Frozen Uk Government Pensions

[Penkoprod]

[Nignoy]

Just paid my daily visit to a UK vets and serving military website, it seems the feelings are running pretty high about expats, not only do the public over there think expats pensions should be reduced but also the right to vote taken away as well, there are supposed to be all types of reduction plans in the pipeline, maybe if part of the population tried working for a living instead of just whinging about immigrants and expats ,things might look a bit rosier :jap:

[chiang mai]

Just paid my daily visit to a UK vets and serving military website, it seems the feelings are running pretty high about expats, not only do the public over there think expats pensions should be reduced but also the right to vote taken away as well, there are supposed to be all types of reduction plans in the pipeline, maybe if part of the population tried working for a living instead of just whinging about immigrants and expats ,things might look a bit rosier :jap:

It's both sad and amazing that ex-pats have now been grouped with immigrants, have to say I'm very worried about the mental health of my non-expat countrymen!

[prakhonchai nick]

Just paid my daily visit to a UK vets and serving military website, it seems the feelings are running pretty high about expats, not only do the public over there think expats pensions should be reduced but also the right to vote taken away as well, there are supposed to be all types of reduction plans in the pipeline, maybe if part of the population tried working for a living instead of just whinging about immigrants and expats ,things might look a bit rosier :jap:

It's both sad and amazing that ex-pats have now been grouped with immigrants, have to say I'm very worried about the mental health of my non-expat countrymen!

When the UK vets and current serving military decide to relocate overseas themselves in years to come they will likely sing a different tune.

It will eventually be necessary to become an expat if you want other Brits to talk to!!! :ph34r:

[fcgprg]

@ thaibeachlovers..

Apologies, my budget is actually 395 quid a month, includes rent, electric, water, cable tv, GF expenses, and food at 100 bht a day. I also have a lump sum to cover such as entertainment ( occasional movie on cheap Wednesdays, second hand books, cheap DVDs etc ), internet, dentist, visa and medical etc, but as they are not a "routine" expense, don't come under the "budget".

It does help that I don't have to "pay" my GF to stay with me, play golf, visit high priced tourist attractions, frequent GoGo bars, barbeers, massage parlours, smoke or drink alcohol.

Actually, I'd rather live here on 10 quid a day with my GF, even if we don't have much, than live on a lot more back in the "home" country by myself. My life enjoyment index went up by about a million % the day I retired and moved to LOS!

And YES, it is a wonderful life!

I've had to delete some quotes to be able to post this.

Thanks for reply and honesty, you now say your budget in £395 per month, which basically means that you've spent all of your UK state pension at todays rates if in receipt of the basic state pension,some people don't get the todays pension rates because they left the UK some time ago so their pensions were frozen from the date they left and receive less.

I hope the 100 baht per day for food that you budget for is not for two people, you need your 5 a day, I can't imagine having a budget of 100 baht per day for one, never mind two.

You then go on to say that you have a lump some to cover entertainment, medical, dentist, visa etc, so in reality your spending a more than the state pension would pay you, even though you may not include it in your budget you need to get the money from somewhere, and don't forget to add travel costs back home if you do go home occasionally.

That is why I said earlier that IMHO no one can afford to fund a lifestyle abroad if they only have the state pension to rely on and no other source of income.

By the way I can't see many Thai women living with a man if he only had £10 per day to look after them both and maybe children involved.

Yes, agreed that I need a back up fund ( from my savings ), and would not be able to stay otherwise. However, the BUDGET for routine expenses is indeed 395. The fund pays for one offs, and when that's gone, I will indeed be heading for "home" so I can work to build up another back up fund, and return here.

As for the GF, I must be one of the lucky ones, though she does have a job and pays for some of her food herself. I cover all living expenses though, as she still needs to send money to her family etc, and is paying off her own motorcycle, buys her own clothes etc. No children, as that would indeed make a difference.

100 bht a day for food is perfectly achievable, provided you shop at the market, and do your own cooking. Doesn't cover anything but the basics, of course, no treats, and only water to drink. Helps that I only eat cereal and bananas for breakfast, and have one cooked meal a day, in the evening when the GF gets back from work. In the heat, I find I only want 2 meals a day, and don't eat much anyway.

PS I don't know any pensioners in the UK, but would it be possible to live in the UK on only the state pension? I'd doubt that, even with the increases. Surely some supplementary assistance would be required? I know they get free public transport, and winter fuel allowance.

Pension credits can take a married pensioners pension up to 198 per week

[prakhonchai nick]

I'd rather have £395 a month here than £198 a week (only if married) in the UK. Goes much further here even if that's not very far.

Had Thaibeachlovers been married, he could have claimed a dependents allowance of around £240 a month on top of his basic pension. What a difference that would have made! Alas too late to claim now, even if he should consider marrying his g/f

[billd766]

Just paid my daily visit to a UK vets and serving military website, it seems the feelings are running pretty high about expats, not only do the public over there think expats pensions should be reduced but also the right to vote taken away as well, there are supposed to be all types of reduction plans in the pipeline, maybe if part of the population tried working for a living instead of just whinging about immigrants and expats ,things might look a bit rosier :jap:

Could you please PM me with the url of that website?

I did my time in the RAF and got my knees brown once or twice.

Thanks

Edited July 16, 2010 by billd766

[eek]

A moderator has already had to come into this thread to clean up the inflammatory comments, now more comments required deletion.

Keep it civil.

Thank you.

[billd766]

A moderator has already had to come into this thread to clean up the inflammatory comments, now more comments required deletion.

Keep it civil.

Thank you.

It wasn't me Guv.

Honest injun.

[OJAS]

Since “the rules” have been referred to in several posts, it might be helpful if we were clear on what these are. The definitive position would appear to be set out on the Directgov website at:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/StatePension/Basicstatepension/DG_10026714

This states quite clearly that yearly index-linked increases will only be received by UK state pensioners living in the EEA or in countries with which the UK has a social security agreement that includes state pensions. Rather bizarrely, such an agreement exists with the Philippines but not with Thailand.

So, regardless of the rights or wrongs of the present situation, any change for UK state pensioners living in Thailand would appear to be totally dependent on the UK and Thailand concluding a social security agreement that includes state pensions. How realistic a prospect that is within the next million or so years is, presumably, another matter entirely...

[rubik101]

Since making the OP, I have had little opportunity to revisit the site, however, I am amazed to see the tone of the thread has degenerated into a pissing contest between a very few entrenched and frankly quite juvenile posters. This thread is about pensions and presumably read mostly by pensioners but reading some of the posts you would think that pimply, hormone fuelled teenagers made the majority of posts.

In response to the argument about non-indexing of pensions in Thailand I would just point out, if it hasn't already been done ( I have to admit that I have not read every page of the thread), that expat pensioners in many countries, including Barbados, Bermuda, Cyprus, Jamaica, Mauritius, The Philipines, Switzerland, and the USA all recieve the indexed annual increase in the State Pension. Last time I looked, Switzerland and the USA have absolutely no connection to the UK unless you go back several hundered years in the case of the USA and never in the case of Switzerland. Saying that it's because there is no 'reciprocal agreement' and accepting that this willcontinue to be the case is a defeatist and illogical attitude. It is for this reason that this thread was started and these meetings arranged.

The venue has now been booked! There will be 2 meetings held at "The Bowling Green" in Soi Fuengfa in Pattaya. They will both start at 12.30pm on Thursday 19th & Sunday 22nd August. Look on www.pattayabridge.com for further details & a map. We are not being charged for the venue, so it would be appreciated if you purchased food & drink from the menu.

If you are of the opinion that the State Pension will NOT now or in the near future be indexed, then I would ask you to not to attend as you will surely be a disruptive and unwanted addition to the proceedings. If you think I'm talking about one seemingly beligerent and argumentative member, you'd be correct.

To the rest of you, welcome. Please PM me or write a reply here to indicate which meeting you might wish to attend.

Doing nothing gets you nowhere!

Edited July 25, 2010 by rubik101

[David006]

is there anything to stop a UK pensioner investing in a ticket and an address in Spain or some other reciprocal locale and then fly on to LOS.....PO box and or UK bank accountant....??? By the time you try to beat/change the system you may be a puff off oily smoke or worm food....

[prakhonchai nick]

is there anything to stop a UK pensioner investing in a ticket and an address in Spain or some other reciprocal locale and then fly on to LOS.....PO box and or UK bank accountant....??? By the time you try to beat/change the system you may be a puff off oily smoke or worm food....

Technically NO....but there will come a time when your passport needs renewal. and since most government computers are interlinked, it would only be a matter of time before they caught up with you.

For the small amount of extra money is it worth continually looking over your shoulder as you become progressively older?

[theoldgit]

rubik101, whilst I think you are probably fighting a lost cause I wish you well, I thought you might be interested to read this email that I received from the CSPA (Civil Service Pensioners Alliance).

The email forwarded an email on behalf of International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP), I have cut and pasted as it may be of interest to you.

Dear Mr Amos,

I am contacting you on behalf of John Markham at the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP) in the hope that the CSPA might be able to help us with a piece of work we are about to do.

You may be aware that the ICBP campaigns to ensure all British pensioners are entitled to receive their full state pension, regardless of where they choose to retire. Currently around 540,000 British pensioners that have retired to countries such as Canada, South Africa, Australia and the majority of the islands in the Caribbean find that their pensions are frozen at the rate at which is it first drawn, despite having made National Insurance contributions their whole lives. This would mean that if you leave in 2010, 10 years later your weekly pension would still be £97.65, while pensioners in the UK would receive between £120-130 a week.

We are currently undertaking a piece of work to assess the economic viability of the UK Government rectifying this situation, and as part of this we are doing a survey of the attitudes of pensioners to retiring abroad. The survey itself will be a very short questionnaire which will be available online at Survey Monkey, please see a link here: http://www.surveymon.../frozenpensions

The survey is being done in partnership with AgeUK and NCP, but we are looking to other key organisations and individuals to help us disseminate the survey as widely as possible. We were therefore wondering whether you might be able to help us to tell as many pensioners about the survey and encourage them to take part.

If you think you might be able to help, I would be very happy to discuss it with you in more detail, so please do call me on 020 7149 3705.

Many thanks and with best wishes,

Annie Bruzzone

Associate Consultant

[bobpea]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/378857-frozen-uk-pensions/page__st__225__p__3779319__hl__frozen+pensions__fromsearch__1#entry3779319

Given that there is another thread with the same subject matter running alongside this, I am surprised the two have not been combined. It was my fault for not adding my OP to this thread which had been running some time before mine began, sorry about that.

If Penkaprod is so convinced it's a lost cause then I'm somewhat surprised to see how much effort he puts into shooting everyone else who posts here down in flames. We would be quite happy if you stopped expressing your opinion, as you have done repeatedly, in both threads, and let those of us who have a positive outlook on the campaign get on with the job. I take it you will not be attending the meetings to campaign for the restitution of pension parity, as it is a 'lost cause'?

Talking of the the meetings in Pattaya, they are fast approaching. Those of you who wish to attend either meeting, please PM me so that we have an idea of numbers.

The venue has now been booked! We are holding 2 meetings at "The Bowling Green" in Soi Fuengfa in Pattaya. They will both start at 12.30pm on Thursday 19th & Sunday 22nd August. Look on www.pattayabridge.com for further details & a map. We are not being charged for the venue, so it would be appreciated if you purchased food & drink from the menu. A lady called Judith Edmonds is kindly looking after the admin side of things, so please contact her on goldenoldies.judith&[email protected] if you wish to attend one or other of these 2 inaugural meetings. See the News section on our website www.pensionparitythailand.com for further details.

[bobpea]

To the oldgit, thank you for that mail, we will add it to our file!

Given that there is another thread with the same subject matter running alongside this, I am surprised the two have not been combined. It was my fault for not adding my OP to the other thread which had been running some time before mine began, sorry about that.

Penkaprod, if you are so convinced it's a lost cause then I'm somewhat surprised to see how much effort you have put into shooting everyone else who posts here down in flames. We would be quite happy if you stopped expressing your opinion, as you have done repeatedly, in both threads, and let those of us who have a positive outlook on the campaign get on with the job. I take it you will not be attending the meetings to campaign for the restitution of pension parity, as it is a 'lost cause'?

Talking of the the meetings in Pattaya, they are fast approaching. Those of you who wish to attend either meeting, please PM me so that we have an idea of numbers.

The venue has now been booked! We are holding 2 meetings at "The Bowling Green" in Soi Fuengfa in Pattaya. They will both start at 12.30pm on Thursday 19th & Sunday 22nd August. Look on www.pattayabridge.com for further details & a map. We are not being charged for the venue, so it would be appreciated if you purchased food & drink from the menu. A lady called Judith Edmonds is kindly looking after the admin side of things, so please contact her on goldenoldies.judith&[email protected] if you wish to attend one or other of these 2 inaugural meetings. See the News section on our website www.pensionparitythailand.com for further details.

I'm afraid I've posted this same post in the other thread, just make sure you all get the details of the meetings.

[chiang mai]

is there anything to stop a UK pensioner investing in a ticket and an address in Spain or some other reciprocal locale and then fly on to LOS.....PO box and or UK bank accountant....??? By the time you try to beat/change the system you may be a puff off oily smoke or worm food....

Technically NO....but there will come a time when your passport needs renewal. and since most government computers are interlinked, it would only be a matter of time before they caught up with you.

For the small amount of extra money is it worth continually looking over your shoulder as you become progressively older?

I agree but just one small point: future increases will be a minimum of 2.5% and potentially much higher, which when compounded over say five or ten years means that it is no longer a "small amount of money".