One of my neighbors has just retired and has started to draw his UK Government pension, which is paid into his Thai bank account . One thing that came up in our recent conversation about his pension was , what happens to his pension when he dies , as far as he's concerned his wife will be able to access his Thai bank account and with draw his pension for as long as possible. My thought was that may be the British Government will some how know he has passed away , and automatically stop his Government pension payments . Does any one know what actually happens to a UK government pension paid to some one here in Thailand, when that person passes away here.

Thanks

I don't know the definitive answer but we can all guess at some parts of it with some certainty.

A Brit dies in Thailand and the authorities (Thai Police) are notified - the Thai Police will notify the British Embassy (they do have to do this). The Embassy in Bangkok notifies the Foreign Office and at some point the HMRC (Revenue and Customs) who administers the Pension Service, finds out, game over.

Correct,

Once the Embassy is notified, the Foreign Office will notify the Registrars etc in the UK. Maybe the Embassy has direct contact with the main Registrars dept or whatever, no need to go a long way round via the Foreign Office.

I suppose someone could pull a "Weekend at Bernie's" (old movie about the guy who died but was "kept "alive" to keep the party going) but it would be only a matter of time before someone smelled a rat. Wouldn't "the deceased" be required to extend his visa at some point? A suitable sub falong would be required to take his part for this? Sounds like something only a true Gypsy could come up with.