My wife bought a house in the UK when she had been granted indefinite leave and now she is awaiting citizenship. It seems you can do everything with just indefinite leave, other than vote.

Anyway, is there anything else she needs to do when she gets her Brit pssport other than get on the electoral register? What about sorting an old age pension in the UK? She's 40 and works part time only.

Thansk readers.

Other than entering her on the electoral register and applying for a British passport; nothing.

She doesn't need to be a British citizen to receive a state pension; merely have been working and paid sufficient NI contributions.

That's great, thanks. The passport shouldnt take long and the register will be done in a phone call. Perfect.

I'll give HMC a call and see what we need to do regards pensions (not that she'll need it as we'll be in Thailand in 5 years) but it would be good to pay the voluntary payments

Cheers again poster

As far as I recall your wife can commence paying voluntary NI contributions once she has lived in UK for three years. At that point you can buy back six years worth and continue paying whilst overseas, as 7x7 says, until thirty years of full contributions is reached, giving 100% of a state pension. This pension is payable if you live overseas, but Thailand is one of the many countries whereby annual inflation increases are not available.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/StatePension/index.htm

Thanks for that.