OJAS

Do these 2 offices specifically require hand-drawn maps to where you live to be provided as part of the retirement extension application process, as Chaengwattana do?

Maybe so at Roi Et. But not necessarily at other offices.

At Jomtien or Chaengwattana?

But I didn't get mine from DWP for 53 days! On the other hand, I received a letter from HMRC last week in 27 days. Go figure the reasons for the huge discrepancy between these 2 UK government departments.

Could have something to do with the fact that UK banks don't levy annual fees equal to around 250 THB for their credit and debit cards, whereas Thai banks do. As a result, making card payments contactlessly, which I certainly found an extremely convenient and user-friendly process on my last trip to the UK this time last year, has, sadly, not caught on in Thailand. Here, the only alternative to making cash payments is by aiming and then firing e-pot shots at a QR code with your smartphone, which, in my experience, can prove to be a hit and miss affair thanks to erratic banking apps which Thai banks seem determined to ram down our throats come hell or high water.

And, even if we did, constant buffering could well get in the way of uninterrupted viewing of games, I imagine.

Unfortunately, what the OP's experience clearly demonstrates is that, even where agents are used to mitigate the worst bureaucratic excesses of the UK passport renewal process from Thailand, there is still no guarantee of immunity against blatant displays of crass stupidity and idiocy on HMPO's part.

But did you not have to provide HMPO's pals in DWP with your original birth certificate when you claimed the State Pension way back when - and which is presumably lurking somewhere where you live? This surely included the town and village where you were born. That said, it is clearly outrageous that you are being subject to all the hassle that you are, thanks to a blatantly shining example of complete and utter cluelessness on the part of those dimwits in HMPO and predecessor passport-issuing organisations.

Not an exclusively Thai banking expression. I have a monthly standing order with my UK bank to transfer funds to my Wise account prior to initiating Wise transfers to my Thai account.

However, if, despite all the advice to the contrary on here, he were still minded to favour the non-OA option, all that he would need to do (based on my experience in 2008) would be to obtain a doctor's signature on the Embassy form from his local surgery. In my case the doctor was more than happy to sign the form after a "thorough medical examination" which consisted of her eyes moving from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Cost to me was £10, though, and it is probably a lot more than that these days.

Wow, you certainly have an attitude big time, don't you😠?

I suspect that @ronnie50 is talking about his originating UK - rather than beneficiary Thai - bank. For instance I'm required to call my UK bank from Thailand to initiate a SWIFT transfer these days since they have, for some ridiculous reason, withdrawn their facility for doing this online. Resultant phone call costs plus the general inconvenience and hassle involved in having to arrange SWIFT transfers in this way make the Wise option a no-brainer in my case.

@node - and make sure that its registration and your Krungsri details match each other exactly (see thread below)! Strikes me that this could prove to be the major stumbling block to foreign numbers being used for Thai bank account OTP's in any event.

Although not all offices showed any leniency in the event. Certainly mine (Rayong) did not, and it was only by pure luck and chance that I had already been making the required number of monthly 65k transfers for my next retirement extension application. It is to be hoped for the OP's and his compatriots' sake that, if and when, the Swedish Embassy do decide to stop their income confirmation service, they will provide a clear year's advance notice of this change, in the same way as their Norwegian counterparts did recently (but, alas, the Canadian Embassy did not, resulting in Canadians who had previously been reliant on Embassy income confirmation letters being presumably driven into the arms of agents).

Hidden behind a paywall, unfortunately. But it does beg the question, from what little I was able to read of the article, as to how many people are employed by the council for the sole purpose of touring every street in the borough the day before a rubbish collection is due, with the aim of gleefully slapping £1,000 fines on everyone who has committed the cardinal sin of putting out their rubbish early.