UK Pensioners in Thailand Face New Scrutiny Over Pension Fraud

[baansgr]

22 hours ago, smedly said:

not to mention winter fuel allowance, lol 

 

the uk government need to clamp down  on this bs,  the money they save can be spent pensioners .

 

first thing I would do -biometric  id cards, absolute id when claiming anything, oh the general public  do not agree -well seriously  it would stop the huge fraud going on in the uk right  now

The winter fuel allowance is a drop in the ocean compared to what I said. £920 monthly housing allowance, £100 a month for 1st child...there are many in Thailand, especially Phuket and Pattaya that are doing this and have been for years.

[ElwoodP]

Troll post removed.

[lordgrinz]

I know how they can fix the issue, just allow expats in Thailand to have the same rights as expats in foreign countries that the UK government doesn't currently discriminate against. Why have different laws based on where someone decides to live? They earned it, stop trying to steal it back!

[NaaKap]

This is just disgusting. To freeze a pension that you have paid into the system all your life. Then to criminalise pensioners based on geographical location. Meanwhile it costing Ten BILLION to support, feed, clothe, house illegal immigrants whon are there solely to leech off the system. Full pensions paid to Government employees after 4 years. Raising the retirement age. All while penalising pensioners for the pittance they rightfully receive after a lifetime of hard slog. Make it make sense!! 

[john donson]

if you worked and paid your 30-40 years, it should be none of their bees wax

[StevieAus]

On 11/15/2024 at 11:40 AM, happyaussie said:

Your lucky. Australian pensioners cannot reside outside Australia and collect the pension. We are already one of the highest taxed countries in the world. The government wants it's pensioners to stay put so they can continue collecting tax. 

 

The hypocracy is that Australias $220k+ pa politicians receive a full pension after 5 years, can continue working in other fields and reside anywhere. 

 

it sucks.

The statement in your first paragraph is incorrect, I think you are confusing the changes introduced several years ago requiring the applicant to have resided continuously in Australia for a period of two years prior to making the application or residing continuously for two years after receiving the pension.

For what it’s worth I know of two Australians who didn’t meet the above requirement and still receive the pension

[roo860]

15 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   The Gov are tackling illegal immigration in other ways .

Taking measures to stop them from renting accommodation so they got nowhere to stay ,, fining people who employ them and probably other measures as well 

I saw a programme around 5 yrs ago in the UK, was an Indian restaurant that Border Force visited looking for illegal workers, they said it was a £10,000 fine for every illegal employee. 

[treetops]

On 11/16/2024 at 2:33 AM, Moonlover said:

This bill was reintroduced after the general election and has now reached the 'committee stage' in the House of Lords. See also Wikipedia.

 

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3430

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_and_Digital_Information_Bill

 

As mentioned upthread, that Bill has not moved since April and will not be progressed any further.

[Surasak]

On 11/15/2024 at 4:13 PM, Liverpool Lou said:

Neither Labour, nor the Tories, have ever said that they would reinstate the increases so they have never quietly dropped it.  When were the Lib Dems ever in power?

A coalition of Lib Dems and Torys 2010-2014?

[sandyf]

On 11/16/2024 at 11:51 AM, p414 said:

It was the Court of Human Rights  tat ruled that the pension I paid 44 years for is ..'A government Benefit'.....

I guess this allows the government to stop ALL payments to pensioners.

That is not true. What the judge said was that there so many benefits paid from NI that an exclusive link between the pension and NI could not be established.

The comment was made in 2009 and by that time the government had deliberately used NI to fund other benefits to try and break the link between NI and the pension.

If the judge had done his own homework rather than listening to the UK government he would have seen that was not the case in the beginning.

 

The Court did not consider that it sufficed for the applicants to have paid National Insurance contributions in the United Kingdom to place them in a relevantly similar position to all other pensioners, regardless of their country of residence. Claiming the contrary would be based on a misconception of the relationship between National Insurance contributions and the State pension. Unlike private pension schemes, National Insurance contributions had no exclusive link to retirement pensions. Instead, they formed a part of the revenue which paid for a whole range of social security benefits, including incapacity benefits, maternity allowances, widow’s benefits, bereavement benefits and the National Health Service. The complex and interlocking system of the benefits and taxation systems made it impossible to isolate the payment of National Insurance contributions as a sufficient ground for equating the position of pensioners who received uprating and those, like the applicants, who did not.  

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01457/SN01457.pdf

[sambum]

21 hours ago, bigt3116 said:

 

Why? I was not quoting anyone.

You emphasised one so you should have emphasised the other.

[sandyf]

On 11/16/2024 at 12:44 PM, scottiejohn said:

I do not believe that it made it into the 2024 manifesto which is what they were elected on!

The Labour Party have today formally announced that they will support the APPG in its efforts to annul the Social Security Benefit Up-rating Regulations.

http://frozenbritishpensions.org/jeremy-corbyn-gives-labours-backing-pension-unfreezing/

 

Surprise! Surprise!

 

 

Frozen British Pensions APPG

First Registered: 29/09/2015 • Last updated on: 30/05/2024

Note: This APPG was last registered on 30th May 2024. The APPG was not registered in the latest release of the 9th October 2024 and may be defunct. Perhaps you are looking for the British Muslims APPG?

https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/APPG/frozen-british-pensions

[sambum]

On 11/15/2024 at 5:24 PM, Baht Simpson said:

Yes, we could arrive in dinghies. 🙂 

 

And throw our passports away before arrival!

[sambum]

23 hours ago, Keeps said:

Wasn't it under Blair's stewardship that Gordon Brown, in his infinite wisdom, sold off in the region of 400 tonnes of gold for pennies in 1999. He stated that the money could be 'used better elsewhere'. And that was the Chancellor of the fecking exchequer!

 

That in today's terms is a pot of around of around £20bn. That could have paid for a lot of nurses, NHS costs, new schools (dare I say it - pensioners) etc ( or kept illegals in their lap of luxury for a fortnight or so). 

 

I wonder what he meant by elsewhere - Brussels?

[Denim]

10 minutes ago, sandyf said:

The Labour Party have today formally announced that they will support the APPG in its efforts to annul the Social Security Benefit Up-rating Regulations.

http://frozenbritishpensions.org/jeremy-corbyn-gives-labours-backing-pension-unfreezing/

 

Surprise! Surprise!

 

 

That link is from 2017.

 

The last comment on it reads thus :

 

 

Brian Plato
September 14, 2024 - 9:23 am

September 14th 2024 , Labour party has been in power 163 days. So all this fine talk. from 2017: Of teasing encouragement to believe that justice will be served has not had any progressive effect at all. the honorable prime minister Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB KC
has thus far failed to act to provide us with relief.

[sandyf]

On 11/16/2024 at 1:39 PM, Liverpool Lou said:

I don't believe that I am but, you go ahead, tell me when the policy of allowing increases to UK pensions in frozen countries such as Thailand was in force in the last 70+ years. 

More twists that a bowl of spaghetti.

Nothing, regarding the state pension, has been "that way" for more than 70 years.

A population that supports discrimination should be hanging it's head in shame.

[sandyf]

12 minutes ago, Denim said:

 

 

That link is from 2017.

 

The last comment on it reads thus :

 

 

Brian Plato
September 14, 2024 - 9:23 am

September 14th 2024 , Labour party has been in power 163 days. So all this fine talk. from 2017: Of teasing encouragement to believe that justice will be served has not had any progressive effect at all. the honorable prime minister Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB KC
has thus far failed to act to provide us with relief.

Indeed, thanks.

I only had a look to see who was still participating and looks like the APPG has been discontinued.

[scottiejohn]

47 minutes ago, sandyf said:

The Labour Party have today formally announced that they will support the APPG in its efforts to annul the Social Security Benefit Up-rating Regulations.

http://frozenbritishpensions.org/jeremy-corbyn-gives-labours-backing-pension-unfreezing/

Actually the article is dated 2017 about Corbyn's support and nothing to do with the present Labouring shower!

[Nick Carter icp]

1 hour ago, sambum said:

 

And throw our passports away before arrival!

 

   Why don't you do that ?

[James9999]

22 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

They were only in power on Cameron's coattails. 

The list of Lib Dem Ministers in 2010. Liberal Democrat appointments included Danny Alexander as Secretary of State for Scotland, Chris Huhne as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, David Laws as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Vince Cable became Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills and President of the Board of Trade. Chris Huhne  a nice piece or work he was. I don't need to remind you.

[hotandsticky]

3 hours ago, sambum said:

 

And throw our passports away before arrival!

 

 

That would, of course, be pointless as they have access to Immigration records, etc.

[scottiejohn]

25 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

That would, of course, be pointless as they have access to Immigration records, etc.

Not if you no longer have your passport or boarding card etc!

What could they look up unless they have biometric data on you?

PS; I left the UK and entered Thailand before that sh!t came in!

[Baht Simpson]

4 hours ago, sambum said:

 

And throw our passports away before arrival!

No. We need to show that we're entitled to a British State Pension by dint of our maximum contributions, plus increases. It would be a pretty penny.

[bradiston]

14 hours ago, James9999 said:

Well if you think about its there is no way of knowing how many illegal immigrants there are and anything is based on an estimation. To be honest I thought 745,000 was on the light side. So what if the last link was 10 years old. It was a fact that the Government despite making all sorts of threats and promises was itself employing illegal immigrants. The measures that previous Governments brought in are what was mentioned by the other poster. Fines against employers employing illegal immigrants, but it still goes on. And penalties against land lords who rent rooms or properties to illegal immigrants but it still goes on. The penalties have very little effect.

On what do you base your own calculations? Fear? You're dragging in immigration when it has absolutely nothing to do with the topic. At any available opportunity people here start banging on about immigration. They blame everything on immigrants. It's classic. Classic rubbish.

[ElwoodP]

Offensive post removed along with the poster.

Please be polite and civil.

[DonniePeverley]

Scroungers. 

 

If you don't live in the UK, there is no way the government should be giving you any money. 

 

I see far too many old British guys out here in Thailand, Brexit loving, always whinging about immigration in the UK (irony lost on them they are not the most desirable immigrants themselves in Thailand). They contribute nothing to the UK, so why we paying them a pension?

 

If they have a private pension then it's their business. 

[Liverpool Lou]

10 minutes ago, DonniePeverley said:

hey contribute nothing to the UK, so why we paying them a pension?

Because they paid NI contributions for it!

[Liverpool Lou]

5 hours ago, sandyf said:

Nothing, regarding the state pension, has been "that way" for more than 70 years.

The frozen aspect of state pensions has!

[Liverpool Lou]

6 hours ago, Surasak said:

On 11/15/2024 at 4:13 PM, Liverpool Lou said:

Neither Labour, nor the Tories, have ever said that they would reinstate the increases so they have never quietly dropped it.  When were the Lib Dems ever in power?

A coalition of Lib Dems and Torys 2010-2014?

There sure was but the Lib Dems sure weren't controlling the power, the Tories were.

[DonniePeverley]

7 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Because they paid NI contributions for it!

 

Not everyone would have paid any national insurance contributions. 

 

And secondly it's just a generic tax that is also used to fund the NHS, and other benefits. It's just a tax with a glossy name. It should just be pushed into the normal taxation. 

 

Thirdly, once you leave the country why should you be entitled to anything? 

 

I have relatives that live in Canada for nearly 40 years, claim pensions, come to the UK for all their free dentistry and hospital appointments on the NHS. And they give the same clap trap of having paid some national insurance contributions for a few years. Give me a break. They are fleecing the system. 

 

It also now makes sense why a few pensioners in Pattaya always doing the odd flight out to the Phillippines now and again.