Hi, On my recent visit to Pattaya I couldnt help but notice that there were a lot of disabled farangs wandering around. I myself am a "disabled farang", married with a Thai wife and family and wondered if any one could enlighten me on the facts of U.K. benefits being paid if your in Thailand or living in Thailand. ie, can DLA, IS, IB, CA, or any tax credits be paid to me if I was to move to live in Thailand. any help or ideas would be helpful as this seem to be a grey area.
Ian n' Rose
Posts: 73 | Location: Wiltshire | Registered: 26 November 2002
Originally posted by Ian / Rose: Hi, On my recent visit to Pattaya I couldnt help but notice that there were a lot of disabled farangs wandering around. I myself am a "disabled farang", married with a Thai wife and family and wondered if any one could enlighten me on the facts of U.K. benefits being paid if your in Thailand or living in Thailand. ie, can DLA, IS, IB, CA, or any tax credits be paid to me if I was to move to live in Thailand. any help or ideas would be helpful as this seem to be a grey area.
You can't take anything. Not even if being there is good for your health. Even within the EU it would be very hard. Benefits are rooted in the country and not really transferable though within the EU many should be. Even when it may appear possible the gatekeepers, civil servants, do what they do with the immigration rules and bend them as much as they can or apply the letter not the spirit of the law, to stop people getting their rights. In practice, for the short term, some people just maintain a UK address and take the benefits. Of course that is wrong in law and the difference between EU and Thailand is that the stamps in your passport leave a trail. Given the magnitude of corruption in this country (UK) headed by the biggest gravy train of all time (Parliament) one disabled guy getting the benefits he has probably paid for tenfold is small beer. Legally you have no chance, what you get away with is up to you...............Depends whether you can live with the level of deceit it entails. The other problem is that there exists no mechanism for cost benefit analysis to present a case for transferable benfits. For example, dependency on expensive anti arthritic or anti inflammatory drugs would probably fall dramatically if a sufferer in the UK moved to Thailand. The fall in the individuals drugs bill would perhaps more than offset the cost of allowing benefits to be transferred to Thailand but no mechanism exist to prove that and they aren't allowed to take that in account anyway. Equally someone needing a full time carer could take the money out to thailand and have a great level of care for a small amount, the same level of care for say £10 per week that would need £200 per week in the UK. A Prima facie case for allowing export of benefits. Will it happen? Never.
Posts: 162 | Location: uk | Registered: 09 June 2007
i know two people that are disabled. One moved to Thailand to afford a carer and the other one spends the winter months in Arizona because of his chronic joint pain. We visited him and his family at his home in Arizona and the difference it makes to his health is quite amazing. The difference is in UK he can hardly walk and in Arizona he walks in next to no pain at all. I have no real feeling on the benefits subject but I have seen why people would visit a country to improve a medical condition.
Posts: 234 | Location: Marlow & Maha Sarakham | Registered: 27 November 2004
Rumour maybe, if your out of the country for longtime and need esxpensive health treatment, frozen pensions etc, I think I read 3 months somewhere. But then again if its just for the coldest months and your turn the heating off ?? Many brits live on the med in winter when its cheap. Becareful, there are websites for expats living in places like Australia and it does not good reading.
My 4yo son is disabled and claims Higher Rate Components of DLA & Motability. My wife also claims CA (Carers allowance) for our son. I'm working so I can't comment on any of the other benefits you mentioned. However, the DLA renewal forms that arrive every two years or so do ask if you have spent more than 30 days at a time outside the UK. They do not audit this by checking your passport for entry stamps to/from the country so effectively they may not even know whether you were here or not. That does not make it legal or any more easy to do if they decided to change the paperwork/forms or start checking things more thoroughly. The short answer is no it is not legal or possible but if you did decide to live in Pattaya/Thailand then chances are they would not find out but I'm no expert. I do think it is much more easy to cover your tracks in EU now that you do not have to use your passport accross borders but obviously EU is somewhat more expensive to pay for carers than Thailand would ultimately be.
