UK pensions

[Kwasaki]

18 hours ago, Faz said:

 

SCB only have a SWIFT code for their main Bangkok branch, just the same as BKK.

https://www.theswiftcodes.com/thailand/page/2/

 

I frequently do transfers from my Nationwide account to BKK London then forwarded onto my BKK branch A/c.

It has never taken more than 18 hours from making the request to the funds being debited in my branch account.

 

Pensions paid on a Monday to your BKK A/c should reach your branch A/c by Tuesday.

What reference code have you given the DWP.

 

 

 

Thankyou for the info l can check that SCB gives me the correct code when l open an account.

 

Didn't have to give DWP anything,  when the swift code was required DWP/IPC acquired it and they said there will be a delay in payment at first then it would go back to normal but it never did and has been Thursdays ever since. 

 

I telephoned IPC out of principal mainly and on checking they said your payments are sent to Citibank on Fridays then they exchange and arrange payment into your Thai Bank.

 

[Kwasaki]

4 hours ago, thai3 said:

Just got my pension but don't understand how they worked it out, even after going through the book they send. 35 years contributions with 16 opted out, so I would have expected to get at least half of the big increase that started in April. But no instead just an extra 6 quid a week above the old rate. Should I ask them to look at it again or is there some devious formula at work?

 

Way back in the thread l believe this was discussed,  at my time DWP told me l had the 30 years contributions and would receive a full pension, so l could of had 12 years off  .

When my uk gov pension was received l had 2 amounts topping up my basic full pension l knew l'd get a bit more opting out as Maggie promised  but how it was worked out l have know idea.

[billd766]

5 hours ago, ignis said:

I am still at a loss as to why my State Pension take so long to arrive....... 

 

I have gone back over letter from DWP...... printed out 2016 calender's to mark down the dates...  beginning of the year  up to May Pension day to time it arrived in my BBK Bank account was between 10 - 32 days late, had to phoned a few time to be assured the payment was sent out...

Last 3 months payments, due day is Monday, the money arrives the following week on Wednesday... Eg: payment day was on the 1st August,  Pension was in the account in the morning 10th..

In the past have phoned and sent registered letter to both Newcastle and Wolverhampton, the answer is always the same they use Citi Bank for overseas transfers and this takes 10 - 14 days. 

 

DWP will not accept paying into London Branch, and in 9 months still cannot get an answer as to why not.. they just say Bangkok Bank London is a 3rd Party Bank..........    My Private Pension is paid into London branch and is in my Thai account the following day, never been a problem in 12 months.. I get a automatic email from London Branch, the following day get a SMS from my Thai account stating Private Pension arrived.

 

Still cannot figure out how some can get there Pension on Due day or within 2 or 3 days... mine have never been quicker then 10 days.  My 2016 calender's is now marked down with arriving date. [Not Pension due date]

 

I made up a spread sheet for my 3 pensions with the date it is due paying in the UK, the date of arrival (payment date + 2 days, more for weekends and public/bank holidays) the actual amount I receive in THB,  the actual exchange rate which is the amount of baht divided by my pension and the KBank Forex rate of the day because KBank is the bank I use

 

Run over a 12 month period it gives me a true monthly balance of what I got paid and an idea of which way the Forex is going. I have also done a line chart for easy reference.

 

It works for me.

[Rajab Al Zarahni]

6 hours ago, thai3 said:

Just got my pension but don't understand how they worked it out, even after going through the book they send. 35 years contributions with 16 opted out, so I would have expected to get at least half of the big increase that started in April. But no instead just an extra 6 quid a week above the old rate. Should I ask them to look at it again or is there some devious formula at work?

Ask them to provide the basis of calculation and ask for a copy of their Internal Resolution Disputes Procedure.

[evadgib]

Some years ago UK Gov occupational pension providers offered a scheme where they would move pensions via Citibank in '2 working days' at a cost of around £2.30 per month. I tried it for a while but gave up & resorted to online tx after one particular Xmas and new year left me waiting for SIX days.

[ignis]

21 hours ago, evadgib said:

Do they have thethe correct IBAN no or Swift code?

 

Yes + printed on the Banks Headed letterhead with there full address, account number codes + copy of my Bank book..  The Branch phone and Fax numbers + the Managers name even his mobile phone number.  had a lot of problems with DWP  and so say pension sent + resent many times but so say returned 21 days later for 5 months.. gave up with Wolverhampton + 30 odd phone calls, and reported the matter to DWP Complaints Department in London since then always arrive on a Wednesday 10 days after 'due' date

[sumrit]

On 8/21/2016 at 6:24 AM, ignis said:

I am still at a loss as to why my State Pension take so long to arrive....... 

 

I have gone back over letter from DWP...... printed out 2016 calender's to mark down the dates...  beginning of the year  up to May Pension day to time it arrived in my BBK Bank account was between 10 - 32 days late, had to phoned a few time to be assured the payment was sent out...

Last 3 months payments, due day is Monday, the money arrives the following week on Wednesday... Eg: payment day was on the 1st August,  Pension was in the account in the morning 10th..

In the past have phoned and sent registered letter to both Newcastle and Wolverhampton, the answer is always the same they use Citi Bank for overseas transfers and this takes 10 - 14 days. 

 

DWP will not accept paying into London Branch, and in 9 months still cannot get an answer as to why not.. they just say Bangkok Bank London is a 3rd Party Bank..........    My Private Pension is paid into London branch and is in my Thai account the following day, never been a problem in 12 months.. I get a automatic email from London Branch, the following day get a SMS from my Thai account stating Private Pension arrived.

 

Still cannot figure out how some can get there Pension on Due day or within 2 or 3 days... mine have never been quicker then 10 days.  My 2016 calender's is now marked down with arriving date. [Not Pension due date]

 

So why can't you get your pension paid into a UK bank account then transfer it to the Bangkok Bank, London Branch straight away yourself?

[sandyf]

On 8/20/2016 at 4:10 PM, Faz said:

 

SCB only have a SWIFT code for their main Bangkok branch, just the same as BKK.

https://www.theswiftcodes.com/thailand/page/2/

 

I frequently do transfers from my Nationwide account to BKK London then forwarded onto my BKK branch A/c.

It has never taken more than 18 hours from making the request to the funds being debited in my branch account.

 

Pensions paid on a Monday to your BKK A/c should reach your branch A/c by Tuesday.

What reference code have you given the DWP.

 

 

My pension is due on a Friday and generally is credited to my account between 09.15 and 09.30 on the Friday morning. It is credited via Bahtnet which comes online at 08.30 in the morning.

I have been getting the pension for 4 years now and on many occasions the rate has been on a steady incline or decline through the night and it has been fairly obvious that the conversion to THB has taken place between midnight and 3am Friday morning Thai time.

Indications are that the payment is available early Friday morning and then queued in the Bahtnet system.

 

Thai banks only use 8 digit Swift codes(Head Office) in retail banking, to include the branch it must be an 11 digit Swift code and in Thailand they are only used in corporate banking.

As already posted the branch code is part of a Thai bank account number so there is no reason why payments cannot be processed directly through to the account but it would be up to each Thai bank on how they distribute the payments.

[billd766]

I got my third pension into the bank yesterday.

 

Exchange rate was 45.315

KBank forex rate yesterday 45.02

 

I still can't figure it out but while I get more than the posted TT rate I am happy.

[dick dasterdly]

I've received a new tax code(s) letter from the HMRC that lists my various pensions, but the 'tax free allowance' given for each company pension doesn't add up to 11,000.  The difference is made up by an extra sentence that says "Income now ended".

 

Does anyone understand this?

 

Edit - The explanatory notes are of no help as the relevant note talks about income that has ceased?  They're pensions, so there is no income that has ceased - and even if this was the case, why should that reduce my personal allowance entitlement?

Edited August 25, 2016 by dick dasterdly

[evadgib]

Published yesterday & presumably relevant to posters on this board

 

Tough new sanctions announced for offshore tax evaders

[evadgib]

Some people are being hit with an unexpected tax bill after unlocking their money from a pension pot, according to Citizens Advice.

Others are facing reductions in welfare payments owing to the income received by releasing the funds.

The so-called pension freedoms began in April 2015.

Since then, anyone aged 55 and over has been free to withdraw as much as they like from their pension pots, subject to income tax.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37173896

Edited August 25, 2016 by evadgib

[sandyf]

On 8/24/2016 at 1:59 PM, billd766 said:

I got my third pension into the bank yesterday.

 

Exchange rate was 45.315

KBank forex rate yesterday 45.02

 

I still can't figure it out but while I get more than the posted TT rate I am happy.

I got my state pension this morning, a day earlier than due because of the UK bank holiday. Came in at 45.44.

Not sure about the other providers but the state pension is done at international exchange rates rather than Thai bank rates.

[Ricardo]

2 hours ago, evadgib said:

Some people are being hit with an unexpected tax bill after unlocking their money from a pension pot, according to Citizens Advice.

Others are facing reductions in welfare payments owing to the income received by releasing the funds.

The so-called pension freedoms began in April 2015.

Since then, anyone aged 55 and over has been free to withdraw as much as they like from their pension pots, subject to income tax.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37173896

 

Thanks for the link  ...

 

"A report by Citizens Advice looked into the cases of 500 people who have accessed their pension pots.

Of those, 9% had unexpected tax issues and 6% found that their benefits were affected."

 

I don't think Thai-based people would be getting any benefits anyway, would they ?  And anyone else wanting to draw part of the taxable-75% of a policy, should really have worked-out beforehand whether that would then put them above their Personal-Allowance. So it ought not to have come as any surprise !

 

In my own case, I withdrew 100% of a small policy in 2015-16,  75% was taxed but the tax was then repaid by HMRC after the year-end, since I had no other UK-income. 

 

When drawing on a slightly-larger policy in a few years' time, I plan to limit the withdrawl from within the taxable-75%, so that my total  taxable-income remains lower than my Personal-Allowance and no further tax-liability arises. This will mean taking a few years to draw down the policy completely. It's not rocket-science, is it ?

 

The article ends with  ...  " Earlier in the month, the Association of British Insurers - which represents many pension companies, said that a minority of those aged 55 and over were withdrawing too much from their pension pots. ".   Well, in the words of Mandy Rice-Davies, they would say that wouldn't they, given that their members might prefer to administer your pension-savings ?

 

[Kwasaki]

5 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

I've received a new tax code(s) letter from the HMRC that lists my various pensions, but the 'tax free allowance' given for each company pension doesn't add up to 11,000.  The difference is made up by an extra sentence that says "Income now ended".

 

Does anyone understand this?

 

Edit - The explanatory notes are of no help as the relevant note talks about income that has ceased?  They're pensions, so there is no income that has ceased - and even if this was the case, why should that reduce my personal allowance entitlement?

 

How can anyone understand a letter from HMRC.

 

You shouldn't be so rich. 

[billd766]

5 hours ago, sandyf said:

I got my state pension this morning, a day earlier than due because of the UK bank holiday. Came in at 45.44.

Not sure about the other providers but the state pension is done at international exchange rates rather than Thai bank rates.

 

I have no idea who actually does the exchange rates but my pensions are transferred to Thailand as £GBP and the rate that I quote is the actual rate that the KBank pays into my account. That is the amount of cash deposited in my account divided by the amount of my £GBP State pension.

 

It varies from the KBank forex rate for some reason unknown to me but it is usually higher that the daily forex rate from KBank and lower than the mid rates given by the XE currency converter. Additionally all the Thai banks have a slightly different exchange rate from each other.

[dick dasterdly]

17 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

 

How can anyone understand a letter from HMRC.

 

You shouldn't be so rich. 

Agree with the first para. , and I can only reply 'I wish' to the second para.!

[SgtRock]

23 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

I've received a new tax code(s) letter from the HMRC that lists my various pensions, but the 'tax free allowance' given for each company pension doesn't add up to 11,000.  The difference is made up by an extra sentence that says "Income now ended".

 

Does anyone understand this?

 

No, this does not make any sense.

 

Your tax code and tax free allowance is issued to a person, not individual pensions / incomes.

 

Eg: your tax free allowance is 11500, your tax code will be XXXXXXX which reflects your tax free amount.

 

Separate incomes are then added together, your tax code applied, which then dictates how much tax you pay.

 

It might be an idea to post a copy of this letter, minus any personal info, as it stands it does not seem to make any sense.

[dick dasterdly]

10 minutes ago, SgtRock said:

 

No, this does not make any sense.

 

Your tax code and tax free allowance is issued to a person, not individual pensions / incomes.

 

Eg: your tax free allowance is 11500, your tax code will be XXXXXXX which reflects your tax free amount.

 

Separate incomes are then added together, your tax code applied, which then dictates how much tax you pay.

 

It might be an idea to post a copy of this letter, minus any personal info, as it stands it does not seem to make any sense.

Sadly, I've no idea how to post copies of letters , but the main points are:-

 

Personal Allowance                     11,000

 

Pension provider 'x'    9908 of this income is tax-free

Pension provider 'x'    0 of this income is tax-free

etc.

Income Now Ended    1192

 

This totals your tax-free amount 11,000

[SgtRock]

34 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

Sadly, I've no idea how to post copies of letters , but the main points are:-

 

Personal Allowance                     11,000

 

Pension provider 'x'    9908 of this income is tax-free

Pension provider 'x'    0 of this income is tax-free

etc.

Income Now Ended    1192

 

This totals your tax-free amount 11,000

 

I have never seen this, so I cannot really give any advice.

 

I can tell you that HMRC  automatically applied my tax free allowance to my pension as this was guaranteed income and my salary had no tax free allowance. This was about 10 years ago, so things might have changed.

 

Quote

I've received a new tax code(s) letter from the HMRC that lists my various pensions, but the 'tax free allowance' given for each company pension doesn't add up to 11,000.  The difference is made up by an extra sentence that says "Income now ended".

 

You should look again at:

 

1. Above you said etc, that suggest missing info.

2. Are you sure the letter( S ) are from HMRC and are not just advisory from your pension provider?

3. How many tax codes did you receive and are they different ?

4. It is also a possibility that you could be missing mail and that HMRC have assessed that you owe them money. In the case of no contact they could simply have adjusted your tax code to reclaim the money.

 

Something to look at.

[dick dasterdly]

23 minutes ago, SgtRock said:

 

I have never seen this, so I cannot really give any advice.

 

I can tell you that HMRC  automatically applied my tax free allowance to my pension as this was guaranteed income and my salary had no tax free allowance. This was about 10 years ago, so things might have changed.

 

 

You should look again at:

 

1. Above you said etc, that suggest missing info.

2. Are you sure the letter( S ) are from HMRC and are not just advisory from your pension provider?

3. How many tax codes did you receive and are they different ?

4. It is also a possibility that you could be missing mail and that HMRC have assessed that you owe them money. In the case of no contact they could simply have adjusted your tax code to reclaim the money.

 

Something to look at.

Many thanks SgtRock.

 

The 'etc.' line was just to repeat the same line as the first pension provider.  I receive income from three pension providers, and the line for the second and third pension providers in the HMRC letter were the same "0 of this income is tax-free".

 

Yes, the letter is from HMRC and whilst the first pension provider has been given a 'proper' tax code 980L - the others have been given BR and BR X.

 

It seems unlikely that I owe them money as my only income is from the pension providers, and even the last to be claimed started a couple of years ago and HMRC included them in previous notifications.

 

HMRC's 'contact us' info. basically boils down to 'phone us' - as I haven't found a way to contact them via the web sites .

 

Unfortunately, experience tells me that 'phoning HMRC will end up with 'holding' for a long time, followed by being transferred frequently.  Expensive when living in Thailand....

 

Fortunately, the envelope has a 'return to' address - so I think I'll have to try writing to that address.

Edited August 26, 2016 by dick dasterdly

[SgtRock]

18 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

Yes, the letter is from HMRC and whilst the first pension provider has been given a 'proper' tax code 980L - the others have been given BR and BR X.

 

If your 1st pension eats up you tax free allowance then the BR for subsequent pensions is correct.

 

As there is a small discrepancy between your allowance £11,000 and the £9908 applied to your 1st pension, that suggest to me that HMRC are deducting money as they believe you have a tax underpayment. I think I am correct in saying that this could possibly go back up to 5 years.

 

If you are from the UK and you have no intention of going back, I would suggest that you get an accountant to deal with your UK tax / pensions. Mine costs less than £ 500 a year, they email me a form once a year which I fill in with the dates that I return to the UK, send back and they do everything else. Worth every penny.

[Oxx]

1 hour ago, SgtRock said:

If you are from the UK and you have no intention of going back, I would suggest that you get an accountant to deal with your UK tax / pensions. Mine costs less than £ 500 a year, they email me a form once a year which I fill in with the dates that I return to the UK, send back and they do everything else. Worth every penny.

 

I really can't imagine the sort of tax affairs you have that justify GBP 500/year for filling in a tax return (where you do part of the work).

 

My UK tax affairs are fairly complicated, but it takes me less than 30 minutes to complete the forms (excluding time to download them and print them off, and time to take them to the post office).

 

I may have been highly paid in a previous existence, but for something pretty trivial GBP 1000/hour rarely hit the mark.

[dick dasterdly]

1 hour ago, SgtRock said:

 

If your 1st pension eats up you tax free allowance then the BR for subsequent pensions is correct.

 

As there is a small discrepancy between your allowance £11,000 and the £9908 applied to your 1st pension, that suggest to me that HMRC are deducting money as they believe you have a tax underpayment. I think I am correct in saying that this could possibly go back up to 5 years.

 

If you are from the UK and you have no intention of going back, I would suggest that you get an accountant to deal with your UK tax / pensions. Mine costs less than £ 500 a year, they email me a form once a year which I fill in with the dates that I return to the UK, send back and they do everything else. Worth every penny.

In previous years the tax free allowance was largely given to the first supplier, with a smaller amount given to another.

 

Anyway, it seems obvious that I'm going to write to HMRC to find out what's going on.

 

Please god the employees have improved, and are able to respond intelligently to a letter .

[SgtRock]

6 minutes ago, Oxx said:

 

I really can't imagine the sort of tax affairs you have that justify GBP 500/year for filling in a tax return (where you do part of the work).

 

My UK tax affairs are fairly complicated, but it takes me less than 30 minutes to complete the forms (excluding time to download them and print them off, and time to take them to the post office).

 

I may have been highly paid in a previous existence, but for something pretty trivial GBP 1000/hour rarely hit the mark.

 

Because you misread my post.

 

I do not file or fill in tax returns. It is all done for me. I have no contact with HMRC. It takes me 30 secs to do the paperwork.

 

Each to their own, I consider it a bargain.

 

[SgtRock]

5 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

In previous years the tax free allowance was largely given to the first supplier, with a smaller amount given to another.

 

Anyway, it seems obvious that I'm going to write to HMRC to find out what's going on.

 

Please god the employees have improved, and are able to respond intelligently to a letter .

 

That is the only way you will get an answer.

[sandyf]

3 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

Sadly, I've no idea how to post copies of letters , but the main points are:-

 

Personal Allowance                     11,000

 

Pension provider 'x'    9908 of this income is tax-free

Pension provider 'x'    0 of this income is tax-free

etc.

Income Now Ended    1192

 

This totals your tax-free amount 11,000

I would suggest that your notice looks something like below. Your first pension provider income is less than the allowance so the difference would be allocated elsewhere. From the text it would appear that they have allocated the £1192 against an income you have received but is now terminated. If that is not the case then it should be applied to pension number 2, if they don't do it then you will have to claim it back. This is something I have to do every year because they do not take into account my pension is frozen.

 

 

[Oxx]

11 minutes ago, SgtRock said:

 

Because you misread my post.

 

I do not file or fill in tax returns. It is all done for me. I have no contact with HMRC. It takes me 30 secs to do the paperwork.

 

Each to their own, I consider it a bargain.

 

 

Perhaps you're the one with a certain challenge in reading English.

 

You wrote "they email me a form once a year which I fill in with the dates that I return to the UK".

 

Perhaps that takes you 30 seconds, though for me it takes a bit longer just to find my passport.

 

And you haven't explained what work the GBP 500 pays for.

 

Only someone with pretty complicated affairs would find that sort of fee remotely justifiable.

[SgtRock]

1 hour ago, Oxx said:

 

Perhaps you're the one with a certain challenge in reading English.

 

You wrote "they email me a form once a year which I fill in with the dates that I return to the UK".

 

Perhaps that takes you 30 seconds, though for me it takes a bit longer just to find my passport.

 

And you haven't explained what work the GBP 500 pays for.

 

Only someone with pretty complicated affairs would find that sort of fee remotely justifiable.

 

You should have tried reading the whole paragraph.

 

3 hours ago, SgtRock said:

If you are from the UK and you have no intention of going back, I would suggest that you get an accountant to deal with your UK tax / pensions. Mine costs less than £ 500 a year, they email me a form once a year which I fill in with the dates that I return to the UK, send back and they do everything else. Worth every penny.

 

Not really interested in how bad your personal admin is that it takes you longer than 30 seconds to locate your passport.

 

It takes me less than 30 second to write '' No dates applicable this year '' or '' 15 July - 08 Aug '' scan and send back to my accountant.

 

What the fee is for, and what my tax affairs are, are none of your business. Suffice to say that everything is legitimate

[topt]

On ‎26‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 1:55 PM, dick dasterdly said:

 

 

Unfortunately, experience tells me that 'phoning HMRC will end up with 'holding' for a long time, followed by being transferred frequently.  Expensive when living in Thailand....

 

Fortunately, the envelope has a 'return to' address - so I think I'll have to try writing to that address.

 

You may be waiting a long time for an answer which of course may not be an issue. As a suggestion though you may want to consider buying credit on Skype out and using that which I eventually did and found it very cost effective. My last call was 24 minutes and cost me 40p - 0.014p per minute is the standard to UK rate excluding any possible connection charges.

Edited August 29, 2016 by topt
typo