It's the usual British government attitude, if your not working and paying tax, then their not interested in you any more, but if your a foreign illegal criminal that crosses the English Channel in a rubber dinghy, a 5* hotel, full board,free mobile because you ditched yours in the Channel so UK immigration can't tell which country you are a National of and £30 a week for cigs and or booze.

@Brian *********

You can't have residency in the UK if your out of the country for more than I think it's 181 consecutive days. Unless as I suspect some retirees do not tell the DWP., that they've moved out of the UK and use a UK relatives address as their permanent residency. I don't blame them if they do that because freezing UK pensions unless you live in certain countries that the UK has a social security agreement with, where you get the annual increase. It's called discrimination one pensioner against another one. What this agreement is supposed to be I don't know. All I know is you get the increase if you declare you live in the like of Philippines, USA, some Carribbean islands but not all and some countries that a lot of people haven't even heard of. 😂 There's a movement named ICBP,(international consortium of British Pensioners), which is now run by a lady living in Canada who is striving to no avail to try to get the discrimination by the UK government to change the rules, but they've stated on several occasions that the governments have no intention of changing the rules. I contacted my MP and also the ICBP with a compromise that would see all overseas British pensioners not get the triple lock, but that all pensioners overseas receive a 2.5% increase annually. I believe this was put to some MPs but as of this time no feedback.

@Allan ***********

Allan, there's plenty of expat pricks unfortunately in Thailand. I lived there for eleven years and steered well clear of farangs for this reason.

@Reluctant ******

I hope Thailand doesn't have many ignorant farangs like you, who when someone is just trying to ask a question and get help, they get ridiculed by ignorant replies.

@Gordon ********

You can give the DWP your foreign bank account details and have your pension transferred either every month, or 13 weeks. How the exchange rate would be applied is not known by me. If it is what they call the inter bank exchange rate, then it'll be better than exchange rate from bank to bank, ie , your UK bank to your Thai bank. It maybe better to use Wise or another system, where the exchange rate is better than that of UK banks.

@Steve *********

hello Steve, don't know if you've seen the msg , I've sent on your messenger. Full explanation of my predicament. The agent route may be preferential. I'll msg., my reasoning on your messenger.

I've only used this e-visa once and found it a nightmare initially. Tried it loads of times on phone, but eventually gave up. Copied all relevant docs., to my Windows laptop, went through the same procedure and it all went ok.

@Steve *********

I'd be there in a heartbeat Steve, but need this year and possibly six months of 2025 to accrue the required funds to get the visa extension. I had hoped to get the agency under the table visa, but I was informed by a visa agent in Udon that they cannot do it anymore due to a new immigration commander in Isaan. That coupled with the Chinese in Bkk., & the scandal with 100 immigration officers taking bribes from these Chinese has put a block on that road of obtaining a visa extension.

@John *********

Crikey £50 grand in the UK! I only wish 😂 😂 😂

@Richard ******

and pay rip off charges, plus poor exchange rates.