geoffreybrooks

I became of State pensionable age in February 2009. The amount I receive is more than I expected and I have no complaint on that score since it converts to more than what an Argentine policeman earns. However, the UK pensioner who thinks he is going to receive regular payments is in for a disappointment.

Question: The Pension Service pays your pension by cheque. What is the best and most efficient way for them to do this?

Answer: Why, place the cheque in a correctly addressed airmail envelope, put a stamp on it or frank it, and post it.

Response: Yes, but then you would get your pension regularly and you could rely on it. What advantage would there be for the Treasury in doing that?

In fact, the IPS batches your payment with all the others and sends it to a handler in France or Holland. (There is nobody in Britain capable of, or who can be trusted to, handle pension payments).

IPS states that a payment should arrive by mail within 28 days, after which the pensioner ought to consider placing a "stop" on the cheque and ask for a replacement to be sent. This should be borne in mind when reading what comes next.

I received six consecutive cheques each month from the Dutch handler at Schiedam. All arrived within the four week period.

My first six payments came through the French handler at La Gonnesse. This handler NEVER gets you your cheque before the four weeks is up. There is a 15% chance the cheque will not arrive, and 100-85 on that it will come in the six to eight week period after it leaves Newcastle.

Here you have the problem. The four weeks is up. No cheque. Should I put a stop on it? All depends on whether the cheque is coming from Schiedam, when I should put a stop on it because the Dutch are reliable, or from France, when it will probably not even be out of the French warehouse yet.

Solution: ring up IPS and ask which courier is carrying the missing cheque(s). "Ah, that is information we do not have, it is random." Oh really? Once out of Newcastle, it is a mystery to all which route the cheque will follow.

It may be my nasty suspicious mind, and I may be completely wrong and unjust in suggesting it, but I see an evil intent behind all this. The longer all these pension cheques are delayed, the later it will be before they are presented for clearance. And time is money.

Sherlock Holmes

I may be wrong, but I was told that my pension would be credited to my UK bank account???? Has this changed?

geoffreybrooks

If you elect to have your money paid into a UK bank account, or even an offshore account, there will be no problem. I understand that I can have the monthly order sent to a mail forwarding company in the UK, who will then send it on immediately by airmail. This service costs around Stg.120.- per year.

Unfortunately when I left the UK, I had no bank account, only a building society account which does not allow me to transfer funds abroad. I cannot receive funds in Argentina because I do not have a bank account here either, for that you must have a full DNI, but I have only the Precaria, which allows me to cash cheques only. The full lament of the long path towards obtaining a DNI is recorded in another article of this sub-forum.

What I am saying is that if you want a cheque sent every month, and that is the only way to receive your pension, you will have the problem I outlined.

Sherlock Holmes

Thanks for your reply. In which case, your story just helps to confirm the rediculous nature of the UK and its government departments. I should know, I used to work for one But then I guess that's why I left the place.

I had wondered why other communications from the pensions lot had come from a European address.

So, sorry for your plight but thanks for educating us.

Alistair.

dfjordan

Geoffrey, I don´t understand your complaint as you have said you agree that the pension can be paid into a bank account, and there should be no reason why you can´t open an offshore one if you want. You seem to be saying that you specifically WANT a cheque. If that´s so, then surely you have to accept the inevitable delays etc?