Pattaya Group Takes on British Government

Des Gillet who now resides in Thailand told the Pattaya Times "As an individual, I have written to most of the national newspapers in Britain, in an attempt to get the Government to realize that they are, in effect, stealing from us. We all worked for 40 years or so, paying our weekly NI stamps, in order to receive an indexed pension to enable us to enjoy a comfortable retirement but our pensions have been frozen, simply because of where we chose to spend our final few years."

Des went on to say "There are several countries where British ex-pat pensioners are in the same financial position as ourselves here in Thailand, the three main ones being Australia, South Africa & Canada. The British ex-pat pensioners in these countries have all formed groups, continually fighting for justice in vain so far. There are number of us fighting in Thailand & our aim is to drum up more support for the cause. There must be thousands of us here so we are planning two meetings in Pattaya on Thursday 19th of August and Sunday 22nd of August both at 12:30 pm at the Bowling Green in Soi Fuengfa. I know that many have simply accepted the fact that their pension has been frozen by the government and that the government is too big an organization to fight. That's not the case, the MPs that we voted into power & the civil servants who run the country, are simply ordinary human beings."

Many of the pensioners are angry as the increases amount to only 1% of the annual state pension bill. Les Edmonds a four year resident of Pattaya is heading the Pattaya group said, "The reason to form an ex-pats pensioners association is to combine all the British ex-pats in Thailand to enable them to speak with one voice, as the solitary voice crying in the wilderness does not get anywhere. The aim is to give all British pensioners equal rights by paying the pension increments and the “winter fuel” payment to all in our case it would be a “cooling payment” for the air conditioning."

When the Pattaya Times asked Les what grievances he had with the British government he replied "Many. The general consensus is that most UK governments over the years have lied through their teeth with their promises and made fatuous remarks in claiming to be fair, of the people and in a lot of cases only self seeking. Our main grievance is that in Thailand, along with several other retirees in various countries around the world we are not given equal status with all other pensioners. We hope to create a groundswell within the government, the UK media and the British people to right an unjust situation. Morally, the UK government does not have a leg to stand on. The one thing that needs mentioning is that we actually save the UK money as we are no longer a burden on the Social Services and the National Health Service."

   The fight for justice so far has gone all the way through the UK legal system up to the European Court of Human Rights. To the amazement of the pensioners the case was lost as the court decided that there was not any discrimination. The pensioners are now continuing the fight and hope to get various influential people on their side to publicize the unfair treatment. Les noted" Joanna Lumley fought for the Gurkhas and got the UK government to correct a wrong, so we need people like that to draw attention to our plight."

When the Pattaya Times asked if all British old-age pensioners would join together in the fight Les responded   "No, as so many people are apathetic or are commiting fraud by claiming to be still residing in the UK. They are using a family or friends addresses or even retaining a property in the UK so as to get the increments in the pensions that others do not. They should take care though, as with the IT systems nowadays it is quite easy to track where you are and HMRC will be looking at your claims of being in the UK when in fact you are not. They have already stated that they will prosecute to reclaim the fraudulently acquired money and it is quite likely that the family and friends whose address is used will also be prosecuted for aiding and abetting in the fraud."

The inaugural meetings will be at the Bowling Green in Soi Fuengfa, down the side of X-Cite on Third Road on August the 19th and 22nd at 12:30 pm.