UK Pension Service - Total Farse

[piston broke]

i'm 64 and been living in Thailand for 18 years....  I am entitled to the UK state pension at age 64 .....

 

I know i missed a few years, so a month ago, tried contacting DWP to find out how many years i need to pay to get full pension entitlement.........

 

So you have to register for a Gateway account ...... went down the line and come to the "proof of identity" - needed 2 things ...passport - ok - driving licence card - not ok (expired years ago !) - proof of recent credit transactions, old P60 slips - don't have any, so couldn't complete registration and was told to ring them....

 

Dialled the number - auto reply said they were very busy and there was a 1.5 hour wait time to speak to someone - how dreadful is that ?..

 

Managed to find a way to send them a message  - told them whats what, and asked someone to contact me .....

 

1 month later - heard <deleted> all ....

 

So this afternoon tried ringing again .... A new tactic this time - the computer answers the call asks you loads of questions, each time confirming what you've said - after about 5 or 6 min, the computer says they are very busy and "goodbye" - then disconnects the call ....

 

What an absolute <deleted> state of afairs .....

 

i'm not holding out much hope - but anyone out there managed a way to either register or speak to a human ?

 

tia ...

[nigelforbes]

You don't say if you are calling the Pension Service or the International Service, the latter is usually easily accessible but is a different number.

[transam]

You can get the answers using the pension service site, just fill in the boxes.

As far as I am aware, you still need 35 years national insurance payments, if not, you will get a % of a pension, depending on years N.I. paid. You will get what ever is due at age 66.

 

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age

[DodgerRodger]

You could use the snail mail option

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1149714/br19-interactive-application-for-a-state-pension-statement.pdf

[Upnotover]

27 minutes ago, piston broke said:

I am entitled to the UK state pension at age 64

Why are you special?

[simon43]

I had the same problem some time ago.  I tried messaging but no luck.  The only way was to telephone the international section.  If you don't have 2 valid proofs of ID (my DL was lost/no photo ID), then you can still get registered by answering their probing questions.  I can't recall what additional questions they asked me (name of my pet cat, bust size of my ex-wife etc).  Whatever it was, I passed the test and managed to register.

 

As others have said, you will retire at 66.  If your missed years are more than a few years ago, then I think you have just missed the deadline to top these up (or you might have just a week or so to do it!).  You need to check asap.

[cleopatra2]

For the Government Gateway the credit reference does not have to be recent. However you need a uk address that can be linked to yourself.

The system will go through a number of credit reference questions and responses can be negative if correct.

Such as 

Question: How long since you opened your last current account.

It will then give a number of options for you to choose such as 1 year, 2 year etc,. The final option will be 

More than 5 years ago. 

There will be approx 5 questions of this nature.

 

I successfully registered only last week with just passport and no credit history using the option of  more than x years, and using an old UK address that is no longer connected to me.

 

 

[piston broke]

1 hour ago, transam said:

You can get the answers using the pension service site, just fill in the boxes.

As far as I am aware, you still need 35 years national insurance payments, if not, you will get a % of a pension, depending on years N.I. paid. You will get what ever is due at age 66.

 

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age

you have to register for a Gateway account ...... went down the line and come to the "proof of identity" - needed 2 things ...passport - ok - driving licence card - not ok (expired years ago !) - proof of recent credit transactions, old P60 slips - don't have any, so couldn't complete registration and was told to ring them....

[piston broke]

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

I had the same problem some time ago.  I tried messaging but no luck.  The only way was to telephone the international section.  If you don't have 2 valid proofs of ID (my DL was lost/no photo ID), then you can still get registered by answering their probing questions.  I can't recall what additional questions they asked me (name of my pet cat, bust size of my ex-wife etc).  Whatever it was, I passed the test and managed to register.

 

As others have said, you will retire at 66.  If your missed years are more than a few years ago, then I think you have just missed the deadline to top these up (or you might have just a week or so to do it!).  You need to check asap.

31 july....

[bkk_mike]

Last time I tried to get a government gateway ID in Thailand, they kept giving me a website where I had to enter the authentication code that they posted to me within 30 days of requesting it...

The problem was that the mail was franked second class, so although it got sent internationally OK, it went by boat, so that by the time it arrived it had expired.

I only ever managed to get the ID in time when I made a trip back to the UK and got it sent there...

 

[Denim]

11 hours ago, Upnotover said:

Why are you special?

Yes. I cant get mine until I'm 66 in September. Why does the OP think he can get his at 64 ?

[Homburg]

18 years ago the UK civil service was far more accessible.

[Bangkok Barry]

I had a different problem when I registered a year or so ago. They sent me a code but I could only receive it by giving them a rarely used Hotmail address. Using my regular address, it never arrived even as spam. Bizarre.

[The Fat Controller]

12 minutes ago, Denim said:

Yes. I cant get mine until I'm 66 in September. Why does the OP think he can get his at 64 ?

He doesn't, he, like me, has missing years that he is considering purchasing to increase his pension when he reaches state retirement age.

However, he will not be able to buy any missing years prior to (I believe) 2016, I stand to be corrected on that.

To find out what is available you have to contact the Future Pensions department directly or use your Government Gateway account.

After that you can either send a cheque in the post if you have a UK bank account or if you wish to pay electronically you require an 18 digit reference number which can be obtained by calling HMRC.

There are many topics about these issues on this forum

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/pensions-annuities-retirement-planning

[itsari]

You need a minimum  10 years of contributions , but if you worked in a country that has a social agreement with the UK that can help .

The help I received from the DWP was good .Only problem was having to answer questions to clarify identity each time i called .  Annoying 

 

[Harveyboy]

Ok ..if you want you can call free on their international pension number I've spoken to them twice this week very helpful..64 pension out of the window minimum now 66 I get mine this year I have several free numbers for both normal and international..if anyone wants them ..as I said helped me do my application over the phone job done very helpful..

H..

[ian carman]

I think there’s a link to download a form to fill in had similar issue for my Thai wife when she went self employed 

[ChrisKC]

56 minutes ago, Denim said:

Yes. I cant get mine until I'm 66 in September. Why does the OP think he can get his at 64 ?

I got mine when I was 65 (2010)

[Denim]

21 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

I got mine when I was 65 (2010)

Changed since then. I already  used the Gov web site and have been told what my pension rate will be. I was pleasantly surprised since I thought I had missed more years than gov. records work from.

 

However , that quote was given several months ago and was based on the old rate. The increased pension rise begins this month so I will request another assessment in May to get the updated rate. Either way , although not the full rate , still more than I was expecting.

[Denim]

This might help some people :

 

 

 

[sandyf]

11 hours ago, piston broke said:

you have to register for a Gateway account ...... went down the line and come to the "proof of identity" - needed 2 things ...passport - ok - driving licence card - not ok (expired years ago !) - proof of recent credit transactions, old P60 slips - don't have any, so couldn't complete registration and was told to ring them....

You should write to them, could take a few weeks for a response but it will be by email and plain sailing from then on and a lot less hassle.

[sandyf]

8 minutes ago, Denim said:

However , that quote was given several months ago and was based on the old rate.

What do you mean by the "old" rate.

There are 2 state pension rates, the old rate and the new rate. The old was about £141 and the new about £156.

Both rose by about 10% a few days ago making them £156.20 and £203.85 respectively.

[Denim]

5 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Both rose by about 10% a few days ago making them £156.20 and £203.85 respectively.

That is what I meant by old rate.

[sandyf]

12 minutes ago, Denim said:

That is what I meant by old rate.

You quoted the new rates?

I should have realised that you can only look at the "new rate", the "old rate" only applies to those in receipt of their pension pre 2016. Apologies.

It is a bit of a coincidence that the 2022 rate for the "new rate" was about the same as the 2023 rate for the "old rate".

[piston broke]

14 hours ago, Upnotover said:

Why are you special?

sorry - i meant 66 !  was so wound up after the farce on the phone to the Pension hotline ...

[Nabbiex]

Government gateway ID

 

In the past I had some difficulties to make the access to it because it prompts for UK mobile number I do not have. All I have is Thai mobile number so I gave up to attempt it. Until recently, I am surprised that I got the access to it successfully after its system sends the code to my Thai mobile number automatically. I enter the code and it is somewhat working perfectly.  

[bluemoonpattaya]

My state pension started on the 3rd March this year, and missed out on the 10% rise by 1 month.

A few months before i applied for my pension by phone, to the International Pension Centre GOV.UK

+44 800 731 0341   I used skype and the call was free of charge, and i was on the phone for 1 hour.

 

[jimn]

If you are 64 years of age you get your state pension at 66 not 64, why do you think that. Yes its a bit of a hassle getting a gov.uk id but quite easy really. Once you have the Government gateway ID its easy to check missing years and pay via this link

https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

[fulhamster]

2 hours ago, Harveyboy said:

Ok ..if you want you can call free on their international pension number I've spoken to them twice this week very helpful..64 pension out of the window minimum now 66 I get mine this year I have several free numbers for both normal and international..if anyone wants them ..as I said helped me do my application over the phone job done very helpful..

H..

Please could you share these numbers ?

[Harveyboy]

1 minute ago, fulhamster said:

Please could you share these numbers ?

Ok I'm traveling at the moment will put them  on here tonight ..no probs