French pension - claiming for first time

Gudrun

Hello, I'm asking a question on behalf of my husband, who wants to claim his pension for working in France for a couple of years.

When he goes into the 'Demander ma retraite' section on the L'assurance retraite.fr website, he is asked for his Social Security number and  password.   But he has no password.   There is an option to say you've forgotten your password, but presumably the site would have to have somehow identified you before giving out a new password (and anyway he hasn't really forgotten it, he's never had one).   Has anyone else gone through this process recently?    Any advice gratefully received.

Brie

I had a similar problem with another country where the only thing to do was to ring someone to talk through the problem.  Presumably having worked there for a couple of years he would manage the level of the language to get him through this.

Alternative is to check if there's a reciprocal arrangement with France which would increase his UK state pension, assuming he isn't likely to get the full whack.  Then again I believe the French SP is paid much earlier and if he is likely to get the full UK SP then he could get the French one as well.

pinnks

If that is his social security pension in France, he should claim it via DWP International Pension Centre in the UK, who will send him form CFN901, and when they get that back will liaise with their French counterparts to set things in motion, along with the necessary information from his UK records to feed into the aggregation part of the calculation under the EU rules.
 

Brie

pinnks said:

If that is his social security pension in France, he should claim it via DWP International Pension Centre in the UK, who will send him form CFN901, and when they get that back will liaise with their French counterparts to set things in motion, along with the necessary information from his UK records to feed into the aggregation part of the calculation under the EU rules.
 

But does he have to claim it this way?  I get a SP directly from a country with a reciprocal agreement with the UK.  There was no point adding it to my UK SP as it is at the maximum.  So the other one is jam.  But mine is not a EU SP.

pinnks

You never add it to your UK, or any other pension - each country pays its own pension based on your contribution records in all EU/UK countries, but the EU/UK procedure is to claim it via the pension authority in your country of residence.  As I said, DWP will send the relevant information to France, who will then contact you to say how much you'll get (using UK years as necessary to get you past the required 15 years for a pension), or to seek further information.

It is, what is it is, so why not just follow procedure?

Have look at State pensions abroad - Your Europe (europa.eu) 

Gudrun

Thank you all so much for your help, I appreciate hearing all your thoughts.

There is a work-related pension to be claimed as well as the social security one, so I think he really needs to contact someone at L'assurance retraite to sort this out.   He's tried phoning several times today already - but of course has not been able to get through because of the long queue...

Gudrun

Just an update on this, perhaps it will help others in the same situation.

My husband did finally get through to L'assurance retraite.   They said that because the UK was no longer in the EU, he could no longer create an account on their website.   He would have to apply separately through the DWP (as pinnks said) for the social security pension;   then contact ARRCO and AGIRC (though they appear to have a combined website) regarding his job related pension.

Many thanks again for all your help!

xylophone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6526499/french-pension-problems/p1

Gudrun

Thank you Xylophone.   I read through the conversation.   Hmm - not very reassuring!   It sounds as if this is going to be uphill all the way.