Claiming State Pension online

brewerdave

Has anyone successfully claimed a deferred SP online?

I failed last year - the system told me it couldn't match up some of my details - and was forced to ring ( and it took multiple attempts over many days to get thru').
I assumed (foolishly) that they would have ironed out the faults by now ,but when my wife tried to start her deferred claim yesterday, she got exactly the same message!
The crazy thing is ,that one of the many messages you get whilst waiting in the phone queue, encourages you to use the online service!!:mad:

greenglide

I claimed on line about three years ago (around 6 months or so into the new State Pension) having deferred for four months or so and it worked fine.


It doesn't processed deferred pensions any different so there "shouldn't" be any problems!

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/deferring-state-pension/how-to-claim-a-deferred-state-pension

Might it be easier to download the form and post it?

squirrelpie

Might it be easier to download the form and post it?

Wow! I just looked at the form out of interest. All kinds of questions they don't ask if you phone and a requirement to send a marriage certificate etc. None of which happens if you claim by phone as I remember. And no way on the form, or online as I understand it, to request weekly payment. That's why I claimed by telephone. I had to wait a fairly long time until they answered, but once they did it was a reasonably pleasant experience. YMMV.

Mr.Saver

squirrelpie wrote: »

Wow! I just looked at the form out of interest. All kinds of questions they don't ask if you phone and a requirement to send a marriage certificate etc. None of which happens if you claim by phone as I remember. And no way on the form, or online as I understand it, to request weekly payment. That's why I claimed by telephone. I had to wait a fairly long time until they answered, but once they did it was a reasonably pleasant experience. YMMV.

Yes, I found calling the HMRC is a pleasant experience too. The only unpleasant part - waiting time can be fixed by calling in early morning.

brewerdave

Mr.Saver wrote: »

Yes, I found calling the HMRC is a pleasant experience too. The only unpleasant part - waiting time can be fixed by calling in early morning.

Almost worked -phoned at 8:00 when they open to be greeted by " we are extremely busy at this time, please try again later" - stayed on the phone anyway and got a human being to talk to my OH after ~ 10 minutes - the info . required was completed in about 15 minutes.

We raised the issue of the failure of the online system which she noted and promised to pass to their IT people. Don't expect to hear back :rotfl:I didn't hear anymore last year when I raised it both via message on the Gov.UK website and by phone.

As to applying by post -they required the original marriage certificate and (I think) birth certificate -didn't fancy trusting them to the postal service!

p00hsticks

Mr.Saver wrote: »

Yes, I found calling the HMRC is a pleasant experience too. The only unpleasant part - waiting time can be fixed by calling in early morning.

All well and good, except it's not HMRC you need to call to claim your State Pension....

Mr.Saver

brewerdave wrote: »

Almost worked -phoned at 8:00 when they open to be greeted by " we are extremely busy at this time, please try again later" - stayed on the phone anyway and got a human being to talk to my OH after ~ 10 minutes - the info . required was completed in about 15 minutes.

I'd say 10 minutes isn't bad, I'd be happy to wait 10 minutes to get things sorted.
The worst waiting experience I had was a mobile phone company who had me waiting for more than an hour and then they hung up. Twice! Wasted me a full morning listening to the repeated music and pre-recorded voice, and didn't solve the problem at the end.

p00hsticks wrote: »

All well and good, except it's not HMRC you need to call to claim your State Pension....

Hmm, that's a problem:(

mgdavid

I claimed my deferred SP 2 years ago, online - no problem at all. Faultless service. Plus a quick call at 08:15 ish to HMRC sorted my coding notices too. :beer::beer:

brewerdave

mgdavid wrote: »

I claimed my deferred SP 2 years ago, online - no problem at all. Faultless service. Plus a quick call at 08:15 ish to HMRC sorted my coding notices too. :beer::beer:

Guess we were unlucky then or the DWP systems didn't like the browser we were using:)