Benson55

You need to go online to the UK government pensions site and fill in a form which you print out and post in and they will send it back advising what contributions you can make and by when.
You don't need a UK address or a UK agent as you can send a Sterling Bank draft to HMRC when you make a payment.
Its a very good investment.

Davita

It isn't such a good investment if retired to one of the countries where the pension is not indexed for UK inflation....like Canada and Australia.

Whereas pensioners, retired to any god-forsaken country in EU, get the annual increase.

Editha

I don't know why Davita thinks EU countries are 'god-forsaken', but the annual increase depends on EU membership, so it won't continue for much longer.

Pulaski

I missed where the USA joined the EU.

The indexation of pensions has nothing to do with membership of the EU, though it is certainly possible that indexation might end when Brexit happens.

Editha

Pulaski, sometimes I could swear you are being deliberately obtuse.

Whether or not an expat receives the annual increase to their state pension depends on whether the UK has an agreement with the country concerned. The UK has agreements with the USA and with the EEA (European Economic Area). The agreement with the EEA will be voided by Brexit, unless we remain part of the EEA, which seems unlikely.

The UK has not made any fresh agreements regarding the pension increases for something like 35 years. It is unlikely that once the current agreement is void that a fresh one will be made.

Pulaski

Both of us, in common with pretty much all regular and frequent posters, post abbreviated information from time to time.

Your longer explanation is perfectly correct, I was only indicating the linking indexation to EU membership, as you did, is potentially misleading. And I would contend that Spain and Portugal, and perhaps other countries have a vested interest in negotiating fresh bilateral agreements with the UK post Brexit.

Editha

Every country that British ex-pats are settled in has an interest in negotiating an agreement with the UK on pension increases. The problem for the last 35 years has been that the UK doesn't.

Pulaski

Well maybe someone in the government will realize that the UK doesn't need hundreds of thousands of elderly expats repatriating in their twilight years when the money starts to tun out and that continuing to outsource their care to the Iberian peninsula makes economic sense.

Editha

You'd think so, but the depreciation of sterling is even more likely to force the ex-pats to return.

Pulaski

I don't believe that problem is permanent, and in any case even if pensioners are poorer with their depressed sterling pensions, they might still be better off in Spain or Portugal if they would have to fund their own housing costs in the UK. Someone who had retained their home in the UK and rented it out would be in a stronger position.

Editha

Which is another reason the UK gov is unlikely to enter any fresh agreements on pension agreements with the EU countries (I think it would probably be an agreement with the EU as a whole, not individual states). Because, it is just one factor affecting the finances of ex-pats and in most cases not the most important one.

But overall I think there will be a significant number of ex-pat retirees who decide to come home. There is the depreciation of the pound, the loss of pension increase, and the loss of medical benefits. Also some ex-pats may simply lose the right to live in the EU country they've settled in; May has threatened to use EU nationals living in the UK as bargaining chips, and what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

mrken30

May may give up the Pension treaty arrangements in return for market access and giving up FOM.

Editha

If I understand you correctly, you think May might agree to continue the pension increases for ex-pat retirees in Europe, in return for access to the single market despite ending freedom of movement?

You think she'd get all that for such a small concession? Dream on.

mrken30

No I don't but she doesn't have much to bargain with.

Pulaski

Other than access to the world's fifth largest economy, and which has greater growth potential than other countries in Europe.