# Proof of life forms time again !



## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

Its﻿ that time again ! Pension not recieved on or 3 days after date due.

Dialled﻿ 109 on pldt landline for international calls IDD not on pldt ! gave the nice lady the pension service﻿ phone no

And within seconds connected to the int pension service !

Pressed a few buttons﻿ and got through to a very helpful chap named David.

Who told me the POL forms were sent to me in January ! As was the case in 2013

Never got them ! I asked if i could still use the ones stored on my Pc which he said yes

And he asked me to send them﻿ asap . And he also said he would release my pension payment !

So tommorrow its of to the Hospital to see our friendly doctor to witness the forms

for both myself and the wife, and then to LBC﻿.

mind you the thing that annoys me is they our emails and﻿ our landline number

So why cant they contact us these ways if they do not recieve ﻿the forms back within a certain time ?﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿


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## Asian Spirit (Mar 1, 2010)

expatuk2016 said:


> Its﻿ that time again ! Pension not recieved on or 3 days after date due.
> 
> Dialled﻿ 109 on pldt landline for international calls IDD not on pldt ! gave the nice lady the pension service﻿ phone no
> 
> ...


The Philippine mail service {Philpost} is not reliable to put it mildly. Even though you are not American; if you will locate the closest American VFW Post (Veterans Of Foreign Wars) you can use their PO Box mail service. Cost is about P1,600 per year and is extremely reliable as it has minimal contact with Philpost. We get those are you still alive type letters too every year and that PO box almost guarantees no problems I've been using it for 4 years now and no issues


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

Sorry to hear the hassle Expatuk I think I remember this happened to you before and I'm not much help because I'm not familiar with how things work in the UK.

An example of what I go through I have an online military pension account that handles all US military pension plans it's called DFAS and I can also contact through this method and download my forms and update my contact information so I'm wondering if this is possible with your UK pension?


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## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

Asian Spirit said:


> The Philippine mail service {Philpost} is not reliable to put it mildly. Even though you are not American; if you will locate the closest American VFW Post (Veterans Of Foreign Wars) you can use their PO Box mail service. Cost is about P1,600 per year and is extremely reliable as it has minimal contact with Philpost. We get those are you still alive type letters too every year and that PO box almost guarantees no problems I've been using it for 4 years now and no issues


Thanks for the info but i think the safest action for us is to stick with LBC 
Yes Philpost does sometimes arrive but 90% of the time the package has been opened
No matter where it comes from or where we send it, today was the fastest ever to contact the pension service in the UK ! It all should be sorted by next week.


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

expatuk2016 said:


> Its﻿ that time again ! Pension not recieved on or 3 days after date due.
> 
> Dialled﻿ 109 on pldt landline for international calls IDD not on pldt ! gave the nice lady the pension service﻿ phone no
> 
> ...


Sounds straightforward. Please share the UK Pension Service telephone number.


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## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

M.C.A. said:


> Sorry to hear the hassle Expatuk I think I remember this happened to you before and I'm not much help because I'm not familiar with how things work in the UK.
> 
> An example of what I go through I have an online military pension account that handles all US military pension plans it's called DFAS and I can also contact through this method and download my forms and update my contact information so I'm wondering if this is possible with your UK pension?


Yes this happened to us before ,i can download the forms and print them out.
Last time we tried our BDO bank manager as a witness but no luck, then tried 2 lawyers again no luck
As it was something new to them !
Then we found a dentist job done !
This time will be our Doctor.well hopefully he is on duty at 5pm tonight.


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## micass (Aug 30, 2017)

Sorry for late reply but I can give you a bit of additional advice. The same happened to me a few months ago and I returned my POL certificate (by airmail) within about 8 weeks before expiry (I had same issue finding a suitable signitory). After the 16 weeks my pension was stopped again. A phone call revealed my cert arrived "late" yet was in the system when I called. I suggest you call them at least two weeks before the expiry date of your "new" 16 week period to ensure the arrival and "registering" of your POL cert has been completed. My opinion is that someone logged the arrival of the certificate but failed to remove the automatic suspension of the pension. When they "release" the pension it does not automatically go out the same day. It goes out on the next "due day" and even though my due day is Tuesday and I rang on the Monday it was another week before it was released and transferred. At least the staff I spoke to at the pensions office were efficient, polite and extremely helpful on the many occasions I called. Finally, I used my "Globe" number to call and the cost for around 10 minutes was 260 pesos, good value in my opinion.


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## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

All sorted now sent forms by lbc pension office recieved forms on the Monday both mine and the wifes pension released Tuesday ! I have emailed the pension service stating that we will be sending the POL forms to them the first week in every Jan from now on regardless


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

micass said:


> Sorry for late reply but I can give you a bit of additional advice. The same happened to me a few months ago and I returned my POL certificate (by airmail) within about 8 weeks before expiry (I had same issue finding a suitable signitory). After the 16 weeks my pension was stopped again. A phone call revealed my cert arrived "late" yet was in the system when I called. I suggest you call them at least two weeks before the expiry date of your "new" 16 week period to ensure the arrival and "registering" of your POL cert has been completed. My opinion is that someone logged the arrival of the certificate but failed to remove the automatic suspension of the pension. When they "release" the pension it does not automatically go out the same day. It goes out on the next "due day" and even though my due day is Tuesday and I rang on the Monday it was another week before it was released and transferred. At least the staff I spoke to at the pensions office were efficient, polite and extremely helpful on the many occasions I called. Finally, I used my "Globe" number to call and the cost for around 10 minutes was 260 pesos, good value in my opinion.


How can you know if the POL letters have been sent? Are they sent on a fixed date each year? Anybody can share the tel number of pensions office UK. Cheers


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

Are the POL forms available for download?


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

hogrider said:


> Are the POL forms available for download?


Interesting points Dave, I have to ask my super company if they have a POL policy when I start drawing my super in a couple of years, won't have to worry about a government pension as they already spent it.

Cheers, Steve.


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## Asian Spirit (Mar 1, 2010)

bigpearl said:


> Interesting points Dave, I have to ask my super company if they have a POL policy when I start drawing my super in a couple of years, won't have to worry about a government pension as they already spent it.
> 
> Cheers, Steve.


Steve,

Don't you have some kind of guarantee on your govt pension that you paid into? I mean that's your money and it should be there for you when needed. That would be considered theft if not. In the US there would be a 2nd civil war if that happened.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

Asian Spirit said:


> Steve,
> 
> Don't you have some kind of guarantee on your govt pension that you paid into? I mean that's your money and it should be there for you when needed. That would be considered theft if not. In the US there would be a 2nd civil war if that happened.


Gene in Oz the pension is means tested, google it. 44 years of paying tax,,,,, so far. Work hard, make good decisions and you are out. The guarantee is simple, no money, minimal assets and yep you will get a pension. Personally I don't want a pension, 20K a year? Not much of a life in many countries including PH. Very happy that I worked hard and invested well and can retire and not have to worry about a measly government "pension". I have viewed this as being discriminative in the past but now consider my taxes are helping those less fortunate as well as the loafers.
No more to be said.

Cheers, Steve.


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## pagbati (Apr 9, 2014)

*UK International Pension Centre*



hogrider said:


> Anybody can share the tel number of pensions office UK. Cheers


Hogrider, this is the number for the UK International Pension Centre (IPC):
+44 (0)191 218 7777 (Mon to Friday, 8am to 6pm). You can also contact the IPC via an online enquiry form at https://www2.dwp.gov.uk/tps-directgov/en/contact-tps/ipc.asp


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