Will it never end?
I first started looking at the UK state pension last year after Gareth tried to tell me about it several times. After dealing with HMRC I posted an update.
A couple of days ago I received the following letter. As seems to be par for the course, there was both good news and bad news.
Now, I made a huge mistake when I didn’t keep a copy of what I sent them for my own records, so I can’t really complain about anything here. Still, I’m pretty sure I sent them that exact form in January.
Once again this is pretty unhelpful.
I love the contact details they provide:
However, the fact that this letter seems to have only taken about two weeks to arrive is a huge improvement over them sending them via Malta (which seemed to take ten weeks).
Also, the fact that they are asking for a phone number is encouraging -perhaps they will call me to discuss the case or give me advice?
Ha ha. I know it’s just a smokescreen 😉
I have printed out the form again and will send it back to this new place. This time I will ask to make Class 3 contributions and pay by Direct Debit.
Fingers crossed.
Anyone else had better luck? How long do you think this will take? Will I ever get my account functional?
I’m paying Class 2 (at least until next year when they’re abolished, urgh). It took months and months and months to set up. I phoned several times, got incompetents several times and finally someone who knew what she was doing. It does work eventually, with patience. Keep at it 🙂
Thanks! I will fight on 🙂
I feel your pain!
I recently set up my own direct debits and also made some back-payments to my NI contributions to fill in some gap years. I eventually managed to do it, but jeez what an uphill struggle it was to get there! It seemed like every little step or inquiry took about a month to process, and calling them with the horrible automated phone system and terminally long hold times is just a nightmare.
But persevere and you will get there!
I will keep you posted 🙂
Hi,
I’ve been having lots of problems too and have made very little progress.I contacted the International Pensions Centre in November last year and despite there site confirmation message saying I will hear something(even if it’s a progress report) in 10 days.6 months later I hadn’t heard anything so I mailed them and politely asked if there was any progress.A couple of weeks later I got a mail saying that they had not received my query(despite getting there confirmation mail that they had).
I had to start again from the beginning and eventually was given another mail address to contact regarding my top up contributions questions.It appears the International Pensions Centre can’t answer questions regarding international Pensions??
Anyway, I have asked the same questions again and I’m waiting to hear something.
7 months not to answer a straightforward question about if it is possible to top up my pension or not.
It makes you proud to be British!
Only 16 years to reach 65.I wonder if I’ll have a reply by then?
We have to keep trying:)
John