Important Information about PENSIONS

We've received two emails (see below) in the past week from our good friend John Skinner about the important issue of U.K. Pensions as it relates to those of our members who served here in Bermuda, and the ongoing issue of possible increases in pensions for those of us who have police pensions from the Bermuda Government.

The first email provided advice from a Daily Mail article on how to ensure you are receiving your full entitlement. The second email reports that it is Bermuda Budget day today (16th February 2024) and John has provided a link to Royal Gazette article in todays newspaper which includes a link to a live feed on the Budget debate.

At this point there is no specific mention of any increase in our Police pensions but it is posssible that we may receive an increase bearing in mind the fact that we have not had the legal entitlement of a cost-of-living increase every year. I believe it's some 11 years since our last increase. We will have to wait and see!

E-Mail from John dated 14th February 2024

Good day

Today's UK Daily Mail has an article (attached) on the UK Government Pension and advice on how to ensure that you are receiving your full entitlement.

Just before I turned 65 I was advised by an accountant friend to buy back several years worth of pension. At that time the rules were that you had to do the buy back before your 65 birthday when the pension would start. I followed his advice and my break even point was before my 68th birthday so it was a worthwhile investment.

If you ever worked in the UK then I would recommend reading the article and if you feel that you can increase your pension, refer to the www.gov.uk website for the current information.

A caveat from the article: Before making any payments, speak to the Future Pension Centre if you haven’t reached pension age — or the Pension Service if you have — and get them to confirm which years you can fill and how much it would cost.

I recently had an inquiry from a friend in Thailand concerning non-UK residents receiving the pension increases that UK residents receive, as he had not had one for years. The following web link gives a list of countries where UK pensioners can live and receive the increase. If your country of residence is not on the list (like Thailand for instance) you will not receive an increase to your UK pension while you live there.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pensions-annual-increases-if-you-live-abroad/countries-where-we-pay-an-annual-increase-in-the-state-pension#countries-the-uk-has-a-social-security-agreement-with

Bermuda Budget Day is 17 February - Friday of this week about 10am AST (2pm GMT). We MAY be told during the speech of any changes to our Bermuda Police Pension. If you are off island, the Budget Speech is usually streamed on the internet and there are several radio streaming sites which broadcast Bermuda radio stations.

Please circulate this message to friends and ex-colleagues who may not be on our circulation list and ask them to consider sending us their email/contact details.

Best wishes

John Skinner

Ex Bermuda Police Officers Association Researcher

Bermuda cell: +1-441-534-0805

UK cell: +44-7549-945018

E-mail from John dated 16th February 2024

Good morning

First of all thank you to all the members who sent me messages about the article on UK Pensions. They had all 'paid back' sums to increase their UK pensions and considered it a worthwhile investment. Your personal circumstances should be carefully reviewed if you are considering buying back some years to increase your UK Government Pension.

The Bermuda Budget is today and the Royal Gazette has published a link to their live chat report in this article

www.royalgazette.com/budget/news/article/20240216/government-commits-to-10m-grant-increase-for-affordable-housing/

There is no mention of pensions in the Government quotes. I don't know if that is good or bad. We will have to see. If you miss the 'live' feed there should be plenty of detail in the Royal Gazette over the next day or two.