Thailand is one of the countries where the UK state pension is not uprated. If you claim your state pension while resident in Thailand, you receive the rate in payment at that point, and that same cash amount for the rest of your life.
This guide sets out the practical position. It is general information, not financial advice, and you should check your own circumstances with a qualified adviser.
What "frozen" actually means
It does not mean your pension is reduced. It means it never increases.
Pensioners in the UK, the European Economic Area, the USA and other agreement countries receive an annual uprating. Pensioners in Thailand do not. Over a retirement of twenty or more years the difference compounds, because inflation continues regardless of where you live. Two people with identical National Insurance records can end up receiving very different amounts purely on the basis of where they retired.
Before you move
Check whether your destination uprates. This is the single most important thing, and the thing almost nobody is told. Thailand does not. Neither do most Commonwealth countries, including Australia and Canada. The USA and the EEA do.
Understand the timing. The rate you are first paid while abroad is the rate you keep. Some people's circumstances mean the sequencing of claiming and moving matters — this is exactly the sort of point to take proper advice on rather than to work out from a website.
Model it honestly. If you are building a retirement budget, model your state pension as flat in cash terms and everything else as rising. Many people discover the issue only after building a plan on the opposite assumption.
If you are already here
You cannot reverse the freeze while remaining resident in a non-agreement country. What you can do is make sure you are counted.
Register to vote. Since 16 January 2024 every British citizen previously resident or registered in the UK can vote in UK parliamentary elections for life — including pensioners who lost the vote under the old 15-year rule. The roughly 450,000 people affected by the pension freeze are now electors, and that is the only thing about this situation that has genuinely changed in their favour.
Our Registration Concierge will take you through it in about five minutes. Note that registration lapses after three years and must be renewed.
Keep your UK bank account if you possibly can. Losing it makes receiving a UK pension considerably harder — see UK bank accounts.
What BOVF is doing
Our Frozen Pensions policy group, led by Lloyd Hobbard-Mitchell, is working on remedies that a UK minister could defend publicly. We raise the issue through the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Citizens' Rights and in meetings with MPs of all parties.
Eric Jordan and Ceri Weaver coordinate BOVF in Thailand — see the Thailand branch page for local events.
PLACEHOLDER CONTENT — this guide is illustrative, written to demonstrate the country-guide format. It is general information only and has not been reviewed by a qualified adviser.
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