Getting UK HMRC to recognise my UK State Pension as not receiving the yearly increases.

[Jonnapat]

Surprised to see so many comments on this subject. FACT. UK pensions have always been frozen for ex pats living in Thailand.

Petitions have been raised and questions even asked in Parliament to no avail.

My pension is frozen at the 2009 rate. 

To make things even worse the spouse allowance was also taken away a few years ago. 

Nothing you can do about it I'm afraid.

It's called government savings ,while the super rich get away with everything nowadays 

 

 

[CFCol]

On 1/26/2025 at 6:50 AM, Pumpuynarak said:

Thanks guys for your help, i appreciate. I'll try the HMRC webchat first as ''Mutt Daeng'' suggests and hopefully i'll get the same positive result, if not i'll lodge a complaint as ''topt'' did as their piss poor response surely deserves. Final solution will be to write to them as ''Moonlover'' recco's.

 

I'll update thread in due course.

 

I can't for the life of me understand why this is continually happening year after year despite it being corrected in the past, as ''MartinL states ''its FROZEN'' all the time i am living in Thailand and i certainly have no intention of returning to the UK with my Thai wifey to live.

They really don't appear to GAF about us guys despite us being in some cases considerable tax payers, just the same as when ''i pop me clogs'' and wifey claims her 50% widows pension from my private company scheme. She's entitled to the personal allowance every year but has to claim it EVERY year when nothing changes from year to year !!!

 

Rant over lol, once again THANKS GUYS.

How long have you lived in Thailand.

If it's less than 15 years, you are still entitled to vote in general elections and therefore have an MP for your last UK address.

Write to your MP. That will get them moving.

[Pumpuynarak]

6 minutes ago, CFCol said:

How long have you lived in Thailand.

If it's less than 15 years, you are still entitled to vote in general elections and therefore have an MP for your last UK address.

Write to your MP. That will get them moving.

 

18 years. I think you will find that the 15 year has been abolished and you can now vote irrespective of how many years you have lived outside the UK.

I did consider contacting my MP but i think that would be a long winded way of addressing the issue.

[Pumpuynarak]

36 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

So you are getting your annual increase? What are you worrying about. Tax will be minimal, if any.

 

I think you are missing the point, i'm NOT getting any annual increase but HMRC for whatever reason are assuming that i am and taxing me accordingly and at 40% !!!

 

£10 per week x 53 = £530 x 40% = £212 income tax per year that i am paying that i'm not liable for as i'm not receiving the £10 per week SP increase.

[helloagain]

On 1/25/2025 at 9:39 AM, Pumpuynarak said:

I'm having extreme difficulty in getting the UK HMRC to recognise that i don't receive the yearly increases to my state pension as i'm resident in Thailand. Now this problem has been evident every year for some inexplicable reason and i have to contact HMRC and the DWP and attempt to get it sorted which always proves difficult. This current year 2024-2025 is really proving difficult despite numerous telephone calls to the both of them.

 

Why oh why this is a problem is beyond me, neither of them appear to want to correct the problem, either now or in the future so the problem just continues.

 

Is anyone else suffering the same problems ? i can't believe i'm the only one !!!  

DWP ARE A WASTE OF TIME. i ENDED UP CONTACTING THE uk TAX OFFICE AND THEY WILL IGNOR WHAT DWP SENDS THEM. I GOT A NICE REBATE OF OVER TAX PAID.

[KannikaP]

1 hour ago, Moonlover said:

It's about HMRC failing to recognize that the state pension is frozen for expats such as ourselves. 

Shhhhh !

[KannikaP]

49 minutes ago, Pumpuynarak said:

 

I think you are missing the point, i'm NOT getting any annual increase but HMRC for whatever reason are assuming that i am and taxing me accordingly and at 40% !!!

 

£10 per week x 53 = £530 x 40% = £212 income tax per year that i am paying that i'm not liable for as i'm not receiving the £10 per week SP increase.

Assume that your State Pension is the FIRST part of your Allowance of 12570, so it is at 0%.

It is the extra Pensions/Income bringing it over 50,270 which is being taxed at 40%.

There are only 52 weeks in my year.

[jesimps]

1 hour ago, Jonnapat said:

Surprised to see so many comments on this subject. FACT. UK pensions have always been frozen for ex pats living in Thailand.

Petitions have been raised and questions even asked in Parliament to no avail.

My pension is frozen at the 2009 rate. 

To make things even worse the spouse allowance was also taken away a few years ago. 

Nothing you can do about it I'm afraid.

It's called government savings ,while the super rich get away with everything nowadays 

 

 

I suggest you read the OP carefully. The guy's saying that although his pension is frozen, he's still being taxed by HMRC as though he's receiving the annual increase. 

[Burma Bill]

6 hours ago, petertucker48 said:

Can I use my brother's UK address to get a yearly increase?

 

If your State Pension is paid into a UK bank account, should be no problem.

If your State Pension is paid into a Thai bank account, then problem.

[Freddy42OZ]

4 hours ago, Moonlover said:

You are indeed confused. This conversation has nothing to do with the unfounded rumour that Thailand intend to tax our pensions. It's about HMRC failing to recognize that the state pension is frozen for expats such as ourselves. 

 

It's a problem that's been running for many years.

 

I had no idea that the UK Government taxed pensions.  Surely people living here are not liable for UK tax anyway.
 

[topt]

17 minutes ago, Freddy42OZ said:

 

I had no idea that the UK Government taxed pensions.  Surely people living here are not liable for UK tax anyway.
 

Most income that arises in the UK is taxed by the UK after the £12,570 single persons allowance.

So you would pay tax on pension income over that figure, interest on cash, dividends, bond coupons etc.

However if officially non-resident for tax you don't pay any capital gains other than on property so profit from share sales for example are not taxed.

 

If you have income offshore and are non resident then that income is not taxable by HMRC.

[theoldgit]

22 minutes ago, topt said:

Most income that arises in the UK is taxed by the UK after the £12,570 single persons allowance.

So you would pay tax on pension income over that figure, interest on cash, dividends, bond coupons etc.

However if officially non-resident for tax you don't pay any capital gains other than on property so profit from share sales for example are not taxed.

 

If you have income offshore and are non resident then that income is not taxable by HMRC.

Just to add that HMRC reduce the Personal Allowance by the amount of the State Pension to ensure that any further income, private pensions for instance, are fully taxed.

 

It’s surprising just how many people are being dragged into the 40% tax band by the fiscal drag caused by the freezing of the PA bands.

[Burma Bill]

2 hours ago, Freddy42OZ said:

 

I had no idea that the UK Government taxed pensions.  Surely people living here are not liable for UK tax anyway.
 

 

As others have stated, yes, UK pensions are taxed. In my case, I get three UK pensions, the State OAP (frozen from day one) and two other pensions that are index linked on final salary. When these three pensions are added together and credited to my Cambodian bank account,  the amount in excess of my 12,570 GBP personal allowance is subject to UK Income Tax debited at source in the UK. I currently pay around 800 GBP in tax per year on the excess. I do not have to pay tax in Cambodia.