Is a Life Certificate sent to UK ex pats in Thailand every year to complete or is it every 2 years. Also is it sent the month prior to your month of birth.

I think It's every 2 years. I started receiving my SP in 2021 and received a Life Certificate in 2023 & 2025. Not sure if the date they are sent is related to your birth month or not.

On 2/5/2026 at 6:05 PM, lelapin said:

Also is it sent the month prior to your month of birth.

3 hours ago, Mutt Daeng said:

Not sure if the date they are sent is related to your birth month or not.

My birth month is August, but my last 2 Life Certs were issued in January.

I had about 5 in the first year after retirement at 65. Since then it has tailed off and now i get about 1 a year but not in any set sequence.

37 minutes ago, OJAS said:

My birth month is August, but my last 2 Life Certs were issued in January.

Yeah, my last 2 certs were also issued in January and my birth month is November.

As i've recently started to receive UK SP, this is a subject I know nothing about but would appreciate the heads up.

So every two years I can expect to receive a letter from DWP asking me to complete and return their life certificate form - correct?

Who are you getting to sign your form?

2 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

As i've recently started to receive UK SP, this is a subject I know nothing about but would appreciate the heads up.

So every two years I can expect to receive a letter from DWP asking me to complete and return their life certificate form - correct?

Who are you getting to sign your form?

If you receive a UK State Pension and the DWP know you don't live in the UK then you may receive the letters.

I get my local Doctor here to sign my form.

In a few years time I'll be getting my UK state pension and will also declare myself living in Thailand.

It's hard to believe they are still using 150 year-old methods to communicate around the globe.

If that letter gets lost in the post you're as good as dead 😵

5 hours ago, roger buttmore said:

In a few years time I'll be getting my UK state pension and will also declare myself living in Thailand.

It's hard to believe they are still using 150 year-old methods to communicate around the globe.

If that letter gets lost in the post you're as good as dead 😵

You best get used to it. Dwp and HMRC both issue letters which take weeks to arrive (usuallya month). Dwp will engage with you by email. It's a very slow process to sort out any issue with them.

I think if you are maintaining a uk address and receiving your payment in a uk bank, I don't think it's necessary to tell DWP you are overseas - but all correspondence will go to the uk address. You may of course want to receive your payment in to your Thai bank which is possible.

I have never received one in 14 yrs, unless the address it was sent to, of a mate of mine, filled it in. I don't have contact with him anymore.

7 minutes ago, Bredbury Blue said:

I think if you are maintaining a uk address and receiving your payment in a uk bank, I don't think it's necessary to tell DWP you are overseas - but all correspondence will go to the uk address. You may of course want to receive your payment in to your Thai bank which is possible.

My bank address is different from the address I was at when I first 'claimed' my pension..no letters for me.......Yet..😱

On 2/8/2026 at 9:16 AM, Bredbury Blue said:

You best get used to it. Dwp and HMRC both issue letters which take weeks to arrive (usuallya month). Dwp will engage with you by email. It's a very slow process to sort out any issue with them.

I think if you are maintaining a uk address and receiving your payment in a uk bank, I don't think it's necessary to tell DWP you are overseas - but all correspondence will go to the uk address. You may of course want to receive your payment in to your Thai bank which is possible.

I'm currently 63yo and live (in Thailand) from the proceeds of investments, for which I declare being a non-UK resident already for tax purposes. If anyone is interested, I use taxd.co.uk for filing my UK tax returns from Thailand.

I still maintain a UK address for which I've since completed UK electoral registration and my UK bank and credit card accounts are also listed at the same address, including Wise.

I plan to have the state pension paid into my Wise account (GBP) from which I can then transfer to Thai bank accounts or investment accounts depending on situation and/or need, also for improved foreign exchange rates and convenience.

That's the plan, but like most things could change should better alternatives surface.

Written correspondence seems so antiquated and such a pain in this digital world, but such is life.

On 2/5/2026 at 6:05 PM, lelapin said:

Also is it sent the month prior to your month of birth.

It depends on where you live, I think. I have got the impression that DWP target all State Pensioners living in Thailand for life certs at the same time, usually around January every 2 years. Since we were last subject to this ritual in 2025, it follows that we should be spared any further ordeal until this time next year.

Whenever DWP do launch the next exercise, I am sure that it will be publicised on here long before their letters drop in everyone's mailbox out here, and you can set the ball rolling in the absence of any letter by downloading the docs contained in the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6979e3a3316fd8f8015520b8/Life__Certificate__form.pdf

14 hours ago, OJAS said:

I have got the impression that DWP target all State Pensioners living in Thailand for life certs at the same time

That's what they told me when I phoned them around this time last year, not having received a postal notification. As you say, I think we can expect the next exercise next year.

If your pension gets stopped and a demand for life certificate never arrives, then you can call:

001441 9121 87777. Get ready for a long wait, and also prepare your date of birth, insurance number, in my case date of marriage, etc. If you get through the conversation, the money will arrive pretty soonish. I do this every two years as I have never received mail from theUK pensions apart from the first one confirming my pension. The notices are not sent out regularly, so it's no good printing out and sending the form when you feel it might be time. There is only a three months period every year when you can do this.

Personally, I prefer the telephone conversation to getting someone to sign the form, going to the post office and sending it by registered mail, which cost nearly ฿1000.- last time.

4 hours ago, cooked said:

If your pension gets stopped and a demand for life certificate never arrives, then you can call:

001441 9121 87777

Only if you're with CAT/NT. Other companies have their own prefixes.

6 hours ago, cooked said:

then you can call:

001441 9121 87777. Get ready for a long wait

One of the staff there told me the best time to call is right after the phone line becomes active at 8am. Following that advice the longest wait I've had is 10mins to be answered.

Is it 1926 or 2026?

Why do they not send them out and have them returned by email?

Don't tell me it is because it is secure - my last Armed Forces Pension statement had been opened at the Bangkok mail centre and the amount I receive, monthly and the annual total written in Thai script on the envelope.

Sending these out by surface mail, in the knowledge that the transit time is almost invariably such that they arrive after the deadline, is nothing more or less than an exercise in <deleted> the troops around!

On 2/12/2026 at 7:18 PM, treetops said:

Only if you're with CAT/NT. Other companies have their own prefixes.

Such as 00500-44-191-218-7777 with AIS.

On 2/8/2026 at 9:16 AM, Bredbury Blue said:

You best get used to it. Dwp and HMRC both issue letters which take weeks to arrive (usuallya month). Dwp will engage with you by email. It's a very slow process to sort out any issue with them.

I think if you are maintaining a uk address and receiving your payment in a uk bank, I don't think it's necessary to tell DWP you are overseas - but all correspondence will go to the uk address. You may of course want to receive your payment in to your Thai bank which is possible.

Of course, anyone receiving UK SP and say they are living in UK are breaking the Law, and liable to pay back IF discovered. Why let DWP do the exchange if paying into a Thai account. Get WISE!

On 2/14/2026 at 8:23 AM, JAG said:

Is it 1926 or 2026?

In the eyes of DWP, more likely 1840, I think, which is when the Penny Black stamp was first issued.

But their pals in HMPO hark back to an even earlier age, of course, given that we are still only permitted in 2026 to have our passport renewal applications delivered to VFS by shanks' pony!

On 2/8/2026 at 9:16 AM, Bredbury Blue said:

I don't think it's necessary to tell DWP you are overseas

It is necessary if you are getting the annual Pension increases. Then you will not get them!

On 2/8/2026 at 9:16 AM, Bredbury Blue said:

I think if you are maintaining a uk address and receiving your payment in a uk bank, I don't think it's necessary to tell DWP you are overseas - but all correspondence will go to the uk address

Ignore my incorrect comment above.

8 hours ago, OJAS said:

In the eyes of DWP, more likely 1840, I think, which is when the Penny Black stamp was first issued.

But their pals in HMPO hark back to an even earlier age, of course, given that we are still only permitted in 2026 to have our passport renewal applications delivered to VFS by shanks' pony!

Unless of course you use an agent. I used one in Pattaya, from Phitsanulok. 6k for Passport, 6k for them. New Passport arrived in exactly for weeks. No walking for me, except to the post office.

And as for getting the Passport Paperwork checked by some girl in VFS........555!