Life is fleeting - enjoy it while you can

[Pumpuynarak]

17 hours ago, Stillearly said:

Happy Birthday!! Have a good day 🎂🎉

Ditto, hope you have a good one @galenkia 👍

[Krapow]

14 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

My aunt made it to 98. 

Years before we had more than one conversation about end of life things.

She said when the time came she would just stop eating. I completely respected her with her wishes and foresight. And that was the way it ended. Although when the time came it was agonizing for me. 

My mate's father died a few months ago.

Mentally he was still okay, but physically couldn't really get about, couldn't eat or drink normally, was on a load of medication etc. 

He decided he wasn't going to take anymore of the multiple medications, his quality of life even with them wasn't what he wanted.

When my mate, the medical staff etc asked him why, tried to get him to take the medication, his reply was 'No, that book's now closed'. He died a few months later.

For me, you have to respect his wishes, he took control, mentally he was fine, made the decision, and that was that. 

My mate agrees. 

[ChiFlyer]

If anyone is French or speaks French well, please PM me. The birthday boy is no longer receiving his French Pension. He usually gets about 100,000 THB a month. Nothing for the last 4 months. The Thai wife (a very sweet lady) is going broke trying to take care of him.

I am not asking for action by anyone. I am just trying to understand a difficult situation. 

[Pumpuynarak]

6 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

If anyone is French or speaks French well, please PM me. The birthday boy is no longer receiving his French Pension. He usually gets about 100,000 THB a month. Nothing for the last 4 months. The Thai wife (a very sweet lady) is going broke trying to take care of him.

I am not asking for action by anyone. I am just trying to understand a difficult situation. 

Where's Thai Spice when you need him ?

[fforest]

1 hour ago, Pumpuynarak said:

Where's Thai Spice when you need him ?

Thai Spice is hanging out with CodeSlayer , Thumper63, and Sea-Hawks

[forcebwithu]

8 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

If anyone is French or speaks French well, please PM me. The birthday boy is no longer receiving his French Pension. He usually gets about 100,000 THB a month. Nothing for the last 4 months. The Thai wife (a very sweet lady) is going broke trying to take care of him.

I am not asking for action by anyone. I am just trying to understand a difficult situation. 

I believe from some of @Golfingboy posts he speaks French.

Edited to add: I have several friends in the Hash that are from France. PM me your friends contact details and I can forward that info on to my friends.

Edited September 19, 2023 by forcebwithu

[ChiFlyer]

1 hour ago, forcebwithu said:

I believe from some of @Golfingboy posts he speaks French.

Edited to add: I have several friends in the Hash that are from France. PM me your friends contact details and I can forward that info on to my friends.

Thanks for getting back. At this time I do not need anything translated. I am just trying to understand a little how France's pension system works. The pensioner has Stage-4 Alzheimers. His pension stopped coming a few months back.

Given his medical condition he has no contact info. His Mrs (marriage probably not legalized) is Thai and speaks very little French or English. My Mrs. is going over to visit them today. Based on what she finds out, I will likely PM you my contact info tonight.

[ChiFlyer]

Someone at PA sent over this.

https://www.cleiss.fr/particuliers/certificate_of_existence.html#:~:text=If you live abroad,pension ceases to be paid.&text=at www.lassuranceretraite.fr%2C,logging into your personal account.

It appears there is an annual contact required.

[Golfingboy]

2 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

I believe from some of @Golfingboy posts he speaks French.

Edited to add: I have several friends in the Hash that are from France. PM me your friends contact details and I can forward that info on to my friends.

Good on you for using the @ function, it always gets our attention unless we don’t log in for a month. We just PM each other, sad story, don’t know what else to say…..poor man, poor TW

[forcebwithu]

28 minutes ago, ChiFlyer said:

Someone at PA sent over this.

https://www.cleiss.fr/particuliers/certificate_of_existence.html#:~:text=If you live abroad,pension ceases to be paid.&text=at www.lassuranceretraite.fr%2C,logging into your personal account.

It appears there is an annual contact required.

Same requirements for us Yanks who report to Soc Sec that we're living overseas.

From what you've posted there's a good chance that due to his Alzheimers he hasn't filed the report. The good news is once someone helps him with the report, he'll probably see the missed payments deposited to his account. Bless his Thai wife for helping him out.

As someone else suggested, perhaps the French Embassy can help him get the report sorted.

[Glasseye]

3 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

Same requirements for us Yanks who report to Soc Sec that we're living overseas.

From what you've posted there's a good chance that due to his Alzheimers he hasn't filed the report. The good news is once someone helps him with the report, he'll probably see the missed payments deposited to his account. Bless his Thai wife for helping him out.

As someone else suggested, perhaps the French Embassy can help him get the report sorted.

 

I hope things work out for him.

Very considerate for you to help out Chi.

 

This is a perfect example of why it is wise to set up living wills, medical proxy (surrogate), etc. if retired and living over here. I am currently in the process of setting this up for myself now. My goal is to have it all in order by the end of October.

It is much more affordable than I intially thought. Getting it set up takes time, but I will have a huge "peace of mind" once completed. I have found a contact in Bangkok (He's a Canuck) that is a one stop shop I will be able to do it all with. Huge relief.

Highly recommend those long timers to seriously look into this.

[forcebwithu]

39 minutes ago, Glasseye said:

I hope things work out for him.

Very considerate for you to help out Chi.

This is a perfect example of why it is wise to set up living wills, medical proxy (surrogate), etc. if retired and living over here. I am currently in the process of setting this up for myself now. My goal is to have it all in order by the end of October.

It is much more affordable than I intially thought. Getting it set up takes time, but I will have a huge "peace of mind" once completed. I have found a contact in Bangkok (He's a Canuck) that is a one stop shop I will be able to do it all with. Huge relief.

Highly recommend those long timers to seriously look into this.

In case you missed it, here's a recent topic on the subject.

 

[Glasseye]

9 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

In case you missed it, here's a recent topic on the subject.

 

 

Thanks for this.

 

Anyone interested in my contact can PM me. I just sent it to Pump.

[ChiFlyer]

10 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

Same requirements for us Yanks who report to Soc Sec that we're living overseas.

From what you've posted there's a good chance that due to his Alzheimers he hasn't filed the report. The good news is once someone helps him with the report, he'll probably see the missed payments deposited to his account. Bless his Thai wife for helping him out.

As someone else suggested, perhaps the French Embassy can help him get the report sorted.

I had the Mrs pass the info to them today. I will check with her on the status of things tomorrow.

[ChiFlyer]

10 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

Same requirements for us Yanks who report to Soc Sec that we're living overseas.

From what you've posted there's a good chance that due to his Alzheimers he hasn't filed the report. The good news is once someone helps him with the report, he'll probably see the missed payments deposited to his account. Bless his Thai wife for helping him out.

As someone else suggested, perhaps the French Embassy can help him get the report sorted.

Yep - I kept my legal address in the US for several reasons. Glad I do not have to do the annual reporting.

[ChiFlyer]

For those that may be following this thread, the PA guy who identified the need for an annual report with regard to a French pension posted this:

I was thinking that also, but after reading this, “You must have this document completed by the French consulate or the competent local authorities of your State of residence (town hall or other service) and send it to your French pension fund” it looks it’s something his wife can get completed in her town, as long as she can prove he’s still with us. Maybe asking someone to help with the form like his doctor; if not someone in the local government, would be a good next step.

[ChiFlyer]

2 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

I had the Mrs pass the info to them today. I will check with her on the status of things tomorrow.

The Mrs woke up after falling asleep after a busy day and informed me of the following.

• The link was delivered to the affected parties.
• They have a gay (not sure why that matters) friend who is married to a French person. The French couple have agreed to help bring this to a resolution.

Much thanks to all that have contributed.

 

[Glasseye]

16 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

The Mrs woke up after falling asleep after a busy day and informed me of the following.

• The link was delivered to the affected parties.
• They have a gay (not sure why that matters) friend who is married to a French person. The French couple have agreed to help bring this to a resolution.

Much thanks to all that have contributed.

 

 

Cheers for your efforts mate !

[galenkia]

Was talking to the young Ukrainian lady at work earlier. She told me her city was bombed this morning by Russian forces.

Puts things in perspective when we think we have problems.

[KhunDon]

On 9/19/2023 at 5:12 AM, ChiFlyer said:

Someone at PA sent over this.

https://www.cleiss.fr/particuliers/certificate_of_existence.html#:~:text=If you live abroad,pension ceases to be paid.&text=at www.lassuranceretraite.fr%2C,logging into your personal account.

It appears there is an annual contact required.

I’m pretty sure that proof of life is required by UK state pension scheme as well if you live in foreign lands. 

[KWA]

58 minutes ago, KhunDon said:

I’m pretty sure that proof of life is required by UK state pension scheme as well if you live in foreign lands. 

From reports elsewhere it seems to be random, and with Thai Post in the equation the first a lot of people know about it is when their pension is stopped.

[forcebwithu]

10 hours ago, KWA said:

From reports elsewhere it seems to be random, and with Thai Post in the equation the first a lot of people know about it is when their pension is stopped.

Also made worse for US citizens is there is no method for us to check if the proof of life letter was received. As you wrote, the first indiciation there's a problem will be the cessation of the monthly deposit.

[forqalso]

2 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

Also made worse for US citizens is there is no method for us to check if the proof of life letter was received. As you wrote, the first indiciation there's a problem will be the cessation of the monthly deposit.

You can use Thailand Post tracking but that won’t guarantee it didn’t get lost by SS after they received it. It could help you prove you complied within the 60 days, though.

[forcebwithu]

40 minutes ago, forqalso said:

You can use Thailand Post tracking but that won’t guarantee it didn’t get lost by SS after they received it. It could help you prove you complied within the 60 days, though.

I've been using the cheapest Thai Post option to mail my report in. Cost is around 60B. That's worked out ok for the two years I've been submitting the report.

I have my doubts too on how strict they are on the 60 day window for reporting. One is they use snail mail to send the form out so the form that gets generated in early June doesn't reach me until early July. So that eats into the 60 day window.

The second and biggest reason I don't think the 60 day window is a hard and fast rule is that if you miss filing the annual report, your payments stop sometime in the following year. I think either January or February. When they receive the late report, payments are restarted and they'll also deposit the missed payments. So there really isn't a penalty for filing the report outside the 60 day window, other than the time to restart the payments.

[forqalso]

4 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

I've been using the cheapest Thai Post option to mail my report in. Cost is around 60B. That's worked out ok for the two years I've been submitting the report.

I have my doubts too on how strict they are on the 60 day window for reporting. One is they use snail mail to send the form out so the form that gets generated in early June doesn't reach me until early July. So that eats into the 60 day window.

The second and biggest reason I don't think the 60 day window is a hard and fast rule is that if you miss filing the annual report, your payments stop sometime in the following year. I think either January or February. When they receive the late report, payments are restarted and they'll also deposit the missed payments. So there really isn't a penalty for filing the report outside the 60 day window, other than the time to restart the payments.

From https://www.ssa.gov/foreign/

Notice Regarding Forms SSA-7161 and SSA-7162  

The postal service disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have resolved in the majority of countries. The Social Security Administration will resume mailing the forms SSA-7161 and SSA-7162 in late June 2022. Forms will be mailed according to the schedule that was in effect prior to the pandemic (i.e. if you were expecting a form in 2020, you will receive it in 2022; 2021 in 2023). Please complete and return the forms promptly to avoid suspension of benefits.