UK pensions-life certificate

[MikeandDow]

We can but hope that sometime in the future they will move into the 21st century and adopt a more up to date method of proving if a person is alive or dead. I see they are asking you for a tracking number and all the transit details despite the fact you have given them all these details already in a previous email. That is very worrying development. If the cannot find something sent by a secure method like EMS just how do you prove you have sent your Life Certificate back. For the life of me I still cannot understand why they have changed the rules and now no longer allow faxed completed Life Certificates. Previously in my case I had confirmation that they had received and actioned my certificate the day after sending the fax. So much easier but above all it puts the recipient of the pension at ease that they will be no blip in his or her future pension payments.. This time Life Certificate was received at Wolverhampton on the 12th July and I am still waiting for an email telling me it has been received at Newcastle.

If I was you I would be sending them an E-mail including Tracking report and number if you sent by EMS and would include scanned copy of cert

and I think this is more than enough to demonstrate that you have complied with the procedures and its up to them to prove you have not sent it, you can not be held responsible for mistakes in there internal mail procedures, if they require me to send another on I will be asking the for money for postal.

[khastan]

Good idea I will do that thank's for the advice. Has a matter of interest has anybody who has sent back a completed Life Certificate by whatever method recently to Wolverhampton had confirmation that it has been received by the relevant department at Newcastle?

[khastan]

Good idea I will do that thank's for the advice. Has a matter of interest has anybody who has sent back a completed Life Certificate by whatever method recently to Wolverhampton had confirmation that it has been received by the relevant department at Newcastle?

Following a fellow members advice have now sent them the following email and now await their reply.

Dear Sir or Madam

Thank you for your email.

Further to this my Life Certificate, duly completed was posted back to you on the 4th July. It was posted by registered post from Nong Khai under tracking number RR073003232TH on the 4th July at 12.16am Thai time. It was confirmed received at your Wolverhampton mail handling site on the morning of the 12th July, please see below for full tracking details. Can you please confirm that you have received my Life Certificate, it has been cleared and my pension will now be paid as normal.

I am also attaching a scanned copy of the relevant completed Life Certificate received by you on the 12th July.

Yours sincerely

Mr

July 4, 2016

12:16:23 NONG KHAI Accept

July 4, 2016

16:16:09 NONG KHAI Items Into Container

July 4, 2016

16:35:47 NONG KHAI Dispatch

July 4, 2016

16:38:17 NONG KHAI Dispatch

July 4, 2016

19:56:17 UDON THANI MAIL CENTER Items Into Container

July 4, 2016

19:56:46 UDON THANI MAIL CENTER Dispatch

July 5, 2016

13:15:06 SUVARNABHUMI MAIL CENTRE Container Received

July 5, 2016

14:02:38 SUVARNABHUMI MAIL CENTRE Departure From Outward OE

July 11, 2016

00:33:00 Great Britain (GBLALA) Accept

July 12, 2016

09:00-11:59 Great Britain (WV 1) Delivery Status Successful Recipient Name

[soap]

Good idea I will do that thank's for the advice. Has a matter of interest has anybody who has sent back a completed Life Certificate by whatever method recently to Wolverhampton had confirmation that it has been received by the relevant department at Newcastle?

I sent the form off on the 6 July by air mail (29฿) then sent a email to explain why there was no stamp

Received this email back 3 days ago

Thank you for your email to Newcastle Pension Centre (International Group) dated 6 July 2016

I have checked our mail handling site and your life certificate arrived with them on the 13th July 2016, this will be forwarded onto the relevant department to action.

Yours Sincerely

[khastan]

Success! Have just received the following email in reply to mine sent a short time ago.

"Mr

Thank you for your recent email.

I can confirm your Life Certificate has been received in the department and processed. Your account has been updated."

It looks like we can all save money and use Thai registered post instead of EMS to send the Life Certificate back.

I sincerely hope all members have the same satisfactory result with their returned Life Certificates.

[sometime]

Good idea I will do that thank's for the advice. Has a matter of interest has anybody who has sent back a completed Life Certificate by whatever method recently to Wolverhampton had confirmation that it has been received by the relevant department at Newcastle?

Posted mine on 11th July, normal airmail 19 Baht.

Received email last night

Thank you for your email dated 11^th July 2016

I have checked your records and I can confirm that the Life Certificate was received and processed by our offices on 19^th July 2016 and no further action is required.

[sprq]

Just make it up and fill in yourself, they are not going to check, they just want to get the form back to see you are not dead

To avoid any probs the very least should be to use someone with a UK or Commonwealth passport and/or is on the electoral register. The tongue-in-cheek suggestion above is asking for problems if taken seriously.

Why "tongue-in-cheek"? I'd call it very probably correct. Do you think anyone at the pension service is going to see if Thai bank clerk X or Thai civil servant Y actually exists? Can you imagine the amount of resources that would take? Not even the British Embassy, with local staff, could easily check on these names. No, making it up, carefully and convincingly, will certainly work.

[MikeandDow]

Just make it up and fill in yourself, they are not going to check, they just want to get the form back to see you are not dead

To avoid any probs the very least should be to use someone with a UK or Commonwealth passport and/or is on the electoral register. The tongue-in-cheek suggestion above is asking for problems if taken seriously.

Why "tongue-in-cheek"? I'd call it very probably correct. Do you think anyone at the pension service is going to see if Thai bank clerk X or Thai civil servant Y actually exists? Can you imagine the amount of resources that would take? Not even the British Embassy, with local staff, could easily check on these names. No, making it up, carefully and convincingly, will certainly work.

I would 100% agree with you the pension service would NOT check, Christ they can not trace mail in there offices. they just want to see a signature, At least you know the pension service will not move into the 21st century Paperless office !!!!!!!

[evadgib]

Whether they're able to check a Thai's credentials is doubtful, but rest assured they have been known to check on Brit countersignatories. I have no idea what the consequences could be for 'self-certifying' but at the very least I'd expect 6-8 months of non payment while they scrutinized whoever tried such folly and was caught.

Any that can't afford to wait that long might think twice before 'filling their boots!'

Edited July 22, 2016 by evadgib

[Kwasaki]

Good idea I will do that thank's for the advice. Has a matter of interest has anybody who has sent back a completed Life Certificate by whatever method recently to Wolverhampton had confirmation that it has been received by the relevant department at Newcastle?

Haven't read all though but to answer your question it seems to me when l have sent mail to IPC before sending it by EMS because the mail requires a signature of receipt this seems to delay the letter getting to the office to deal with.

On receiving my Life Certificate l sent it back in there envelope provided by airmail and the Thai PO gives a receipt.

Because there letter with Life Certificate took just over 3 weeks for me to receive it I waited 3 weeks and telephoned them explaining bla bla etc. after ID check they looked and confirmed they had received it.

Emailing takes too long ring em.

[ThaiLife]

A little information which I am sure you can help with. How long after claiming your state pension did you start to get this life certificate form? I am of the opinion that would be 5 years after the claiming date is that correct? Second question which some of you might know,. Is the letter requiring your attention sent at your birthday or at the anniversary of you claiming your pension?

I received my first ever UK pension payment in May of this year , and received my first pension life certificate this month .

TL

Just an update

A few days ago I received my second ever life certificate , the letter was dated ... June the 12th 2016

I completed the form and posted it back , but it says this on the letter .........

We must receive your reply within 8 weeks from the date of this form

I decided to telephone the international pension centre ... 009 - 44 - 191 21 87777 , and tell them my completed form may be a little late arriving with them.

The lady who I spoke to said that the 8 weeks had now been updated to 16 weeks , but they had not yet updated their forms.

( sorry if this info has all ready been posted )

TL

[MikeandDow]

see my posts above for more info

 

just received this today

Mr Doyle

 

In response to your email dated 22 July unfortunately we are yet to receive your Life Certificate, However after checking the tracking number and have seen it was logged as arrived on July 4^th then I will clear your certificate based on the tracking number.

So all action is now complete and your payments will continue as normal, I can only apologise that this wasn’t sorted sooner

 

If you require any further information don’t hesitate in getting in contact with us again

 

Regards 

 

Christopher Hall

 

my response

Thank you for your E-mail, I must point out that I find this absolutely incredible in the 21st century that you can not locate a letter that was sent by courier (EMS) and proven that YOU have signed and received it,  you must have very poor mail receive procedures, I am just wondering what would have happened IF I did not send by EMS (pension cut off) have you guys not heard of secure servers, I sent you e-mails each day to get a response to see what was happening BUT no responses' I think this is very very bad service.      

 

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A TRACKING NUMBER    I find that this is bullshit service   oh by the waty to get a reply I set up an auto reply each day so I flooded them with e-mails

[sprq]

On 22/07/2016 at 4:12 PM, sprq said:

Why "tongue-in-cheek"? I'd call it very probably correct. Do you think anyone at the pension service is going to see if Thai bank clerk X or Thai civil servant Y actually exists? Can you imagine the amount of resources that would take? Not even the British Embassy, with local staff, could easily check on these names. No, making it up, carefully and convincingly, will certainly work.

I totally concur with that. In fact, I don't think the British Embassy would even accept the task of checking on the veracity of the existence of Thai civil servant Y or pharmacist Z. The Pension Service is never going to check on any witnesses supplied - it's just far too difficult. That said, make your reply look convincing.

[thai3]

Right, I made these forms up for years and never any come back, people worry too much, it's just BS paper work.

[Kwasaki]

On 8/5/2016 at 5:53 PM, MikeandDow said:

 WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A TRACKING NUMBER    I find that this is bullshit service   oh by the waty to get a reply I set up an auto reply each day so I flooded them with e-mails

 

ID 340   my posts explains what l have found,  emails are a waste of time,  telephone them they much prefer that and they are always helpful.

The life form in their return envelope just sent back by airmail as they request you do has worked fine for me.

You still get a receipt from the Thai post office.  

 

[OJAS]

Bumping this thread since we appear to be coming to the time of year when some of us may find further requests from DWP for witnessed life certificates dropping into our mailboxes. Has anyone received a new request yet?

Edited June 27, 2017 by OJAS

[OJAS]

Bumping this thread once again because there have just been a couple of reports in the "UK Pensions" pinned thread of fresh life certificates being requested by DWP. Looks like it might be "that time" once again for us State Pensioners living in LOS!

[theoldgit]

A mate of mine has just received one.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[banK]

I received one today.

 

banK

 

[OJAS]

And I, too, received one shortly after bumping this thread!

[JohnC]

Received one today .

[khastan]

I received one this morning also.

[theoldgit]

A mate of mine has just received one.

I went to Siam Paragon yesterday to witness my mates form, as a retired Civil Servant I’m able to do so.
When I got back home there was one waiting for me in my mailbox. Talk about sods laws, so it’s back to Paragon later today for him to sign mine, they were both dated 5 August.

[doctormann]

Me too!

[dabhand]

Received mine today. Also dated 5th August.

 

Only started receiving the pension about five months back, so that is a bit sharp.

 

[OJAS]

On 8/24/2018 at 7:02 AM, theoldgit said:

I went to Siam Paragon yesterday to witness my mates form, as a retired Civil Servant I’m able to do so.
When I got back home there was one waiting for me in my mailbox. Talk about sods laws, so it’s back to Paragon later today for him to sign mine, they were both dated 5 August.

Got our local police captain to do the necessary yesterday. He was more than willing, but his grasp of English is minimal. So explaining to him what he needed to do was a bit of a challenge - though I finally got there in the end with my wife's assistance!

 

But I really do believe that DWP could and should be more proactive in assisting State Pensioners in countries where English is not the official language by providing (e.g.) dual language versions of the Witness Declaration section - or, even better, explanatory guidance notes in the local language which State Pensioners could then simply hand to their non-English-speaking witnessers. Will be making this suggestion in a covering letter to DWP, even though I strongly suspect that it will fall on deaf ears.

[JAS21]

Got mine a couple of days ago ... have a friend up the road who is a retired Air Marshall ... got him to sign it ... wonder it he will be accepted ...

[cooked]

I also got my first English "Life certificate" on Friday. I get pensions from two countries and three pensions authorities, so think yourselves lucky.

So: bank official: stares of indignant incredulity that I would waste their time (once they understand) No

Solicitor: only know one and he doesn't speak English, two hours away

Doctor: next one I know that speaks English lives two hours away

Local mayor: apparently doesn't have a stamp

Police: don't speak English, don't do

Minister of religion: priests don't have stamps

etc

I am going to wander around the local Family Court this afternoon to see if I can find someone willing to do the stuff.

At least with my Swiss pensions I can go to the Embassy, 6 hours drive but they do then send it off for me.

[billd766]

I got 2 last week and I will try the local hospital and if that doesn't work it will be back to the amphur police station where it costs me some cold beers.

[Expattaff1308]

Got mine today as did a mate, I've only been receiving the Pension since April ?

 

This may help (from the website) 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/463191/Life_Certificate_Witness_Options.pdf

Edited August 27, 2018 by Expattaff1308