Pension Advice for ex-pats rtn to UK

Ex_pat123

Having read these links and feeling positive re > The Social Security (New Zealand) Order 1983 (legislation.gov.uk)

I'm now back to square one, because  DMG Chapter 07 - Part 01: Common Subjects 070000 - 071699 (publishing.service.gov.uk) as 070593 states; "For RP and WB it is only the agreements with the following countries which do not provide for pro rata benefit 3. New Zealand".

Haha, I need a plain English version, I'd asked GPT to explain, but would worry that even AI can possibly wade through the gobbledygook.  One thing is becoming clearer, I'm not surprised who ever dealt with my initial claim, that they responded inside 4 days

pinnks

I read that in a differently.  The norm for the EU, USA etc agreements is pro-rata, i.e. aggregate periods in both countries, calculate a pension using those periods and then pro-rata that amount to the actual years in that country.  BUT the NZ agreement doesn't appear to talk about aggregation or pro-rata, as noted in the DMG, and talks only of treating periods of residence as if they are periods of UK contributions.  In that case aggregation/pro-rata is irrelevant...

Time will tell and my experience of DWP "specialists", even when getting your MP engaged, is that you still have to push hard to get them to read agreements properly and to explain why they consider their interpretation is the appropriate one, even when you point out flaws in what they are saying from a plain English reading of the legislation, as opposed to bullying-type assertions of "because we are the specialist", or inferences to that effect...

Ex_pat123

An update to this thread.

Received notification today that DWP have now decided to pay me a full pension.  Which is being paid only while I reside in the UK.  So bloody annoying that they didn't come to the right decision in the first place, which I put down to incompetence and laziness by whomever dealt with my original claim.  

It took them approx 3 working days to determine time spent living and working down-under didn't count towards UK NI contributions and receiving a full UK state pension. Also because of their inaptitude I did actually plug a few gaps in my NI contributions which it appears was totally unnecessary.