UK State Pension

[jori123]

4 hours ago, simon43 said:

^^^

Frozen state pension, winter fuel allowance cut, triple lock under threat, means-testing pension, where will it end?

 

I'm getting a little concerned about my UK state pension, which I'll start to receive in about 5 months from now.

 

For various reasons (which don't include p*ssing my income up the wall), I will need to rely on my UK state pension as my main income source after I retire.  I still have a decent income from inline teaching, but I don't expect to be teaching in this manner into my 70s etc, and I would be foolish to assume that I would be teaching.

 

We all know that the UK state pension is 'frozen' for those pensioners living in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia etc, and this will never change, regardless of how many people moan about it.

 

The winter fuel allowance is being cut, but this doesn't affect overseas pensioners.

 

Now I hear about 'threats' to the triple lock.  Again, that doesn't affect UK pensioners in the Thailand, thanks to the frozen pension state.

 

But means-testing pensions is a possible threat to pensioners' income in future years! (It won't affect me, because I don't have a pot to p*ss in!).

 

However, where will this all end? I fear that this UK government may try to save more money by restricting state pension payments for expats, regardless of which country they are living in. Perhaps they will only pay out for pensioners who are living in the UK?  (Of course, not paying expats will force many of them to return to the UK, thus costing the government more money in claimable allowances/benefits etc, but I don't think any government has enough brain cells to think this all through...)

 

What are your thoughts about this?  And is there anything that you can do to mitigate these possible scenarios?  Plan your retirement to minimise unnecessary expenses, or even plan a return to the UK?

 

Difficult decisions....

Thinking too hard, SP never finish, triple  lock never finish, winter fuel ok gone, " frozen" pension ? up to you. ,,pension credit wants hammering for sure and is being done too,along with UC, PIP ,all those hangers on are in for torrid time

[BritManToo]

21 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Not everyone needs unlimited call time, my Dtac call worked perfectly also for less than a quid (95p), no need to give Skype three times that every month!

I pay Skype for a London landline, nothing else matters!

[KannikaP]

16 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I pay Skype for a London landline, nothing else matters!

I pay 80 quid a year for Microsoft 365 which gives 5 of my family 100 minutes of Skype calls almost anywhere, and 1GB of One Drive cloud storage.

[BritManToo]

7 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

I pay 80 quid a year for Microsoft 365 which gives 5 of my family 100 minutes of Skype calls almost anywhere, and 1GB of One Drive cloud storage.

But that doesn't give you a UK landline number.

So you can't pretend to be living full time in the UK, and believably claim UK pension increases.