woodiesinaus

[QUOTE=kporte;8428171]I think we all need to get used to the idea that pensions will soon be a thing of the past.

Why? The UK state pension is billions in the black and Labour have imported over 4 million young imo's into the country to keep paying the taxes.
There is no funding issue.

renth

Anybody with a basic understanding of economics. It's what happens when you start printing money to pay off your debts.

Wol

But not, apparently, when you invoke the phrase "Quantitative Easing".

*That's* different. It's why the UK economy is in such robust good health.

In fact, it's been so successful that I think that nice Mr Brown will continue to quantitatively ease sterling after he gets back into Downing Street.

Hino

Hi Martin, could you please expand on this. I did 'pay my stamps' for a few years before leaving UK, but I'd always assumed, that I hadn't enough contributions to receive even a part pension ?

This is the first I've heard about the "One year and eleven year rules "

If I only managed to get a mere $20 a week out of the UK scheme, it would be more than enough to pay for a half way decent bottle of Chardonnay, some Spanish olives and Australian sundried tomatoes and garlic bread as the perfect accompliment.

Jut the menu for a extended lunch, sitting in the sun, gazing out over beautiful Lake Macquarie, while reflecting on the generosity of the UK Government

Amazulu

I think his lying about not cutting defence spending might have done in his chances of getting re-elected.

Then again this is the UK we are talking about. If the UK public elects Brown they are f**king idiots and deserve all that is coming to them if they do.

paulry

I would be absolutely amazed if he get's re-elected. But then again a lot of people have a lot of debt and lower interest rates is the perception of what Brown has to offer so who knows? It cant be easy for such people to vote for increased interest rates.

lesleys

If you die whilst accumulating the lump sum it goes to your estate. You don't have to state how long you want to defer it for, or whether you will take the lump sum or the increased pension, when you first defer it. You just claim it when you want it.

kporte

[QUOTE=woodiesinaus;8430656] I'm not talking about today or next week.

MartinLuther

Here you go.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/pension...ions-act-2007/

It used to be that you had to pay in a quarter of the qualifying years (i.e. 11 out of 44 for men) to get any fraction of the Basic State pension but this requirement has now been removed.

MartinLuther

At least those of us with frozen pensions won't be as badly off as those on a decent salary in the UK who won't be allowed to contract out from 2012 (and forced into the capped Second State Pension).

tomar

Just want to point a couple of things out about the frozen pension. Quite a few pensioners here in Australia are on the 410 retirement visa, which is always a temporary visa. As such the tax position is different, and some of us actually still pay UK tax and not tax here. So we are still UK tax payers!
If you go back to UK for a visit, you inform the relevant dept. and on arrival in UK, your state pension is upped to what it should be had you never left. Then from the day you leave again, it reverts back to it's frozen amount!!!! Yes it is worth claiming even if you are only there for a short time. It's yours.
I still think the point is, that no where was it stated when you started to pay your national insurance contribution, that it would only be index linked if you lived in certain countries. So after a working life time of paying the full amount, I would still like to know, when the conditions were imposed, and who decided which countries would or would not be eligible, and on which basis the decisions were made.

cliffyboy

Quote

["The applicants did not contribute to the UK economy in particular, they paid no UK tax to offset the cost of any increase in the pension"

European Court of Human Rights]

If the above is really what was said in the European Court Of Human Rights in relation to this judgement, then no wonder this world is rotten to its core.

Did these people making this decision go to university or were their qualifications obtained from the back of cereal boxes for the disingenuous, the dishonest, the cretinous?

In no way is the indexing of a person's pension, whether they live in the U.K., Timbuktu or Mars, an increase: if the purchasing power of your pension is not maintained, then in actual fact you are being discriminated against by receiving a cut or reduction in your pension, unlike residents in the U.K. and other countries. This fact is not rocket science.

The indexing of a person's pension does not deliver an increase, it simply maintains its original purchasing power, so the fact that you did not contribute to the English economy or paid no tax in the years following your pension, is totally irrelevant because you are not asking for an increase anyway, you are not asking for more. That is why this judgement is manifestly faulty, because it rests on the principle that you are. Amazingly, given supposedly educated pepole, their focus is on the pension's likely numerical 'increase', not its original value or purchasing power which, and it should go without question, is where it should be. The European Court's focus was on the pension figure instead of what it can buy.

Obviously, implicit in the sum you finally qualify for, is the value and purchasing power of that sum, which in actual fact, with indexing, really remains the same, and so it obviously should. It is the original pension sum you receive that should set the agenda, not the increase in annual inflation or the CPI figures. They are actually beside the point so that if England's annual rate of inflation is 5% and where I live is 4%, I, quite rightly, should only receive a 4% adjustment. It won't buy me more but never, ever should it buy me less.

There are also two other facts, only one of which I will give here.

1. The very same people making this judgement, man and woman, would have overwhelmingly found in our favour if all the circumstances present today were exactly the same except that Britain had not joined the Common Market and

koalakim

Oh so I see...everyone who is in Europe, The States etc continued to pay UK tax then after they left? Right.........What a load of tosh! It's nothing to do with it!

and we all paid a hell of a lot of tax before we did leave!

Hino

Thanks for the link. The changes to the qualifying years only effect people reaching retirement age after April 2010.

Anyone reaching retirement age before this date are still subject to the old conditions.

Looks like I'll have to buy my own lunch.

MartinLuther

Sorry, you look younger