Frozen or not State Pension?

Apial

I am currently living in Dubai. In March next year I will hit 66 and be able to take the full UK state pension. Later in the 2025 I will be moving to Portugal permanently without returning to the UK. 

Will my State Pension be frozen at £221.20 a week forever, or will it increase with the triple lock once I move to Portugal? 

Neil49

Have you considered the option of not taking your state pension immediately and waiting until you are permanently settled in Portugal? 

pinnks

Good idea.  OP could also post a generic question about such a move on the HMRC customer forum to see what they say about it.

Marcon

Apial said:

I am currently living in Dubai. In March next year I will hit 66 and be able to take the full UK state pension. Later in the 2025 I will be moving to Portugal permanently without returning to the UK. 

Will my State Pension be frozen at £221.20 a week forever, or will it increase with the triple lock once I move to Portugal? 

You can't be paid in one country for part of a year and then another country for the rest of the year, so waiting until you move to Portugal would seem to make sense.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

pinnks said:

Good idea.  OP could also post a generic question about such a move on the HMRC customer forum to see what they say about it.

They will almost certainly say something along the lines of "nothing to do with us, contact DWP".

badmemory

Personally I would avoid confusing them by changing your address soon after starting taking your pension.  Also if you wait 9 weeks that will add 1% to your pension.

pinnks

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

pinnks said:

Good idea.  OP could also post a generic question about such a move on the HMRC customer forum to see what they say about it.

They will almost certainly say something along the lines of "nothing to do with us, contact DWP".

That is of course correct - must have been having a senior moment, lol

Apial

There is a catch 22 problem. To get a D7 VISA for Portugal I need the passive income from the UK State Pension to hit the income requirement. So the State Pension must start before D7. 

If push comes to shove, I could start crystallising Private Pensions, but I would prefer to let them appreciate and grow. 

DBdoobydoo

Marcon said:

Apial said:

I am currently living in Dubai. In March next year I will hit 66 and be able to take the full UK state pension. Later in the 2025 I will be moving to Portugal permanently without returning to the UK. 

Will my State Pension be frozen at £221.20 a week forever, or will it increase with the triple lock once I move to Portugal? 

You can't be paid in one country for part of a year and then another country for the rest of the year, so waiting until you move to Portugal would seem to make sense.

That's surprising. Do you have an official link that confirms this?

Assuming such a restriction applied the simple answer is to get the state pension paid into a UK bank account.

Apial

A YouTuber says that he has spoken to The Overseas future pension dept and he was told that if you move to an unfrozen pension country for 185 days in the financial year , with proof required, entry stamp and exit stamp in passport, then the pension is unfrozen until the time you go back to a “frozen” country. 

I don’t know how the passport stamp will help, as I won’t be leaving. But anyway I’ve sent an email to them to see what they say. 

squirrelpie

"A YouTuber says" = "a dog on the Internet says"?

A suggested plan:

1) Wait until April 6 2025 then claim your state pension

2) Wait for at least six months then submit a D7 application (six months income record is required, apparently)

3) Move to Portugal when D7 is approved, hopefully before April 2026

An alternative to step 2 is to start drawdown from a private pension at the required rate earlier, but I'm not clear if this is "proof of income" as required.

Everything I know about D7 visas I found on https://globalresidenceindex.com/portugal-d7-visa/