If you are a Brit you cannot hide - scary !!

[thai3]

delete

Edited January 14, 2017 by thai3

[i claudius]

Overall, some 7,296 British nationals were accused of fiddling their benefits in 157 countries and regions worldwide with the most common cases involving bogus claims for pension credit, housing benefit and income support.
http://www.chiangraitimes.com/uk-cracks-down-on-expat-pension-benefit-fraud.html?fdx_switcher=true

I see that most were benefit frauds,and the ones who fiddled 140000 pounds got a massive 4 month jail sentence

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[LongTimeLurker]

On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 2:48 PM, thai3 said:

UK and overseas bank accounts: From this year it receives information from banks in more than 60 countries.

 

I wonder if that includes Thailand? 

 

Banks are only required to report to your country of residence, so if you are not resident in UK they will not report to UK tax authorities.

[elliss]

On 1/13/2017 at 7:59 PM, Oxx said:

 

Curious.  Can you think of any reason you've been singled out for special treatment?

 

There are lots of expat holders of Nationwide accounts (including myself), and this is the first time I've heard of anyone being asked for proof of their UK address.

 

I do wonder whether this is in any way connected to the closure of Nationwide International.

 

  Proof  of   residence  is the reason.     I enquired  at my local Nationwide office .

       reply ,   all  Banks  and  Building societies  are know required 

            to have  confirmation , proof positive , of  where  their  clients  reside .

                Utility  bills ,  community  payments, etc 

         This  is  nothing to do with payment of taxes .

Edited January 14, 2017 by elliss

[NanLaew]

12 minutes ago, elliss said:

 

  Proof  of   residence  is the reason.     I enquired  at my local Nationwide office .

       reply ,   all  Banks  and  Building societies  are know required 

            to have  confirmation , proof positive , of  where  their  clients  reside .

                Utility  bills ,  community  payments, etc 

         This  is  nothing to do with payment of taxes .

 

Yes. The reason all the banks want to know exactly where you live is so they can send you a birthday card.

[LongTimeLurker]

On ‎13‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 9:47 AM, evadgib said:

 

Banks might appreciate the irony if their own Headded correspondence is tendered in return  :)

 

555

 

One time when asked for proof of address from Lloyds I sent them back their own letter asking for proof of address.

 

They did appreciate the irony and accepted it !!!

[gk10002000]

On 1/12/2017 at 6:00 PM, lopburi3 said:

Actually in USA that can vary by state.  In Florida believe it was 2k during the 90's due drug money issues and may well still be (have not returned).  So really nothing new - just the technology is getting better and much more real time.

In the USA if you go to a US Post Office and attempt to buy 3k or money orders, you will have to fill out a long form!  I tried it once, asked for the form out of curiosity and then I told the guy, never mind, I will just buy 2,900.  He said he can't let me do that since I originally asked for 3,000!  I said show me the policy or directive that tells you to do that.  He wouldn't, and of course couldn't.  He said I could come back tomorrow and by 2,900!  Stupid mindless minion.  I said so you mean you can but won't do it.   So I went two miles down the road and bought the money orders at the next Post Office.

[chiang mai]

7 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

 

Banks are only required to report to your country of residence, so if you are not resident in UK they will not report to UK tax authorities.

 

Overseas banks are not required to report to a customers country of residence, unless the bank AND the country are part of an international information sharing agreement amongst banks. As far as I am aware Thailand is not a party to any such agreement with the UK.

[Savilesghost]

17 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

 

Banks are only required to report to your country of residence, so if you are not resident in UK they will not report to UK tax authorities.

 

Oh yes they will, I am non resident in the UK, havent set foot in the country in 15 years, have no bank accounts/property and bank in Singapore and have already been warned by my bank in Singapore  my info will be passed to the UK HMRC as i have a British passport from 2018 onwards under this "new agreement" 

 

The banks dont care about your country of residence in this case, its all to do with the passport/citizenship...so lets say in case of a bank in Singapore, they will pass all the details of all the British pp holders who have accounts

 

Its seems HMRC will receive name, address and balance(s) of any accounts you hold, whether they decide to do anything with the info as regards investigation remains to be seen, in my case they are welcome to contact me and kiss my lilly white bum, theres nothing they do to me 

 

 

[Savilesghost]

10 hours ago, chiang mai said:

 

Overseas banks are not required to report to a customers country of residence, unless the bank AND the country are part of an international information sharing agreement amongst banks. As far as I am aware Thailand is not a party to any such agreement with the UK.

In terms of the agreement under discussion, Thailand is not a signatory to this agreement, therefore Thai banks are not obligated to release mass data of all British passport holders with accounts in Thai banks

[Savilesghost]

20 hours ago, i claudius said:

 

I see that most were benefit frauds,and the ones who fiddled 140000 pounds got a massive 4 month jail sentence

Sent from my ASUS_T00J using Tapatalk
 

 

4 months will be like a life sentence for a 75 year old coffin dodger LOL

[i claudius]

4 months will be like a life sentence for a 75 year old coffin dodger LOL

Don't believe it ,open prison for fraudsters,a bit like Butlins,or so I have been told,lol

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[thai3]

They are not going to start extraditing pensioners in handcuffs for fiddling a few hundred quid over several years

[chiang mai]

41 minutes ago, thai3 said:

They are not going to start extraditing pensioners in handcuffs for fiddling a few hundred quid over several years

 

I agree they probably wont go to that extreme but just like in America, in the future it could become very difficult to renew a passport or continue receiving pension payments until the matter has been dealt with.

[i claudius]

1 hour ago, chiang mai said:

 

I agree they probably wont go to that extreme but just like in America, in the future it could become very difficult to renew a passport or continue receiving pension payments until the matter has been dealt with.

 

I did hear (although i dont know how true it is) that they cannot stop a pension  or not leave you destitute .

by the way that link to the chiangrai times is from 2014 is it not? i also read a report how they were cracking down ,that was from 2008 and another a few years later , ,i must say the level of the fraud 58 million , pales into insignificance  when you look at what the British govt give out to other countries , if 9 million for the Ethiopian spice girls , and a junket for 1.8 million pounds in todays papers for some people who give out the cash .

[Savilesghost]

1 hour ago, thai3 said:

They are not going to start extraditing pensioners in handcuffs for fiddling a few hundred quid over several years

Most likely not, but they can recover the money that has been defrauded, and given the "dodgy finanical status" of some  UK pensioners in Thailand, coupled with a poor exchange rate, if they start taking the cash back by deducting amounts from the pension, this would be the end of some in Thailand 

[Savilesghost]

19 hours ago, elliss said:

 

  Proof  of   residence  is the reason.     I enquired  at my local Nationwide office .

       reply ,   all  Banks  and  Building societies  are know required 

            to have  confirmation , proof positive , of  where  their  clients  reside .

                Utility  bills ,  community  payments, etc 

         This  is  nothing to do with payment of taxes .

Its everything to do with taxes, money laundering etc 

[chiang mai]

14 minutes ago, i claudius said:

 

I did hear (although i dont know how true it is) that they cannot stop a pension  or not leave you destitute .

by the way that link to the chiangrai times is from 2014 is it not? i also read a report how they were cracking down ,that was from 2008 and another a few years later , ,i must say the level of the fraud 58 million , pales into insignificance  when you look at what the British govt give out to other countries , if 9 million for the Ethiopian spice girls , and a junket for 1.8 million pounds in todays papers for some people who give out the cash .

 

I think you're mistaken on the 58 million, that's just the amount lost to pension fraud as a result of overseas deaths not being reported and the pension continuing to be paid to someone else. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-money/11486682/Expats-have-nine-months-to-clock-in-or-lose-their-state-pension.html

 

"When the Government introduced the measure it said the regime would save taxpayers £45m between 2014 and 2017. "

Edited January 15, 2017 by chiang mai

[SaintLouisBlues]

11 minutes ago, chiang mai said:

"When the Government introduced the measure it said the regime would save taxpayers £45m between 2014 and 2017. "

How many times have you heard a politician quote a big number to justify a policy they're introducing?

[i claudius]

45 million over 3 years is a pinprick,I bet it cost almost that much to stop it, mind you when you die here aren't the British Embassy,informed?

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[Savilesghost]

16 minutes ago, i claudius said:

45 million over 3 years is a pinprick,I bet it cost almost that much to stop it, mind you when you die here aren't the British Embassy,informed?

Sent from my ASUS_T00J using Tapatalk
 

Legally they are suppose to be informed 

[chiang mai]

I think the point is that the scale of Pension and Benefits fraud is massive and a recovery of 48 or 56 million is only one aspect of that recovery. Government produces fraud assessment reports, the latest is linked below which takes a while to understand but benefits fraud in some areas of governement spend are understood to be as much as 25%. Given that level of loss, fraud at all levels is going to become the number one target, almost certainly:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fraud-and-error-in-the-benefit-system

 

Note: you'll need to weave your way through their reporting system to get to what you want to read.

 

 

[i claudius]

1 hour ago, Savilesghost said:

Most likely not, but they can recover the money that has been defrauded, and given the "dodgy finanical status" of some  UK pensioners in Thailand, coupled with a poor exchange rate, if they start taking the cash back by deducting amounts from the pension, this would be the end of some in Thailand 

 

Just a thought ,but Old Percy the pensioner gets caught and his pension is reverted to when he came here also he has to pay back say 50 quid a month , so has to return to the UK , pension goes back up to tadays rate , he has nowhere to live so local council has to put him in B and B what 200 quid a week , free NHS ,free glasses , free bus pass , free prescriptions  etc etc , would have been cheaper to turn a blind eye

[Savilesghost]

5 minutes ago, i claudius said:

 

Just a thought ,but Old Percy the pensioner gets caught and his pension is reverted to when he came here also he has to pay back say 50 quid a month , so has to return to the UK , pension goes back up to tadays rate , he has nowhere to live so local council has to put him in B and B what 200 quid a week , free NHS ,free glasses , free bus pass , free prescriptions  etc etc , would have been cheaper to turn a blind eye

Maybe 

[thai3]

Pay back the over payment, reduce the amount to when it's agreed you left the UK, end of. If they ever do scrap the personal allowance and start taking back 20% of pensions in tax I can see a lot with no option but to go back.

Edited January 15, 2017 by thai3

[chiang mai]

1 hour ago, i claudius said:

 

Just a thought ,but Old Percy the pensioner gets caught and his pension is reverted to when he came here also he has to pay back say 50 quid a month , so has to return to the UK , pension goes back up to tadays rate , he has nowhere to live so local council has to put him in B and B what 200 quid a week , free NHS ,free glasses , free bus pass , free prescriptions  etc etc , would have been cheaper to turn a blind eye

 

And maybe not. Residency rules are being applied more and more and exclusions for a number of years result, the habitual residency test can be a significant hurdle: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/coming-from-abroad-and-claiming-benefits-the-habitual-residence-test/the-habitual-residence-test-an-introduction/what-is-the-habitual-residence-test/

[i claudius]

I can't see a problem for some pensioner who spent most of his life in the UK ,was born there and paid tax and NI all his life,just returning home ,they wouldn't leave some 70 year old on the street,

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[elliss]

2 hours ago, i claudius said:

returning home ,they wouldn't leave some 70 year old on the street,
 

 

        Really .

[chiang mai]

7 hours ago, i claudius said:

I can't see a problem for some pensioner who spent most of his life in the UK ,was born there and paid tax and NI all his life,just returning home ,they wouldn't leave some 70 year old on the street,

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Why wouldn't they?

[i claudius]

5 hours ago, chiang mai said:

 

Why wouldn't they?

 

Just collapse in the airport with "chest pains" off to hospital , and then get discharged to the street? just ring the Daily Mail ,they would love it