Peter_in_Hungary

Seen today on the UK.gov.uk news letter

Pensions after Brexit

You can continue to receive your UK State Pension if you live in the EU, EEA or Switzerland and you can still claim your UK State Pension.

If you are living in the EU, EEA or Switzerland by 31 December 2020 you will get your UK State Pension uprated every year for as long as you continue to live there. This will happen even if you start claiming your pension on or after 1 January 2021, as long as you meet the qualifying conditions.

(My highlighting) So it seems we won't be treated as second class citizens and be cheated out of a lifetimes of pension contributions just so that UK.Gov can save a few quid.

scrubbedexpat142

Good news! Thanks Peter!

FenTiger

That's super news. I was already making provisions for this but hey I don't need to now! We're still in UK. Have not yet put house on the market but plan to do so next week. I'm praying I can sell it quickly and move to Hungary around April 2020!
Thanks Peter.

scrubbedexpat142

Good luck FT, I hope your move(s) goes better than ours (this week). Wednesday night, sitting here all packed, movers booked for Thursday morning, our sellers in the same position - we get an email from our buyers "10 days delay in paying / completing"!

FenTiger

That's awful your buyers are delaying paying you just when you are all packed and ready to move. When I moved to my current UK house the buyer of my previous property did not deposit the funds until 3pm and the movers and ourselves were outside waiting for my funds to go through for the seller. The movers said if we did not get the keys before 5pm they were going home with all our stuff. Luckily the funds went through 4:59pm. I had to pay extra to the movers due to the additional time after 5pm to get everything into our house. I was not impressed at all with the buyers! They were cash buyers! Surely, what was the problem in the delay as they were cash buyers. I have no idea what time they moved into my previous property because I left my keys with the estate agent. Looking back I should have stayed behind until the funds went through and let my wife organise the movers! Anyway, I have learnt not to trust people too much especially when thousands of pounds are at stake.

scrubbedexpat142

Your last line is soooo true! Funny thing is we have just received an email from the buyer saying "We understand from Zsuzsa (our lawyer) that we have caused you some inconvenience, sorry" - no s*** Sherlock!

Thairetired2016

And if there is a No Deal at the end of transition period?
Will the above still apply?

FenTiger

If you incur any additional fees can you claim from your buyer?

scrubbedexpat142

The Withdrawal Agreement has been (almost) signed off - just waiting for EU Parliament's approval. What is in doubt is the Trade deal which is supposed to go through by the end of the year, but may not. That should not affect the pension question - I think!

scrubbedexpat142

At the moment she has to pay us a 50K Ft per day penalty - but then we have to pass that onto our sellers. Can we claim other costs, don't know, probably not!

Dickyb

Good news. Thank you for posting Peter.

Dicky

Peter_in_Hungary

Late this afternoon I heard that the EU signed off the deal.
The UK does not need any approval or reciprocal deals to uprate pensions. This issue has been kicked about in the courts and parliament on several occasions and the bottom line is that it is within the power of the UK government to uprate pensions of those living abroad without permission or agreement from anyone else. It is also within their power not to uprate. The reason they don't (and this has been stated in parliament) is as a cost saving, specifically it is seen as preferable to spend money on pensioners in the UK (who have a vote(my words)) rather than on pensioners who are abroad. (and never mind who has paid into the system all their life)
Some pensions abroad get uprated pensions but most don't. All pensions living in the EU get uprated pensions thanks to EU rules, once Brexit happens and EU rules go out the window there was a danger uprating would stop (except if you live in the former Yugoslavia) Given the number of pensioners who would be cheated if uprating stopped there has been an amount of pressure to continue uprating.

However if you read the text of the announcement
Quote
If you are living in the EU, EEA or Switzerland by 31 December 2020 you will get your UK State Pension uprated every year for as long as you continue to live there. This will happen even if you start claiming your pension on or after 1 January 2021 End quote
To me implies that anyone moving to the EU after 31st Dec. 2020 won't get an uprated pension !!!

I also read an article some time back that projected the cost of supporting returning old UK pensioners who could no longer afford to live on frozen pensions would exceed the cost of uprating pensions.

So having made the decision to continue uprating existing ex-pat pensions after Brexit I can't see the UK backing out of the deal

scrubbedexpat142

Actually if the UK Govt. had any sense they would incentivise pensioners to emigrate, releasing hospital beds and social care places, unclogging the infrastructure and generally improving the demographic balance!

Thairetired2016

There is a topic on this forum "Boris lies".

They are also vague on the subject of pensioner healthcare. At least on Brexit and Austria. They talk about lifelong healthcare if you maintain residency. But no mention who this rule applies to.

Peter_in_Hungary

My reading of the announcement would be that the uprated pension and lifelong healthcare will apply to those resident on or before 31st Dec. 2020, which to me implies after that date anyone moving into the EU would be seen as no different to moving to any other country and the rules applicable would the rules of the day with each individual country e.g ex Yugoslavia countries get uprated pensions whilst Hungary and most of the rest of the EU would not (but just for those moving after 31 Dec 2020)