UK pensions-life certificate

[Kwasaki]

31 minutes ago, transam said:

My first farang witness never had a stamp as he was retired, the rest were witnessed by a farang friend with a business in LOS that had a rubber stamp, all were accepted....????

Yes they just want the form acknowledged and sent back there's a number of ways DWP (IPC) can check your alive.

I haven't had a life form for nearly 4 years maybe they read TV.????

[transam]

1 minute ago, Kwasaki said:

Yes they just want the form acknowledged and sent back there's a number of ways DWP (IPC) can check your alive.

I haven't had a life form for nearly 4 years maybe they read TV.????

Don't tell the guys who don't really live here that....????......????

[evadgib]

I have signed several docs over the years without any probs. I have had the odd follow up phone call but DPA (now GDPR) restricts what they can ask to "are you <name>" and "did you sign <doc> on <date>?" before the phone goes dead.

[OJAS]

7 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

I haven't had a life form for nearly 4 years

Little wonder that this exercise is such a doddle for you then.

[SantiSuk]

12 hours ago, evadgib said:

I have signed several docs over the years without any probs. I have had the odd follow up phone call but DPA (now GDPR) restricts what they can ask to "are you <name>" and "did you sign <doc> on <date>?" before the phone goes dead.

I'm curious - how do they get your number? It's not required to be given on the witness declaration. I'm guessing you must have a stamp with your phone number on. If so - perhaps don't stamp it in future (having satisfied yourself by a recent posting on here or by ringing them up and confirming they don't need a stamp!).

 

Then again I guess there's no harm in being rung up and perhaps those of you guys that do it with a stamp/full tracking are supporting the whole process not being blown up into a gestapo-like interrogation - ie as long as they can tick some boxes form some of the forms then they can overlook the more informal/untraceable-except-by-address nature of the responses many of us give.

 

Edit: Aha - just realised you are talking about DPA/GDPR, which perhaps are an entirely different process to the IPS (formerly DWP) process?!

 

 

Edited November 18, 2018 by SantiSuk

[Henryford]

Like many of you i got my life certificate letter from the UK about 3 months ago. I got it signed and sent off straight away, and heard nothing more. I had a pension payment due on the 18th December and it didn't arrive !! When i telephoned to check the lady said oh yes we have had thousands of life certificates returned but haven't been able to match them all so we just stopped your pension. So the b******s just stopped my pension a week before Christmas with no warning or message. She reluctantly agreed to release the payment but said it would take 3-5 working days to clear i.e. AFTER Christmas. Luckily i have other income/savings but it might have caused a big problem for some OAPs. I should have said i was a r@pefugee and got the cash straight away.

[transam]

A friend got the village head man to witness his signature, sent it off...His pension stopped, seems they didn't like the head man as a witness..

 

They should have just called to tell the pensioner the witness was of no use, try again...????

[p414]

ask any police officer, his stamp is ok .I gave 100 baht.

[soalbundy]

2 hours ago, Henryford said:

Like many of you i got my life certificate letter from the UK about 3 months ago. I got it signed and sent off straight away, and heard nothing more. I had a pension payment due on the 18th December and it didn't arrive !! When i telephoned to check the lady said oh yes we have had thousands of life certificates returned but haven't been able to match them all so we just stopped your pension. So the b******s just stopped my pension a week before Christmas with no warning or message. She reluctantly agreed to release the payment but said it would take 3-5 working days to clear i.e. AFTER Christmas. Luckily i have other income/savings but it might have caused a big problem for some OAPs. I should have said i was a r@pefugee and got the cash straight away.

been there done that, Great Britain !!!

[soalbundy]

2 hours ago, transam said:

A friend got the village head man to witness his signature, sent it off...His pension stopped, seems they didn't like the head man as a witness..

 

They should have just called to tell the pensioner the witness was of no use, try again...????

Too much work, stopping the pension is easier.

[soalbundy]

5 minutes ago, p414 said:

ask any police officer, his stamp is ok .I gave 100 baht.

go to the Tetsabaan and get the mayor to sign it, costs me nothing and is always accepted.

[Dyno]

What nobody has mentioned here is that in the guide line section it states whoever you get to witness they must put there official stamp on the form I had to do mine some 10 months ago. So I don't understand how a teacher or some of the other suggestions on here have been acceptable as being private individuals who would not be able to provide an official stamp.

[Jip99]

15 minutes ago, Dyno said:

What nobody has mentioned here is that in the guide line section it states whoever you get to witness they must put there official stamp on the form I had to do mine some 10 months ago. So I don't understand how a teacher or some of the other suggestions on here have been acceptable as being private individuals who would not be able to provide an official stamp.

 

 

An official stamp is not required.....as confirmed somewhere on here by DWP.

[Kwasaki]

Sent my life form off today and emailed IPC to tell em because they have suspended my pension twice.

My 3rd email to them and no reply from them after over a month of first email sent. 

Spoke to them on phone and confirmed ID they said we have put your pension through but it will be suspended again if we don't get the form, we have to see something on paper witnessed in black & white, I said sarcastically Oh dear it's been signed with a blue pen. ????

[OJAS]

7 hours ago, Henryford said:

Like many of you i got my life certificate letter from the UK about 3 months ago. I got it signed and sent off straight away, and heard nothing more. I had a pension payment due on the 18th December and it didn't arrive !! When i telephoned to check the lady said oh yes we have had thousands of life certificates returned but haven't been able to match them all so we just stopped your pension. So the b******s just stopped my pension a week before Christmas with no warning or message. She reluctantly agreed to release the payment but said it would take 3-5 working days to clear i.e. AFTER Christmas. Luckily i have other income/savings but it might have caused a big problem for some OAPs. I should have said i was a r@pefugee and got the cash straight away.

 

What I think that this disgraceful episode serves to illustrate is that it is most unwise to assume that all’s well that ends well as far as a witnessed life certificate is concerned as soon as it’s popped into a letter box for its initial journey to Wolverhampton. Even if mailing progress is tracked until successful delivery, there, of course, remain subsequent uncertainties as to when it has completed its onward trip to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and then been processed there as necessary by some IPC oik.

 

With this in mind, what I did a month after posting my witnessed certificate (by the standard non-trackable Airmail service) was to call IPC in order to check that it had been safely received at their end and suitably processed. Fortunately I was given positive responses on both counts, and I subsequently received my first pension payment due after the expiry of the IPC 16-week deadline without any problem.
 

Edited December 24, 2018 by OJAS

[OJAS]

4 hours ago, p414 said:

ask any police officer, his stamp is ok .I gave 100 baht.

Wifey got our local police captain to plonk his bright red stamp on my certificate without the need for me to part with a single satang...

[Kwasaki]

18 hours ago, OJAS said:

With this in mind, what I did a month after posting my witnessed certificate (by the standard non-trackable Airmail service) was to call IPC in order to check that it had been safely received at their end and suitably processed. Fortunately I was given positive responses on both counts, and I subsequently received my first pension payment due after the expiry of the IPC 16-week deadline without any problem.
 

Yeah well unbeknown to me they sent me a life form in August which I didn't get so my pension was suspended they didn't try to contact me in any other way although they have my email & mobile number.

It wasn't until I telephoned them to say I haven't received my pension that I was to realize what the problem was. 

I do not have this problem with private pensions and told them so, to a reply of well that's not our concern. 

[CRUNCHER]

I sent my Proof of Life certificate in September whilst I was in UK.  Has it witnessed in a Job Center, where the guy who signed it said he had often done it. No problem I thought.

 

Pension due on 11th December was not paid.  13th December I sent an E-mail through GGDWP website. 28th December received a reply (hard to work out as there was no punctuation). Basically confirmed my proof of life was received and processed on 12th September, they stopped my pension (two months later), but would now reinstate it. (Punctuation mine.)

 

No explanation and no apology.

 

Not only hopeless inefficiency, but rude and ignorant bad manners.

[Jip99]

On 12/24/2018 at 6:55 PM, OJAS said:

Wifey got our local police captain to plonk his bright red stamp on my certificate without the need for me to part with a single satang...

 

 

 

So he would know what he was putting his name to then...................????

[Jip99]

7 minutes ago, CRUNCHER said:

I sent my Proof of Life certificate in September whilst I was in UK.  Has it witnessed in a Job Center, where the guy who signed it said he had often done it. No problem I thought.

 

Pension due on 11th December was not paid.  13th December I sent an E-mail through GGDWP website. 28th December received a reply (hard to work out as there was no punctuation). Basically confirmed my proof of life was received and processed on 12th September, they stopped my pension (two months later), but would now reinstate it. (Punctuation mine.)

 

No explanation and no apology.

 

Not only hopeless inefficiency, but rude and ignorant bad manners.

 

 

Yep, they don't get many wrong - and quickly correct mistakes when the do occur - invariably on the phone, unlike most institutions.

 

 

 

You must be one in a million...............

[Tweedle dee]

2 hours ago, CRUNCHER said:

I sent my Proof of Life certificate in September whilst I was in UK.  Has it witnessed in a Job Center, where the guy who signed it said he had often done it. No problem I thought.

 

Pension due on 11th December was not paid.  13th December I sent an E-mail through GGDWP website. 28th December received a reply (hard to work out as there was no punctuation). Basically confirmed my proof of life was received and processed on 12th September, they stopped my pension (two months later), but would now reinstate it. (Punctuation mine.)

 

No explanation and no apology.

 

Not only hopeless inefficiency, but rude and ignorant bad manners.

You are merely a number not a human ... your demise would be appreciated. saves on paper work . TD

[SantiSuk]

I sent mine rather late in the certification time frame and it was signed as received on 26 November 2018 (16 weeks and one day after the date of their notice). In mid December I received a letter from them dated 27 November 2018 telling me they had stopped my pension.

 

I phoned them up and told them that my reply was one day late but they had rather jumped the gun and sent a letter only two days after my certificate was due and one day after it was in their hands.

 

The call centre lady apologised and agreed they should not have sent the pension-stopped letter so quickly. She confirmed that they had received my certification before they sent out their letter. She made some enquiries and confirmed that after they had sent out the stop letter they had recognised the certificate's arrival, confirmed it was all in order (signed by a local falang teacher friend without any official stamp) and had released the stop on my pension. Accordingly I was told that I would not in fact miss the 4 weekly payment that they had briefly and wrongly intended to stop.

 

 

Dunno why they are sending these stop letters so quickly when their systems for logging receipts is obviously not up to the requirements of such a rapid fire response. At least this respondent was very civil about International Pension Service's failure and at least they are reversing stop decisions even once they have cleared receipt of a certificate.

[OJAS]

22 hours ago, Jip99 said:

So he would know what he was putting his name to then...................????

Not sure that he was actually since his knowledge of English is virtually non-existent. But at least he didn't complain about having to sign a form in English - in stark contrast to those on here who complain about having to sign forms in Thai presented to them by their local immigration offices!

[OJAS]

14 hours ago, SantiSuk said:

Dunno why they are sending these stop letters so quickly when their systems for logging receipts is obviously not up to the requirements of such a rapid fire response. At least this respondent was very civil about International Pension Service's failure and at least they are reversing stop decisions even once they have cleared receipt of a certificate.

But one thing which IPC's systems clearly excel at is in pensions being stopped immediately after deadlines have been exceeded in their less-than-competent eyes. I have visions of some oik there being paid handsome overtime solely in order to push the button on allegedly overdue life certificates from 00:00:01 UK time each day!

Edited December 30, 2018 by OJAS

[Jip99]

7 minutes ago, OJAS said:

But one thing which IPC's systems clearly excel at is in pensions being stopped immediately after deadlines have been exceeded in their less-than-competent eyes. I have visions of some oik there being paid handsome overtime solely in order to push the button on allegedly overdue life certificates from 00:00:01 UK time each day!

 

 

 

................ and I see nothing wrong in that.

 

 

 

There are very few cases where the beneficiary has genuinely suffered through no fault of their own.

 

 

Private pension companies seek life certificates on a regular basis - I see no reason why the DWP shouldn't do the same.

[CRUNCHER]

16 hours ago, SantiSuk said:

I sent mine rather late in the certification time frame and it was signed as received on 26 November 2018 (16 weeks and one day after the date of their notice). In mid December I received a letter from them dated 27 November 2018 telling me they had stopped my pension.

 

I phoned them up and told them that my reply was one day late but they had rather jumped the gun and sent a letter only two days after my certificate was due and one day after it was in their hands.

 

The call centre lady apologised and agreed they should not have sent the pension-stopped letter so quickly. She confirmed that they had received my certification before they sent out their letter. She made some enquiries and confirmed that after they had sent out the stop letter they had recognised the certificate's arrival, confirmed it was all in order (signed by a local falang teacher friend without any official stamp) and had released the stop on my pension. Accordingly I was told that I would not in fact miss the 4 weekly payment that they had briefly and wrongly intended to stop.

 

 

Dunno why they are sending these stop letters so quickly when their systems for logging receipts is obviously not up to the requirements of such a rapid fire response. At least this respondent was very civil about International Pension Service's failure and at least they are reversing stop decisions even once they have cleared receipt of a certificate.

At least you got a letter; I got nothing but an empty space in my bank account.

 

I am lucky, because I do not depend on my UK pension. Some people, however, do and I feel sorry for them due to this complete lack of quality service. There is no excuse whatsoever.

[Kwasaki]

On 12/29/2018 at 3:08 PM, Jip99 said:

 

 

Yep, they don't get many wrong - and quickly correct mistakes when the do occur - invariably on the phone, unlike most institutions.

 

 

 

You must be one in a million...............

Not my case and one 4week pension being stopped and then another after I had telephoned them about the first one is wrong.

There incompodent for sure. 

[soalbundy]

2 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Not my case and one 4week pension being stopped and then another after I had telephoned them about the first one is wrong.

There incompodent for sure. 

True but on the phone they are nice while giving you bullshit.

[Jip99]

41 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Not my case and one 4week pension being stopped and then another after I had telephoned them about the first one is wrong.

There incompodent for sure. 

 

Unusual - based on many stories I have heard about contact with the IPC. I know of 3 people who's pension payment were immediately restored.

 

I have personally found them helpful on a couple of "what if" enquiries.

 

Always polite/helpful - even if soalbundy may be right about the BS factor ????

[Kwasaki]

29 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

Unusual - based on many stories I have heard about contact with the IPC. I know of 3 people who's pension payment were immediately restored.

 

I have personally found them helpful on a couple of "what if" enquiries.

 

Always polite/helpful - even if soalbundy may be right about the BS factor ????

Yeah well in begining fine but now the way I have been treated I am very disappointed  with regards  to life forms not being received at my Thai address sent by snail mail, no contact from them which they had access to,  they just cut me off and left the ball in my court.