State pension due end 2025

Mijoed

I lived and worked abroad full time in the Middle East and South America since 1980 and always paid voluntarily NI contributions. I retired early in 2009 and returned to the UK, making a full declaration of dates, income etc and have lived here on my company pension ever since with full income declaration made every year and tax paid. Will I need to go through this declaration of dates working abroad again in order to claim my pension?  I thought that was all done when I returned to the UK 16 years ago and resolved at that time with HMRC. Even my accountant no longer has this information.

MX5huggy

Check your NI records https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record
And state pension forecast https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

molerat

Will I need to go through this declaration of dates working abroad again in order to claim my pension?

Probably.  It is part of the claim form questions.  Not sure how accurate the answers need to be though.  I believe it is more to do with pension entitlement from overseas interacting with your UK pension.

Mijoed

Record shows full contributions of 35 years made,  and the forecast is showing the entitlement as thr full new state pension. It says that this cannot be increased

p00hsticks

Mijoed said:

Record shows full contributions of 35 years made,  and the forecast is showing the entitlement as thr full new state pension. It says that this cannot be increased

35 years (if correct) is a coincidence,  as you'll be under transitional rules so the exact number of years you needed to reach the maximum will depend on the minutia of your individual record. 

You may have reached the maximum UK pension, but I believe they ask the questions relating to living and working abroad so that they can see if you are entitled to anything further from the other countries.