Ivor the Engine
Nowhere man
UK Pension Payments may be Stopped!
(Cut and pasted from a local newsletter)
British Expatriates have some more paperwork heading in their
direction, courtesy of the Pension Service and private pension
providers too. That may sound a bit like Big Brother intervention,
however, relatives of a deceased that have failed to inform the
pension provider of their demise, deliberately or otherwise, may be
illegally receiving your money under false pretences. Hence the
recently implemented approach to reduce the losses being suffered
by various UK pension pots.
Of course a spouse may be entitled to the pension of the deceased,
as happens with many schemes. However, regardless the death
must be officially notified, with a copy of the Death Certificate, to
the pension provider or designated organisation that does so for
them.
Recently I received a snail mail missive from the UK government
Pension Service that was accompanied by the inevitable form,
entitled, Life Certificate. It will have to be completed every 2 years
and you have 8 weeks from the date of their letter, to comply. If
failing to do so or it is received late, then your payments will cease!
Reactivating your pension payments may prove a tiresome exercise
that could take a financially significant time, maybe months, who
knows? Subsequently that could prove to be very embarrassing to
say the least.
The private pension sector is also pursuing the same avenue, as I
discovered recently. A letter from the Prudential, that was sent in
January, failed to reach me or I may have inadvertently overlooked
it and added it to their increasingly fat file of correspondence.
The result of not responding to the latter was, they stopped
payment of one of my pensions to find out if that would elicit any
response from me. It did! Luckily all it took was a couple of secure
emails though and all was in order again, payment reinstated. Had I
not responded then the other payments from them would have met
the same fate.
The Pension Service, Life Certificate is not particularly problematic
to complete although it has the attributes of a legal document,
which I suppose it is. Your signature has to be witnessed by a
suitably qualified person with their official stamp added for good
measure. Furthermore photographic proof has to be shown to the
witness in the form of your passport, drivers licence, etc.,
accompanied by the number and place of issue as well.
You cannot justifiably complain about the government and the
private pension sector looking after, what is our money or
contributions. Personally I'm all for it.
Those that cheat the system(s) are basically robbing us or to be
more precise everyone who is paying pension contributions. The
payments we eventually receive, at the prescribed time, will
inevitably be lower as a result of such criminal activity.
(Cut and pasted from a local newsletter)
British Expatriates have some more paperwork heading in their
direction, courtesy of the Pension Service and private pension
providers too. That may sound a bit like Big Brother intervention,
however, relatives of a deceased that have failed to inform the
pension provider of their demise, deliberately or otherwise, may be
illegally receiving your money under false pretences. Hence the
recently implemented approach to reduce the losses being suffered
by various UK pension pots.
Of course a spouse may be entitled to the pension of the deceased,
as happens with many schemes. However, regardless the death
must be officially notified, with a copy of the Death Certificate, to
the pension provider or designated organisation that does so for
them.
Recently I received a snail mail missive from the UK government
Pension Service that was accompanied by the inevitable form,
entitled, Life Certificate. It will have to be completed every 2 years
and you have 8 weeks from the date of their letter, to comply. If
failing to do so or it is received late, then your payments will cease!
Reactivating your pension payments may prove a tiresome exercise
that could take a financially significant time, maybe months, who
knows? Subsequently that could prove to be very embarrassing to
say the least.
The private pension sector is also pursuing the same avenue, as I
discovered recently. A letter from the Prudential, that was sent in
January, failed to reach me or I may have inadvertently overlooked
it and added it to their increasingly fat file of correspondence.
The result of not responding to the latter was, they stopped
payment of one of my pensions to find out if that would elicit any
response from me. It did! Luckily all it took was a couple of secure
emails though and all was in order again, payment reinstated. Had I
not responded then the other payments from them would have met
the same fate.
The Pension Service, Life Certificate is not particularly problematic
to complete although it has the attributes of a legal document,
which I suppose it is. Your signature has to be witnessed by a
suitably qualified person with their official stamp added for good
measure. Furthermore photographic proof has to be shown to the
witness in the form of your passport, drivers licence, etc.,
accompanied by the number and place of issue as well.
You cannot justifiably complain about the government and the
private pension sector looking after, what is our money or
contributions. Personally I'm all for it.
Those that cheat the system(s) are basically robbing us or to be
more precise everyone who is paying pension contributions. The
payments we eventually receive, at the prescribed time, will
inevitably be lower as a result of such criminal activity.
