Best Posts in Thread: Frozen UK state pensions

I did just that and it was a disaster.

The bank (OCBC) tried to persuade me to convert my GBP to SGP or USD (commissions for them I assume) - this was at the time the GBP was at about 58 pesos! I said I would wait but they insisted that the pound would crash further very soon. They were wrong.

They phoned me regularly for a chat but I guess were just trying to get me to convert my cash. Then they swapped my 'Advice Manager' to a lady with a very strong Chinese accent and I could not clearly understand what she was saying. I emailed them and asked if they could contact me via email as I had a difficulty in understanding the accent.

A while later I received a text to say all my money was being withdrawn and as as it was a substantial sum I was very alarmed. I phoned them at once to tell them it was a false withdrawal and discovered that it was because they were closing my account - and intended to send the money back to me by cheque (those things that they say they want to phase out!). I told them I was not living at the address currently and so they said they would send it to me in the Philippines and that it would be via normal post and not a courier. I had transferred the money originally by wire transfer and so asked them to send it back the same way - they refused (in fact they were extremely unpleasant all the time during this matter). I even faked an illness to get them to be more sympathetic but as they were Chinese they had no concept of that.

I then contacted the UK branch where I had signed documents to open the account but they said each country was a separate entity - however they said they would try to help. The money was then sent back to me via wire transfer. Phew!

Banks are interested only if we do with OUR money what THEY want us to do. Two months after this debacle the pound rose briefly to 74 pesos and at that time I would have done the conversion. :(

So my advice is to be very wary about opening accounts abroad and NEVER deal with the Chinese.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with your statement NMRN - I lived and worked in China for a considerable period of time and, to make things easier, opened a bank account with a Chinese bank. To cut a long story short - I transferred some money from my personal UK account whilst, at the same time my company transferred a similar amount to the same account - but when I went to the bank only one transaction apperared. I questioned the teller and asked to see the manager. The manager accused me of trying to defraud the bank and withheld my passport - luckily my interpreter was also part of the "security police" and he recovered my passport but it took 7 months for the whole debacle to be sorted - 7 months without access to money!

 

People should not be punished for leaving a country to live elsewhere if previous to that they contributed for many years via taxes and NI contributions (another tax actually).

We are told that if we return we have to pay for NHS treatment and yet someone who started paying NI contributions a week before is entitled - I guess that is especially the case if you enter illegally.

Benefits (and that includes the State Pension as it is deemed a benefit and not a right - thus can be frozen or removed at any time) should depend to some extent on previous contributions and not on where we choose to live. They tax the State Pension wherever we live and so appear to want it both ways - tax us as residents and yet not treat us as residents at the same time.

And if ever anyone wants to check on residence v domicile then best of luck - even the experts struggle with that one.

 

I came across this petition to stop freezing the pensions of UK citizens who have chosen to not live in the UK or in one of the countries on the list of places where their pension will not be frozen. (see screenshots)
What amazes me is that up until now only 3215 out of 500,000 people affected by this have signed it, this can only mean that over 400,000 of them don't know about it.
We are lucky here in the Philippines as we are on the list but that might not be forever as things change.
The way things are going my children who are in their thirties will probably never see a UK state pension, mind you the way things are going in Londonstan there might not be a UK or at least not as we know it but thats a different subject, the reason i am posting this is because i would urge people on this forum (UK citizens) to sign this and to also share it on any social media platforms they may use.


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We are treated badly as citizens in the UK - often having FAR less rights than minorities - and treated even more badly should we decide to live abroad for a period of time. But what can we do? It is interesting to note that in 2019 there were 233,000 registered expat voters and this may increase due to the abolition of the rule that withdrew the right to vote from those who lived outside the UK for 15 years or more.

There are many marginal seats that can swing with just 1000 votes! The problem for the next General Election is that the current trend is for a massive Labour victory, whereby marginal seats will have no effect on the overall results.

But if the trend changes or there is a future election where marginal seats play a role, expats should use their votes to get the promise of some rights. After all, we are not too bothered about the mass of lies (called a "Manifesto") UK residents are promised but now only our rights as expats.

 

That's one of the problems with state pensions everywhere Stefan.
Pensioners consider them a right "because they paid for it", but in reality their payments didn't go into a pension-fund at all, but were used to pay out state pensions to other people.
More explanation here.

 

This is a very serious matter and could affect all of us more or less in the future.

Freezing pensions of people that atr living abroad in certain countries is one thing. Not approving bank or minex transfers would be another thing.

Technically it would be easy to arrange it and the list of countries that are on the list could change by the day.

I don't know what to do about. Don't see many opportunities to escape. Maybe opening a bank account in Singapore or similar places would be an option.

It's very sad what is going on in UK and certainly other European countries will follow.
It started that freedom of speech and freedom of opinions got in fact canceled. Money control is another thing. What will be next ?