TextualHealing

There was a time some six years ago when I had a UK consultancy project - priced in pounds. The pound dropped in value by about 30% between signing the contract and getting the first payment. Ouch working on that contract hurt me! My clients were kind and understood the situation and did make an ex-gratia payment in part-compensation.

Chti Anglais

Am I missing something or has the pension age changed? I'm 58 next month and expecting my state pension at 66.

EuroTrash

Your pension age depends on your birthday. Not sure what the cut off date is for men, when it goes up from 66 to 67.

Chti Anglais

Found it, I'm still good for 66 retirement based on current rules. My understanding from "googling" is that anyone born April 6th 1960 onward gets the entitlement at 66 + number of months born after this date. After March 6th 1961 born it's 67 until the next milestone for people born in 1977.

There is a calculator on the gov site https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age

EuroTrash

That's useful, thanks.
Of course the big caveat is "under the current rules". When at the age of 50 I started planning the downhill straight of my life, "under the current rules" I had 10 years to go to retirement. Now, 9 years later, I still have 7 years to go. Va comprendre...

Tweedpipe

Bags of time to worry about things like that for mature teenagers like myself...

cyrian

You also have to watch the number of years contributions.
With incomplete contributions record, you would only get a % of he new pension. You can buy extra years if you want.

bigglesworth

I'd love to buy extra years. Can I pick which ones?

cyrian

Yes - But you are restricted to years starting 19 or 20.

Pulaski

Only usually up to six years in arrears.

TinaBee

In a way, under certain circumstances, you can.

If you have worked at all in France, either temporary/part-time employment and/or self employment, you may be able to pay the lower rate of NI contributions to make up the years required. So for example, say you have been in France for 9 years and need an extra 3 years contributions to get full state pension, then you can choose which of the last 6 years you pay for, e.g. if you have done any work during certain periods, you can choose to pay for the cheaper years.

It can be a bit complex, but is all explained here

bigglesworth

Sorry, I was trying (obviously failing) to crack a joke.

TinaBee

I know but if there are people reading this thread who are short on their NI contributions, they may not realise how cheap it can be to buy extra years.

TheGrocer

QUOTE "You cannot keep your ISAs - they are for UK residents only.

Is is not correct. You can retain any ISA's you have, but can not take new ISA's out if you are no longer a UK resident.

To contribute to an Individual Savings Account (ISA), you must have a permanent UK residential address for tax purposes unless you are performing duties as a UK Crown employee working overseas or you are married to, or in civil partnership with, a person who performs such duties. So if you open an ISA and then move abroad, you may not be eligible to carry on paying into it while you're away. But you may be eligible to contribute up to the full annual ISA allowance before you go. You can also keep your ISAs while you're living abroad while still getting the usual tax relief. If and when you come back, you may be eligible to start contributing again. If you have old PEPs and TESSAs (opened before 6 April 1999), they too will keep their tax-exempt status while you are resident overseas. If you have other investment products or services, it may not be possible to continue holding these if you are no longer a UK resident.

Pulaski

But they may (and most likely will) be taxable by the country you're living in, assuming they tax interest and dividend income. .... In other words, for example, interest earned on a simple cash ISA will probably be taxed as interest income from a deposit account by most countries.