State Pension Award - Incorrect

BVI_EXPAT

A bit of a strange one for the forum. Earlier this year I started making preparations for my retirement in November. According to my DWP online pension forecast, I have 43 full years. I knew this to be wrong as I had lived abroad in a non recirocal agreement country for 24 years and not paid into the UK system. In August I wrote an honest letter to the DWP individual case worker and expained everything with dates etc. They responded in Sept confirming that their record shows 43 years and attached a full print-out. In October I submittted my online claim for state pension and the application questioned if I had worked abroad and what country, I answered yes and confirmed Bahrain and BVI, it did not ask about dates and strangely it did not ask for my bank account details to pay into. I was expecting a letter asking for further information but much to my surprise I soon received a letter confirming that I have been awarded the full state pension of £884.80 pm ! Good news you may think but I know this to be wrong and I have declared my time working abroad on two seperate occasions. I dont want to accept it and get into a overpayment situation where I have to pay it back so I would appreciate advice from the forum.

Brie

Maybe discuss this with the international pension centre as they deal with this side of the SP.

International Pension Centre - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

BVI_EXPAT

Thanks Brie, I had thought of that but as I understand it, the IPC only deal with your state pension if you live abroad or are retiring and moving abroad.

I returned to the UK permanently in 2017.

Its confusing who to write to on these matters, HMRC or DWP ?

jem16

BVI_EXPAT said:

A bit of a strange one for the forum. Earlier this year I started making preparations for my retirement in November. According to my DWP online pension forecast, I have 43 full years. I knew this to be wrong as I had lived abroad in a non recirocal agreement country for 24 years and not paid into the UK system. In August I wrote an honest letter to the DWP individual case worker and expained everything with dates etc. They responded in Sept confirming that their record shows 43 years and attached a full print-out. In October I submittted my online claim for state pension and the application questioned if I had worked abroad and what country, I answered yes and confirmed Bahrain and BVI, it did not ask about dates and strangely it did not ask for my bank account details to pay into. I was expecting a letter asking for further information but much to my surprise I soon received a letter confirming that I have been awarded the full state pension of £884.80 pm ! Good news you may think but I know this to be wrong and I have declared my time working abroad on two seperate occasions. I dont want to accept it and get into a overpayment situation where I have to pay it back so I would appreciate advice from the forum.

What does your NI Record show for those 24 years?

Was it possible that, although you worked in those 2 countries for those years, that your company was paying UK NI for you?

in_need_of_direction

Having worked with contributions and pensions, albeit a long time ago, I’d say it’s most likely that someone with the same name is having their contributions applied to your account. Recorded delivery letter to dwp, asking that they liaise with hmrc to sort out.

BVI_EXPAT

jem16 said:

BVI_EXPAT said:

A bit of a strange one for the forum. Earlier this year I started making preparations for my retirement in November. According to my DWP online pension forecast, I have 43 full years. I knew this to be wrong as I had lived abroad in a non recirocal agreement country for 24 years and not paid into the UK system. In August I wrote an honest letter to the DWP individual case worker and expained everything with dates etc. They responded in Sept confirming that their record shows 43 years and attached a full print-out. In October I submittted my online claim for state pension and the application questioned if I had worked abroad and what country, I answered yes and confirmed Bahrain and BVI, it did not ask about dates and strangely it did not ask for my bank account details to pay into. I was expecting a letter asking for further information but much to my surprise I soon received a letter confirming that I have been awarded the full state pension of £884.80 pm ! Good news you may think but I know this to be wrong and I have declared my time working abroad on two seperate occasions. I dont want to accept it and get into a overpayment situation where I have to pay it back so I would appreciate advice from the forum.

What does your NI Record show for those 24 years?

Was it possible that, although you worked in those 2 countries for those years, that your company was paying UK NI for you?

I was abroad from  1993 to 2017

93 to 2010 Full years. 

2011 to 2017 Not full years. 

No, the companies I worked for would not have paid UK NI for me.

My NI record makes no sense at all and as stated, I wrote to explain but they still want to give me a full pension !

squirrelpie

Note that the state pension is paid every four weeks, not monthly (there are 13 payments a year, not 12). The figure you gave is the 4-weekly payment.

What do you mean by "My NI record makes no sense at all"? What does it actually say?

BVI_EXPAT

squirrelpie said:

Note that the state pension is paid every four weeks, not monthly (there are 13 payments a year, not 12). The figure you gave is the 4-weekly payment.

What do you mean by "My NI record makes no sense at all"? What does it actually say?

It shows multiple full years for when I was abroad and did not contribute !

Dazed_and_C0nfused

BVI_EXPAT said:

squirrelpie said:

Note that the state pension is paid every four weeks, not monthly (there are 13 payments a year, not 12). The figure you gave is the 4-weekly payment.

What do you mean by "My NI record makes no sense at all"? What does it actually say?

It shows multiple full years for when I was abroad and did not contribute !

You don't have to contribute/pay any NI to gain qualifying years.

When you view your National Insurance record you should have the option to "View Details" against each year (or at the very least full years).

What is shown in those details?

BVI_EXPAT

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

BVI_EXPAT said:

squirrelpie said:

Note that the state pension is paid every four weeks, not monthly (there are 13 payments a year, not 12). The figure you gave is the 4-weekly payment.

What do you mean by "My NI record makes no sense at all"? What does it actually say?

It shows multiple full years for when I was abroad and did not contribute !

You don't have to contribute/pay any NI to gain qualifying years.

When you view your National Insurance record you should have the option to "View Details" against each year (or at the very least full years).

What is shown in those details?

In "View Details" the "NotFull" years show an amount but not enough for a "Full Year"

xylophone

You were born in 1958.

You were 16 in 1974.

Regardless of whether or not you were working, you will have three years youth credits.

Let's suppose a maximum of twenty full years before you went abroad,

You are then told you have full years 93 - 2011.

Let's say a maximum of eighteen full years.

Where on earth does 43 full years come from?


You have checked the National Insurance number  shown on the correspondence?

It is not unknown for errors to occur such that one person's record is substituted for another.