Job Discussion Forums

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Resident is what it is defined to be.

There is resident for the purposes of paying income tax, and ordinariy resident, which affects your right to social security amongst other things. You can lose that right much quicker than you think if you are an EFL teacher; a friend of mine went off to Vietnam to teach for a couple of years and on claiming social security while initially unemployed on his return was told that he was now considered ordinarily resident in Vietnam and should go back there to claim.

It is not clear how the insurance company will interpret UK resident, particularly if the client is a Korean resident when he claims, and was a Spanish, Chinese or Turkish resident before that. The small print needs to be checked. Anyway the OP is aware of that.

As to the probability of having the pants sued off you as an ESL teacher in Korea, I can only assume either that you are an American or a true pessimist. After all how many people in the UK have third party liability outside of motor insurance (school teachers have it paid by the Union) and the UK is much more litigious than Korea, and the claimant is much more likely to sue because he might collect more than a backpack and a used copy of Betty Azar.

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

As long as you have a UK address that you can use (parents, best friend, 8th cousin 20 times removed) you should be fine getting a UK policy. I also got one with insureandgo.com with no problems and they seem pretty reasonably priced. They also have a number of different classifications and will cover exchange students and gap year students etc. Worth checking them out.

PT

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

The question isn't what happens when you go to buy the policy, it's what happens if you claim on it.

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

I have claimed on a policy whilst overseas, as it was for a large medical bill (from the USA, where else) and I couldn't have continued my travels without the cash being reimbursed, and that worked out ok. Otherwise it is probably possible to get someone in your home country to act for you or there are faxes, emails etc.

PT