I would get the full pension. I have estimated I have lost out on about an average of 1500baht per month ( little for the first few years ) total would be about £ my pension is £107 pw, the state pension now is £169.50 per week if born before 1951, why?  I have a short fall over the last 4 years of around £20,000. This is how our government treat its people like me, I never claimed benefits, worked all my life paying into the system. But if go into UK on a rubber boat or in a lorry and get £17,885 per annum, never having paid in a penny.  Is something wrong here?
I'm going back in April 2005 to claim my full pension stay 6 months 1 day, and come back to Thailand on a higher frozen pension.

Edited 2 hours ago by denishuahin

[baansgr]

3 minutes ago, denishuahin said:

I left the UK at 58yo, in 2002 I was with Equitable Life, for a guaranteed payout when 60 yo. As members know they were going bust so we had a choice except a cut on our pension, or they go bust we lose everything. I lost £18,000. The government stepped in to sort it all out after 4 years of claiming, i got compensation of £345 the dragged their feet so we would all die before settled it's still going on and some of us are still alive.
Then at 65 in 2007 I applied for my State Pension for Thailand, all very officiant, no problems at all. At this time, I didn't know about frozen pension. I was living ok, I had money to carry on. Then I started reading about the immigration into UK and how much the Government were giving them £49 per day. I wrote to the pension service about my pension, they directed me to the rules on being abroad and frozen pensions, which really make no sense at all if I had chosen to live in the Philippines, I would get the full pension. I have estimated I have lost out on about an average of 1500baht per month ( little for the first few years ) total would be about £ my pension is £107 pw, the state pension now is £169.50 per week if born before 1951, why?  I have a short fall over the last 4 years of around £20,000. This is how our government treat its people like me, I never claimed benefits, worked all my life paying into the system. But if go into UK on a rubber boat or in a lorry and get £17,885 per annum, never having paid in a penny.  Is something wrong here?
I'm going back in April 2005 to claim my full pension stay 6 months 1 day, and come back to Thailand on a higher frozen pension.

But of you don't go back after 6 months, your pension will be frozen as it was in 2007...you have to stay in an unfrozen country for at least 182 days per year..this is made quite clear on UKgov website

[sambum]

34 minutes ago, Photoguy21 said:

No he doesnt I can assure you of that.

 

Maybe he hasn't claimed it, or there is some other underlying reason, but under normal circumstances, he would i.e. - from the British Government website:-

 

"If you live in one of the following countries and receive a UK State Pension, you will usually get an increase in your pension every year:

Barbados

Bermuda

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Gibraltar

Guernsey

the Isle of Man

Israel

Jamaica

Jersey

Kosovo

Mauritius

Montenegro

North Macedonia

the Philippines

Serbia

Turkey

USA

The UK has social security agreements with Canada and New Zealand, but you cannot get a yearly increase in your UK State Pension if you live in either of those countries."

 

(And I do note that it says "usually"!)

Edited 2 hours ago by sambum

[Jonnapat]

I've lived for 15 years on a frozen pension.

15 years of increases adds up to a tidy amount over that period and would make a big difference to me.

That is on top of the UK government pension being the lowest in Western Europe, in some cases by a very wide margin.

All this while the millionaires and billionaires hide their money off shore and pay no taxes.

Very unfair.

[Hardcastle P]

7 hours ago, Nemises said:

They knew their pensions would freeze if they left the UK.

Next.

Not strictly true live in the USA or the Philippines it's not frozen live in Canada or Thailand it is frozen

 

[Mike Teavee]

47 minutes ago, Photoguy21 said:

No he doesnt I can assure you of that.

He absolutely should get it so well worth him querying it with DWP as they should back date any increases he’s missed so he might be in for a nice Payday 👍🏻

[proton]

5 minutes ago, Jonnapat said:

I've lived for 15 years on a frozen pension.

15 years of increases adds up to a tidy amount over that period and would make a big difference to me.

That is on top of the UK government pension being the lowest in Western Europe, in some cases by a very wide margin.

All this while the millionaires and billionaires hide their money off shore and pay no taxes.

Very unfair.

 

While the UK PM takes over 100k in freebies off a dodgy immigrant as he cuts pensioners 300 pound fuel allowance, while claiming his own. That's socialism apparently.

Edited 2 hours ago by proton

[Hardcastle P]

35 minutes ago, sambum said:

 

If he lives in the Phillippines he is entitled to the annual increases/increments.

Wrong my friend if he lives in the Philippines it is not frozen .

[Mike Teavee]

Delete - Duplicate post

Edited 2 hours ago by Mike Teavee

[231778_1469957276]

Not only do the pensions freeze but if you return to the UK for a vacation, in theory you should purchase travel insurance because after 6 months out of the country, you lose all your NHS entitlement.....absolute joke!!!!

[231778_1469957276]

Not only do the pensions freeze but if you return to the UK for a vacation, in theory you should purchase travel insurance because after 6 months out of the country, you lose all your NHS entitlement.....absolute joke!!!!

[231778_1469957276]

Not only do the pensions freeze but if you return to the UK for a vacation, in theory you should purchase travel insurance because after 6 months out of the country, you lose all your NHS entitlement.....absolute joke!!!!

[G_Money]

6 hours ago, theblether said:

 

My sister is a senior NHS HR manager. Here's the problem. Overseas private hospitals are offering funny money. I know a 35 yo cardiac surgeon who has taken a job at USD650,000 basic in California. 

 

One well known former member of this forum has just been hired to an overseas contract paying 450% more than the NHS rate - 

 

How do we stop these specialists from being headhunted? 

 
“How do we stop these specialists from being headhunted? “

 

Perhaps paying more would keep them home.  Ya think?

 

You can’t stop them from being headhunted.  Free market principles.

 

 

[Blueman1]

47 minutes ago, gerrybpattaya said:

When I started started paying my compulsory government pension 50 years ago did I know that the government would freeze it if I retired in Thailand. This new Labour governments first major financial decision was to cut pensions. Shame on them.

When I started started paying my compulsory government pension 50 years ago did I know that the government would freeze it if I retired in Thailand.....The Answer is NO !!

[Blueman1]

51 minutes ago, sambum said:

 

Don't tell them you moved to Thailand! "Say nowt!"

And End up in the " Nick " for Fraud & Deception when they catch you,And They WILL.....

[Blueman1]

49 minutes ago, sambum said:

 

Maybe they didn't? Unlike immigrants who are helped every step of the way - they even have people advising them about what they can claim for and what they can't, while the UK pensioners who have lived and worked all their lives in the UK have to find out for themselves - or plough through a pile of gobbledygook to find out what applies to them and what doesn't!

They knew their pensions would freeze if they left the UK.......Once & for ALL......I DID NOT O.K. ??

[Dellboy218]

7 hours ago, theblether said:

 

Better illegal immigrants that contribute  than sour faced pensioners that want to live abroad and slate the UK every day. 

 

Plenty of them. Just come home. 

Go home and queue up at clinics and hospitals?  Do you think the NHS could handle it?  What do  illegal immigrants contribute?

[moe666]

7 hours ago, Nemises said:

They knew their pensions would freeze if they left the UK.

Next.

They know it will be frozen but they keep coming and complaining

[proton]

5 minutes ago, Blueman1 said:

And End up in the " Nick " for Fraud & Deception when they catch you,And They WILL.....

 

They wont extradite and imprison pensioners for not telling them they are in Thailand, don't be silly. Worst case is having pension put back to the level when you left the UK.