PPF Pension Payments

The business of the UK Treasury 'employing' a non-UK bank to handle British pension payments is another good reason for Brexit.

Several years ago, I was involved in fundraising for the £9 million building of new visitor centre, Hafod Eryri, located at the summit of Snowdon, the highest mountain in Britain outside Scotland. It was a controversial project, made all the more so by the rules which applied to material sourcing. Built on an iconic rock in Wales, you might imagine that logic would dictate that local stone would be used for the extensive cladding of the building. Nope... as a public body the national park authority was subject to European Commission treaty directives on trade and couldn't insist that materials which were above a price threshold were sourced locally. As a consequence, Portuguese granite was forced upon the project instead. This precipitated huge protests, not least from those who provided private funding. Happily, common sense eventually prevailed, and local stone was used for much (but still not all!) of the project.
 
Merlin did the EC ERDF fund contribute to the funding of the project?
Stunning looking building by the way
 
Colin, it did indeed, but it could only supplement the funding received from the Welsh Assembly Government and private subscriptions. It has to be accepted that while the ‘remain’ camp claims Wales gets a ‘bargain’ from membership the Eurosceptics say the cash is simply our own money re-cycled, and that there is no such thing for us as EU funding.
 
There is no doubt that with the enlargement of the EC poorer countries take a much larger share of EC Development funding.
Guess we have no way of knowing if the money the UK contributes to EC Development funding had been retained in the UK would have been ring fenced for UK development projects. Somehow during a period of severe spending cuts I doubt it.
 
Are spending cuts just cutting your cloth accordingly and living within your means? Drastic action was needed after the last Labour splurge but surely there’s no time to overspend? In peace time anyway
 
Eanto said:
Are spending cuts just cutting your cloth accordingly and living within your means? Drastic action was needed after the last Labour splurge but surely there’s no time to overspend? In peace time anyway
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The point I'm making, perhaps non too clearly, is would alternative funding to the European funding have been available.

I was working for a Local Authority and I am only too aware of much money was being thrown about by the last Labour Government.
A lot of it was with the aim of mitigating the financial crisis - did it work? was it necessary? It needs a clever man than me to answer that
 
ColinW said:
The point I'm making, perhaps non too clearly, is would alternative funding to the European funding have been available
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I would certainly hope so but theoretically, we ourselves could orchestrate matters once free from the EU
 
nomad97 said:
Previously, one of my pensions was transferred to me by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) each month. For this I paid a standard charge of £8.00 per transfer deducted at source from my pension. Now that I am using Transferwise I am only paying £6.50 per transfer. I am also pretty sure I am enjoying a better exchange rate than I received from the RBS although I do not have the data to support that statement. What I do know is that Transferwise give the spot rate at the time of the transfer, unlike Yorky's bank that was about 3% less than the spot rate.
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I don't use my UK bank to exchange currencies. My UK bank sends my instructed remittances direct to my Thai bank in Sterling. It is not a standing order.
 
My pension provider/administrator has been sending my pension to my Thai bank for 19 years and always dispatched and received in Sterling. It's these wankers from PPF that have decided to change the system (without informing me, by the way). I'm sure that they look at it as being "I should be thankful that there is a PPF otherwise I would receive f**k all".
 
ColinW said:
There is no doubt that with the enlargement of the EC poorer countries take a much larger share of EC Development funding.
Guess we have no way of knowing if the money the UK contributes to EC Development funding had been retained in the UK would have been ring fenced for UK development projects. Somehow during a period of severe spending cuts I doubt it.
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Eanto said:
I would certainly hope so but theoretically, we ourselves could orchestrate matters once free from the EU
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In common with the foolish who fail to save for a rainy day, governments, businesses and others who spend everything in times of plenty without remembering that there will ALWAYS by years when income is outstripped by expenditure need to change their economic principles to ensure that last year's/decade's surpluses are available to balance this year's/decade's shortfall. Our wiser grandparents knew that keeping something to one side would mean that budgets would always match needs without needing to make dramatic cuts involving 'austerity,' redundancies and closures, and foreclosures.

The EC money pit involves smoke and mirrors regarding the flow of money in and out. We paid money in (and will continue doing so for unfathomable reasons) and took some out - but much less than we put in. Good deal, what? Yes, the newer and poorer Member countries benefitted out of all proportion to their ability to contribute, and there seems to be no desire on the part of wealthier non-EU countries to join and plough-in more than they would be able to take out either! Strange that! It's quite a reflection of so called 'refugee' attitudes - go to where the money is, and they (i.e. us/we) will provide. There was always the risk (aka certain knowledge) that the EC would prevent any ring-fencing by the UK of our development projects. The UK's Chancellor's future budgets will benefit from greater transparency in that particular respect.

Eanto is correct: only by budgeting to suit our own needs and abilities can we hope to balance our expenditure and income. After so many years of putting the EC in overall charge of what we have available to spend, it will be a welcome day when we regain control of that.
 
Does anyone think we will have a balanced budget in our life time - be it in or out of the European Union?
 
ColinW said:
Does anyone think we will have a balanced budget in our life time - be it in or out of the European Union?
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Maybe the budget if Corbyn &Co. don’t get in. But the National debt? Never!
 
Eanto said:
Maybe the budget if Corbyn &Co. don’t get in. But the National debt? Never!
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If the UK is fortunate enough to actually leave the EU on 29th March, it is said that they will be paying off debts to the EU for many years to come.

Will those of us who have "jumped ship" from the UK ever be expected to assist with repayment of the national debt?
 
Prakhonchai Nick said:
If the UK is fortunate enough to actually leave the EU on 29th March, it is said that they will be paying off debts to the EU for many years to come.

Will those of us who have "jumped ship" from the UK ever be expected to assist with repayment of the national debt?
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Already do, I still pay UK taxes.
 
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