Pensions
 

I see the latest proposals for entitlement to basic state pension will be based on residency. I was currently swaying with the idea of paying Class 3 voluntary NI to keep up my entitlement after paying in for 14 or so years but this probably puts that decision on ice until they formally announce such a change. I don’t have a problem with them raising the age limit as they have to make some changes but the residency proposal seems unfair.

Re: Pensions
 

I'm starting to think about this myself.
Would it not be better just investing the cash you would be contributing yourself ???

Re: Pensions
 

I saw this today and the residency thing was the first thing I noticed

no NI contribs from me

Re: Pensions
 

I think Gordon Brown is right on this one. Residency? At the rate people are coming into the country I think the pot is going to be emptied faster than what it is being filled. As it so happens it does not affect me.

Re: Pensions
 

It does seem a bit stipid.

I think we always saw ourselves back in the UK at that age, I was thinking of topping up my contributions but will hold fire.

Presumably all those who have topped up will receive a refund - not.

A Public Sector Maxwell, what's the difference?

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Do you have a link?

I certainly wouldn't want to be an OAP in the USA.....medical bills being too high for starters....and my mum and her friends love their free bus and train passes LOL!

I sort of envisage doing something similar to what the 'snowbirds' do here - spending part of the year ie. Summertime in England and in the winter months living in Cyprus or Spain.... :)

Re: Pensions
 

It was on the BBC site:

future entitlement to the basic state pension should become universal and be based on residency and not on contributions
the basic state pension should become indexed to earnings
the current state second pension should evolve into a flat-rate payment
the state system should be "as non means-tested as possible"
the savings element of the pension credit should rise by less than average earnings

Re: Pensions
 

I'd love to know the thinking behind this.
If you put in, you get out. Surely no-one thinks that this is unfair.
The proposed system on the otherhand....

I opted out of the state pension 2 years before i left the UK.
Given this announcement I will be looking into finding out how I can move all my previous contributions to a private plan.

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You can not opt out of the basic pension. You might not get it, and thats the issue.

I do blame the Government, they call it National Insurance when it is nothing but a tax.

But Governments and honesty tend to be a non sequita.

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OK, I never paid much attention to this stuff but when I signed up to the company pension scheme in my last job in the UK I signed a form to opt out of the state pension, or at least some part of it. I am 100% certain of this.

The question i have now is, what happens to previous contributions which I had made. Are these lost to me now (regardless of this new law)??

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You would have opted out of the state additional pension (SERPS) and 'contracted out' your pension contributions to your company pension scheme. However, everyone still has to pay into the basic state retirement pension which I think was paid on up to 2% of earnings.

Previous contributions if you remain outside of the UK I presume would be lost if this proposal goes through.

My guess though that this sort of change would be highly unpopular and one of the policy proposals the government would back down on in order to get others through.

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Definite bummer on the residency thing. I've been paying class 3 NI contributions for about 8 years now (and thanks to this site I've only recently learned I could be paying class 2 instead).

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My wife did point out that there is 2 sides to this, if we go back she will get the UK state pension and the US one even though she has made minimal contributions in the UK.

Just think of all those people who retire to France/Spain etc.

Also raises the question of how they define resident etc etc.

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I read somewhere on the Beeb site that residency would be defined as having lived in the UK for at least 10 of the previous 20 years.

I'm watching this issue too as hubby is 65 next August and should be getting full pension plus extra for the Serps or whatever he paid too BUT he will only have lived in UK for 5 of the last 20 years by then. Makes me mad to think that he might not get his pension after working in UK for 35 years paying full contributions.. and paying voluntary contibutions for 10 years. And presumably any immigrant who has lived in UK for 10 years (possibly never having worked or contributed a bean) gets a full flat rate pension...nice!

Wonder what would happen to ex-pats already getting pension (after 10 years out of the country do they lose entitlement??). So many thousands of Brits retire abroad or are planning too- hopefully enough people will object to this. Otherwise I can see it getting shoved through because the biggest uproar is about raising the retirement age.

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LOL I could have written that! Except for us it'll probably be Cyprus or Protigal.. :)

But the thought of being a retiree here... :scared: