Old Age Pension

[TRNCVaughan]

My 65th birthday is in September this year.
How do I go about claiming my OAP?
Has anyone done this recently?

[Agobard]

Go here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisat ... k-pensions You can make a claim online but you should receive something from them about 4 months before your pension start date. This website has all the information that you need though.

[JBA]

I've just about finished the process and I do now receive my pension - but I'm currently claiming the late payments because it's taken me 18 months to sort out. There are lots of pitfalls and I can help you avoid many that I fell into. I have PM'ed you with my phone no - call me any time.

[kiplet]

JBA hubby due for his State Pension soon but he is considering defering it any tips for him ?

[the butlers wife]

If you deferred your state pension would you not lose money? I thought you might earn more by taking it now
and earning 10% interest in a high interest lira account. I don't know this for sure, it is just a thought.




The butlers wife

[kiplet]

The butlers wife.
Deferring a state pension can help with reducing any UK tax liability on combined income on certain assets income etc, along side providing interest at the point of eventually taking state pension

However your positive point regarding TRNC interest is a also a consideration. Thanks.

[Mollie the cat]

Very helpful thread, thanks to all who contributed. I get mine September next year hopefully.

[JBA]

OK, as others are interested, I will try to give more details here.

Firstly, and most importantly, the procedure for somebody resident abroad is very different from that for a UK resident. I am talking here only about people resident abroad.

Residents abroad have a different website and different forms to fill in and you can claim up to 4 months prior to the due date. The phone nos for contact are listed on the website and I found that they were surprisingly helpful when I had queries. The link given earlier is the wrong one, the correct one is:-

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad

You cannot communicate with the Pension Service by email - that is reserved for UK residents only. There was a facility for completing the claim form online but it only worked with IE 6.01, not with Firefox or Crome or any later IE version. Unfortunately it appears to work but believe me it doesn't (unless they have recently updated it) and I couldn't anywhere find such an old version of IE.

The best way to proceed is to request a pension assessment - if you get this you are half way there because it means they recognise you and they have records for you. The international claim form is based on the concept that you are a foreigner who has done some work in the UK - which of course does not apply to most of us. In accordance with this the form requires you to fill in details of every place you have ever worked with dates and addresses (UK and abroad). It wants to know every time you have left and returned to the UK (for any reason) with dates. After a lot of toing and froing with them I got them to agree that none of this was necessary because they had a full record of my contributions and they were sufficient for a full pension.

Certain important documents are required (birth, marriage, divorce et. al.) but I have established with them that locally notarised copies are sufficient - Girne town centre Notaries charged 5tl per document. You can get someone to post originals for you in the UK but they will return them to your Cyprus address which may mean saying goodbye to them.

That's the main things off the top of my head - it's a starter for you anyway.

[JBA]

Deferred pensions.

I didn't choose a deferred pension but because of all the problems claiming it they ended up owing me a lump sum of £8784. Their letter referred to this as a deferred pension. They offered to pay this against either the 2013/4 or 2014/5 tax years whichever best suited me. Alternatively I could choose an additional pension of £21.89 weekly.

The maths (as I see it):-

Lump Sum

£8784 less 20% UK tax would give me £7027 in my hand
£7027 converted to tl and invested at 10% would give me £702 pa less tax = £638

(BUT .... this is only if rate stays at 10%.... and although I stick to UK£ for simplicity if it was converted now and the exchange rate later returned to normal levels then the interest would be worth more)

Extra Pension

£21.89 for 52 weeks is £1138 less 20% UK tax = £910

But this is all based on todays values - who knows what will happen to interest and exchange rates. Further, I don't know if the additional pension is subject to increases.

Hope it helps!

[kaiserphil]

I have contacted the International Pensions Centre several times by email.

Unless things have changed very recently, the email address is TVP.INTERNATIONALQUERIES@dwp.gsi.gov.uk.

[Mollie the cat]

I take it it's less complicated if you have a UK address, IE: no official body in the UK actually knows you live abroad?

[kaiserphil]

Well, they have always known I live abroad, both in Cyprus and Germany, and I have had no problems.