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!

The unreliability of the postal service in my location - Pattaya Dark Side - does cause considerable problems when it comes to the non-delivery of important documents. My occupational pension from the UKAEA is currently under suspension because the request for a Life Certificate (every two years) was not delivered. At least you can contact them by email, unlike the DWP, so the resolution does not depend on snail mail or international phone calls. The situation should be rectified shortly - I just hope that they are not going to send another request by snail mail as I would likely not receive it - again!! I do have an blank copy of the 2023 form that I could send (filled out) but the format may well have changed.

This prompted me to think about the DWP angle. I did a cert. for them in April 2025 so either I am OK for another year or another one is probably already overdue!

On 2/16/2026 at 1:52 AM, wil iam not said:

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!

what "law" would this be? As far as getting "wise" I have seen that Wise pay better conversion rates than DWP

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

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.

It's completely random and only if you have told them you are living outside the UK.

2 hours ago, bruce123123 said:

what "law" would this be? As far as getting "wise" I have seen that Wise pay better conversion rates than DWP

The Law which says that if you live in THailand, you are not entitled to Pension increases. Phillipines etc all OK, only Thailand. WHY?

There is not that much difference between WISE, REVOLUT and SWIFT, maybe a couple of hundred baht.

I must send my monthly transfer today, so I shall split between those three, and let you know the exact figures. It's what lands in your bank what matters, regardless of exchange rates and fees.

1 hour ago, wil iam not said:

The Law which says that if you live in THailand, you are not entitled to Pension increases. Phillipines etc all OK, only Thailand.

There is no such law!

Not to mention, nobody employed by the UK government has ever asked me where I currently live .........

They just keep using the address I lived at 20+ years back when the Government gateway (2001) first opened and I lived in the UK.

Edited June 1Jun 1 by BritManToo

31 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

There is no such law!

Not to mention, nobody employed by the UK government has ever asked me where I currently live .........

They just keep using the address I lived at 20+ years back when the Government gateway (2001) first opened and I lived in the UK.

You must tell the DWP of any change in circumstances, which I guess, a move to Thailand would be. Then they would say, sorry, no increases.