I too applied 2 months before my retirement age.
4 months later I called them and asked what the situation was , as the mail from the UK to Thailand takes a couple of months ( that''s if it gets here )
They looked at my application , and told me that the bloke who filled it in did not submit it to the relevant dept. So I had to do it again.
They said they would expedite the claim considering it was their cock up. ( 2 to 3 weeks )
I called them again after another month of nothing happening , they apologised and said they would try and expedite the claim ( again )
At the moment , I am 6 months into my claim and still nothing.