State Pension due in a few days - not heard from DWP

bigfreddiel

My State Pension is due in a few days time :-)

I've not heard from DWP :-(

When I agreed for it to be paid from my 65th birthday online the final document said "...,if you have not been contacted up to 14 days before you are due to reach your State Pension age, please phone stating your national insurance number."

No problem with that, but my question is to all of you who have claimed and are receiving your State Pension, were you contacted 14 days before reaching your State Pension age? Or did you have to phone?

Cheers fj

t0rt0ise

It doesn't matter what happened to others, it says to call if you haven't heard so call them.

bigfreddiel

t0rt0ise wrote: »

It doesn't matter what happened to others, it says to call if you haven't heard so call them.

Just got back from a short holiday, so calling first thing Monday, just curious about others, not hat it matters as you said.

Cheers fj

greenglide

If you have claimed but not received an Entitlement Notice with less then 14 days before you reach SPa then this is certainly not normal.

The online claim is just a "letter box" - I don't think it integrates with any of the back end IT systems - as you will have realised it doesn't give you any results of your claim as you would expect.

DWP are putting a lot of effort into modernising their IT systems but there seems little returns for this.

All of their effort is going into "digital platforms", I suspect in the foolish view that their current IT somehow isn't digital (analogue possibly;)

bigfreddiel

Cheers greenglide, I did claim online, having registered of course, a d you do get back confirmation of all the details, but I have not received an Entitlement Notice, I will be phoning first thing Monday, tomorrow!


fj

atush

Do let us know how you get on, I will be interested to hear- having not bothered at the the 14 day time period, how long you have to wait.

I am sure most dont know about this, and some dont know you have to claim and think it comes 'automatically'.

bigfreddiel

Okay everyone, I called the claim line on the 0800 number that you get on the confirmation document after CLAIMING online. As everyone knows you MUST claim your State Pension. It doesn't just arrive automatically in your bank account.

So I rang the number, spoke to a nice and very helpful lady, who confirmed my id, then found my claim, checked my NI contributions were up to date, and then confirmed my pay day was a Monday, and the weekly amount was £152.84. The first payment is on 8th August, and every four weeks after that.

She finished by saying I will get written confirmation, the Entitlement Notice, and the tax office will be sent details to adjust my tax code because I work part time. No more NI to pay from the day I turn 65. So as that happens midway through my work month I only pay a pro-rata amount for July.

The reason I hadn't heard from them was just the enormous amount of claims that have gone in online waiting to be processed. Obviously speaking to them moves you to the top of the list and they process it there and then.

Cheers fj

maximumgardener

thats great news.......good job speaking to them!

echoes my own experience when I claimed by phone ....and I found them very helpful as well.

In this digital world its good to talk to a real person and sometimes.... too often perhaps
"computer says No" ?

greenglide

No more NI to pay from the day I turn 65. So as that happens midway through my work month I only pay a pro-rata amount for July.

Pro-rata NI? I dont think so.

If you are paid monthly and for that month you are paid on or after the SPa date you should pay no NI. If you are paid before the SPa date you paid it all.

So if your SPa date is 25th July and you get paid on 27th you dont pay.

It is useful to tell you employers payroll people - mine deducted NI after SPa and are going to refund it this month after is submitted a copy of my birth certificate. And this was despite the fact that they knew I was reaching SPa because of other "issues" they were having.

bigfreddiel

greenglide wrote: »

Pro-rata NI? I dont think so.

If you are paid monthly and for that month you are paid on or after the SPa date you should pay no NI. If you are paid before the SPa date you paid it all.

So if your SPa date is 25th July and you get paid on 27th you dont pay.

It is useful to tell you employers payroll people - mine deducted NI after SPa and are going to refund it this month after is submitted a copy of my birth certificate. And this was despite the fact that they knew I was reaching SPa because of other "issues" they were having.

Cheers greenglide, and what you say is what I thought, I'd if over spa when you actually get paid you pay no NI. I asked the DWP lady that exact question and she said you pay an amount of NI up until your birthday, and none thereafter, regardless of when you actually receive payment.

And yes, I received an NI exemption certificate from DWP whicH I passed on to my payroll dept some time ago, so till the 25th then to see what results.

fj

greenglide

And yes, I received an NI exemption certificate from DWP whicH I passed on to my payroll dept some time ago, so till the 25th then to see what results.

Did they just send you the exemption certificate automatically or did you have to ask?

I haven't had one but surely it is redundant anyway because you can just use a birth certificate?