TRBL Chiang Mai Thailand

Archive for the ‘Appeals’ Category

We did It!!!, One Million Baht raised for the Poppy Appeal

A short message from the Chiang Mai Poppy Appeal Organiser 2011

poppy appeal chiang mai thailand

Dear Legion Members,

The Annual Poppy Appeal is once again almost upon us and begins officially next week from October 29th through to November 13th and it is my privilege to have been asked to organise the local appeal.

Here in Chiang Mai we will be distributing Poppies and collection boxes to the following venues.
The Old Bell, The Pub, The Red Lion, The UN Irish, O’Malleys, The Writers Club, The Zoom Bar and No 1 Bar.

Now that we have 75 members I am hoping that we might have a legion member present in all of the above places for at least one or two nights during the collection period.
The aim is to wear your poppy with pride and to just generally talk to other people to raise awareness of just what the appeal is for and about the Royal British Legion in general.

If you think you could spare a couple of hours for one or two nights please contact me so that I can coordinate the visits so we do not double up so to speak.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Richard Prouse

0857052740
richard@trblchiangmai.org

Parity of pension payments to UK citizens living abroad

In the past some of you will already have received requests from me to sign petitions seeking parity of pension payments to UK citizens living abroad in countries where the UK has not paid them the annual increase in state pensions.  We now have the opportunity to get the matter debated in the House of Commons. If you would care to sign the petition scroll down; if you wish to see the justification (again?) read on:

Pensioners living in EC countries and certain favoured countries such as Israel, USA, the Philippines, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro receive annual increases in the same way that UK resident pensioners receive them. This is only fair since all pensioners will have paid into the National Insurance fund throughout their working lives and are entitled to equitable treatment.

This brings us to the situation affecting those UK citizens who live in Commonwealth countries such as Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia as well as many other countries such as Thailand where I live. Pensioners living in those countries have their pensions ‘frozen’ at the rate they were receiving from the day they ceased UK residence, or the day they start receiving pension if they already live abroad. There is no justification for this unfair treatment; the usual response from HM Government is that there is no legal obligation as the UK has reciprocal social security agreements with the unfrozen countries and not the others. This despite the fact that reciprocal social security agreements are not entered into solely with a view to paying annual up-rating to UK pensioners abroad. They are not strictly necessary for that purpose as up-rating can be achieved through UK legislation.

Recent research has shown that the benefit to the UK economy from pensioners emigrating is on average £2,500 per annum (£7,000 in unpaid benefits less loss of VAT, Council Tax etc). The UK economy would gain and many ‘baby boomers’ would be encouraged to emigrate.

I’m sure you be pleased to hear that a new e-petition on the frozen pensions issue, sponsored by the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP), has just been successfully posted on the UK Government’s DirectGov website.  It reads as follows:

END THE UNFAIR FROZEN OVERSEAS PENSION POLICY

Under regulation 3 of the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Regulations British pensioners who retire to any one of over 120 countries, mainly in the Commonwealth, have their rightful state pension frozen. Meanwhile, those who retire to other countries have their pension uprated annually, just as though they never left the UK. This discriminatory policy currently impacts on the lives of over half a million British pensioners and curtails the freedom of choice of all British pensioners in retirement. We call for this Government to heed the plea of the International Consortium of British Pensioners to repeal this Regulation.

Our goal is to achieve more than 100,000 signatures so that this topic can be considered for debate in the House of Commons.  Your cooperation is essential if we are to achieve that goal.

So please take the time to sign the petition on the epetitions.direct.gov.uk web site.  We’ve provided the following helpful information in an effort to ease you through the process.

1.  Click on the following link http://bit.ly/BritPensions which will take you directly to the petition

2.  Click on the “Sign this petition” button to take you to the signing page.

3.  Complete all of the details requested on the signing page.  Make sure your email address is accurate as you will be sent a confirmation email as part of the process – more on this below.

4.  Where they ask “British citizen or UK resident” the answer should be “Yes”; they are asking you whether you are one or the other, or perhaps both.  Only answer “No” if you are neither one nor the other.

5.  In the “Country” box, United Kingdom is the default country but when you click on the down arrow next to the box, a drop down menu provides you an enormous list of countries.  Select the one that applies to you.

6.  When you have completed the details move towards the bottom of the page where you will find a “Captcha box” where you have to read two words and then type them into a box, one of which is usually difficult to read.  Don’t worry if you get it wrong the first time; if you do they will provide you with two more words to try again.

7.  When you have completed all of the above, click the box next to “I agree to the Terms & Conditions”, then click on the box “Sign this e-petition”.

8.  You will receive a confirmation email, usually within minutes unless the system is very busy, in which case be patient.  Click on the link provided in that email and Bingo! – your signature is registered.

9.  One final note.  Additional votes will not be accepted from the same email address.  If you are a couple that shares one email address feel free to enter both names on the name box but it will only register as one vote.  We assume this is part of the security measure to stop people adding fictitious names.

Finally, our sincere thanks to every one of you who decide to support this very important e-petition.  Please feel free to pass this on to all your friends and relatives who you think might support us as well, especially those living in the UK.  Over half a million pensioners around the world whose pensions are currently frozen by this policy will be eternally grateful for your support.

Sincerely

Tony Bockman

Chairman

International Consortium of British Pensioners