Class 2 NI contributions....changes ahead for expats?

[bigjimbishop]

I live in France and have no intention of returning to UK.

I've paid 20 years of class 2 contributions already and the NI office are happy for me to continue making payments wherever I work or live to keep my state pension entitlement.

But I've just read in the paper that possible pension reforms may include residency based status rather than contributions based. The wording was vague.

Anyone got any other information?

Any chance of transfering 20 years of state contributions from UK to France?

[Poppy]

Its a minefield. We have today received the bill from Inland Revenue for 2004 NI Contributions. Is the best thing to return it to them asking if we pay do we definitely get a UK pension if not resident.

Rumours about residency and pension payments have been rumbling around for a few months, perhaps we all need to ask the direct question. If no positive response European Parliament next on list.

 

[Viv]

I have heard about this and if the proposals do go through re residency, it could cause problems for many Brits .

I will be interested to see how 'residency' is defined in this context. Surely people will have had to pay something in to get something out?

I cannot see how the pensions crisis will be aided if a full pension is paid to recent settlers to the UK who may have residency but have not contributed a great deal to the pension that they will be allowed to collect.

Myself, I think UK state pensions are akin to the worst kind of pyramid schemes and I am happy to have opted out and now make my own provision for my old age.

[bakerino]

I paniced a bit when I first read this, but I think what it is, is along these lines. People over SPA who have not paid in will be entittled to some kind of pension so long as they prove residency rules (which have not been defined yet) It is to help women who have not paid a full stamp and have no entittlement at SPA.  That is how i read it over in the UK.  It did not appear to be saying if youv'e paid in for say 30 years and then leave the UK 5 years prior to retirement you will loose your pension.

 

However nothing is set in stone yet.  

[maxsan]

You are right nothing is yet set in stone. These are only reccomendations and I have just downlaoded all 472 pages of turner. You can guarantee, of course that bandit blair will keep those bits of the report which cut costs and never mind the expat pensioners.  You can see this being set up with recent stories in the UK press about pensioners living in Thailand and getting heating allowance.  This was evidently in one of Murdoch's rags and no doubt planted there by the blair dictatorship. 

I have searched high and low to find out exactly what this means without success. Once I have read Turner I will come back with any answers I find.  I would agree with the previous poster were it not for two things. One was the unsuccessful case brought by a pensioner (Annette Carson I think) living in South Africa who was claiming that the UK govt were wrong to deny her and other pensioners in similar circumstances, the annual increases in Staete pensions.

The other is the recurring story about those who retrun to the UK from the EU and have to fill in forms to prove that they are eligible for Uk resdiency.  This despite it being quite clearly stated on the IRS site that those of UK origin have an automatic right to re-entry.

There are two cases I know of persoanlly where this has happened and, when the person concerned stated that they were born in the UK and held a UK passport they were told that did not count.

It may be that if the residency idea is pushed to the limit as a way of saving money we may find that we do not have the right to re-enter the UK.