# Pension from UK



## micass (Aug 30, 2017)

Please read my recent communication to the pensions office in the UK. Although I am not totally reliant on my pension recent events show that those dependent on their pension could find themselves in a perilous situation. I would like to hear observations from other UK pensioner ex-pats. Cheers. Mike.

Dear DWP

I am writing this message because now I have twice been at the receiving end of what I consider a very unhelpful policy regarding ‘life certificates’. 

The present policy is that, if a certificate is not received by you within 16 weeks then you stop all pension payments to that recipient. This is on the assumption that the certificate request is ‘ignored’. 

In my instance it was because I lived in two countries where the postal service is poor if not appalling. The two countries in question are Thailand and Cambodia. Their language is completely different as is the ‘written’ word. It is commonly called ‘wriggle’ writing and is totally indecipherable to users of the ‘English Style alphabet’. 

What is often overlooked is very few people in those countries can read English and to them the written language of English is as undecipherable as theirs is to us. Post office delivery workers are not employed for their English language skills and will often post letters that they cannot decipher the address of, into the nearest post box where often it will then be dumped as trash mail. 

There is no means of knowing a life certificate request has been issued and it is completely random. People like me only know when the pension is cut off, a rather draconian way of alerting the recipient.

So we come to the point in question. It begins when the pension recipient suddenly finds no money has come in. Some pensioners over here are totally reliant on these monthly payments and money not arriving as usual can have catastrophic results, even life threatening if the money is required for essential medication. 

I know it can be resolved by a simple phone call, but what happens if the recipient has no money to call?? What happens if the money is desperately needed for life saving medication?? Rent could be due and they get kicked out for non-payment. There are many more factors to consider. 

ALL this can be avoided by one SIMPLE change in policy. Cut the pension payment in HALF. It is enough to allow safe continuation of living but flags the recipient that he needs to contact DWP. If nothing is heard when the next payment date arrives THEN it can be cut completely. As most problems are resolved with a single phone call, no one is left in an intolerable position outside their control. 

If that had been done in my instance I would have immediately contacted DWP. I was advised when I changed my banking data to the Philippines that my pension ‘could’ take 11 days to arrive. The first payment after changing my banking details arrived 5 days after issue. When the next payment did not arrive 28 days later I assumed that the holidays in America (All pension payments go via USA????) caused a delay, so I waited. Then I assumed that the 5 days arrival was a ‘quirk’ so I waited the 11 days only to find no money arrived. Then it was the weekend so I had to wait 2 more days only to find out the delay was because of the life certificate. It gave me two weeks of desperation because of an imbalanced policy. 

Finally my pension arrived 2 weeks after it was promised for release leading to a thoroughly worrying situation whereby I wondered if it would EVER arrive .

Cutting my pension in half would have immediately notified me I needed to contact DWP and would not have left me nearly destitute. I was lucky in so far as my medication is for pain relief and not for a life threatening medical condition. 

Please consider this suggestion as I am sure many hundreds of ex-pats who are reliant on their pension for survival would echo my words. No-one would suffer unnecessarily because of stray mail which is often the major cause of non-compliance, such as in my case. 

Yours sincerely


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

No never fly, much too sensible.


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## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

This happenned to myself and my wife 2 years ago !
We both receive Pensions from the UK.
Without any warning both our pensions were stopped !
We waited for a week still no pensions.
I phoned the UK pensions dept using a free call website and they phoned us .back right away.
And they told us they had not received the " proof of life " forms .
When i explained neither myself or my wife had recieved the forms.
They asked me for an email address so we could download them.
Which we did, however we had problems getting the forms verified by the people of good standing !
Our BDO bank manager would not sign them as it was something she was not used to.
We got a local police captain to sign and luckily we have Dentists in the family
Whose signatures and photocopies of their ids were accepted. We sent the forms back by LBC.
And all was sorted.
Last year i emailed the pension service asking them about the " proof of life forms " and do i need to send them again, the reply was " Proof of life forms are sent randomly, therefore you may or may not be sent them "
The postal service is very unreliable here , and most of the mail from abroad if we do receive it has been opened.
Which is why we have told all our friends and relatives abroad not to mail anything to us , but use email
And we always send things abroad using LBC


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

Did you receive a reply Mike?


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## micass (Aug 30, 2017)

Gary D said:


> No never fly, much too sensible.


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## micass (Aug 30, 2017)

"We sent the forms back by LBC."

Thanks expatuk2016, what is LBC?

When I got the form in Cambodia (via email), I had same problem but resolved it by going to a law office and having it "notarised" costing me $50. Then it cost me $35 sending via courier. Therefore I am interested in what LBC is and if much cheaper.

I am much luckier here because in the family are many "professionals of good standing" who can sign it for me

Cheers
Mike


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## micass (Aug 30, 2017)

hogrider said:


> Did you receive a reply Mike?


Hi Hogrider

I am still waiting but as they say they will reply within 10 working days I will not hold my breath. You can be sure I will share their response here for everyone's benefit.

Cheers
Mike


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## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

LBC is one of the Philippines largest freight forwarding companies who also do mail.
Prices are aound the same as you paid in Cambodia, we use them always for documents and parcel delivery.
Ps i advise you to if poss to only use one family member as they do check up !


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