tropicofcancer

Well they are here again. Mine dated 8th January 2018, was delivered today. It seems that sixteen weeks, is now the time allowed, between sending, and them receiving it back. Duly signed and sealed.
The helpful advice, is to return it air mail. So that it will arrive in good time.
Last year I sent mine special courier, it was delivered three days later, and signed for, then disappeared. Resulting in my having to phone and chase my pension, as it was stopped "For Non-Receipt." The subsequent investigation, failed to find, a valid reason for this.


Look out for your letter. If you don't get one the telephone number is:
00 44 191 21 87777.


Doctors love these requests to certify, that you are still extant. By paying their fee, and requesting their verification. Their years of training, tells them, that you are still living.

Raffin

Got mine 2 weeks ago. The notary charged me P250, while round here the usual doctor's consultation fee is P500.

mikemike

Can your local bank manager not do this as part of their bank service. I believe my local BPI manager will do this

Raffin

In our case I think "bank service" means that you have put substantial funds into their various savings accounts and other products. After a few visits when we didn't respond to hints from the manager that we should do that we minimized our presence inside the branch, so are not keen to save just a few hundred pesos on the signing.

Bealinehx

Raffin I suspect you must residing in a high end neighbourhood. Your quoted charges are 150% more than I have paid.

Bealinehx

I cannot understand why DWP uses snail mail and not email as an option. All my other pension providers send and accept Life Certificates via email. Perhaps
that option is too obvious.

quiltman

Think it's because the government considers email an insecure method. HMRC for example will accept emails but ONLY via your government gateway account. When they reply, they send you an email telling you to log in to your gateway account. My bank in UK do the same, telling me to log in to my account to read a secure message. that's why by complaining to DWP we got the time extended to 16 weeks!
One of my private pension providers is happy with email , the other will accept them but still wants the original signed document sending back.

Bealinehx

It begs the question as to why DWP does not follow the example of HMRC. Goes to show what a disjointed bunch is controlling Whitehall, and I don't mean the politicians.

quiltman

I've never checked, but I think the government gateway may allow you to send secure emails to DWP. I know in order to check your NI contributions etc, you can do this via the gateway. One of our US posters managed to enrol from the US and was able to check her contributions this way.

Meggiesman

I am seriously thinking of a life in Philippines [ been there on several occasions - travelled about ] - I am in receipt of a UK state pension. Couple of questions regarding Life Certificate

1. I am told that DWP send out the paperwork/form every 12/18 months -what format does the form take ? Is it just a declaration by yourself and notarised by a doctor that you are still alive?

2.As the form is posted by mail - how reliable is the Philippines postal service so that you actually do receive the form? Got visions that it would get lost - and the first i would notice from my bank account that DWP ceased pension payment. Dealing with such a predicament from Philippines would be difficult i assume.

I am also in receipt of an Employment pension - so will need to check with them for such a scenario

quiltman

How often they send them out is a bit random and to some extent based on your age. I'm 75 and now get them every year , my wife is 68 and has had her first one this year. Luckily my sons father in law is a supreme court judge here so he certifies ours at no cost - well, a bottle of San Mig when we next meet up! My two private pensions seem to be every 18 moths/2 years.
The DWP send a form you fill in and get witnessed by the appropriate authority - or a local notary - then send it back. for the DWP I use DHL so it can be tracked all the way , having of course scanned a copy into my computer! My private pensions vary. One will accept an emailed scan of the signed form with the original following by mail. This year I used Philpost registered to return it, at 175pesos, and it was tracked all the way and delivered to Telford 10 days later. My other private pension , like the DWP only accepts the original and next time I'll also use Philpost registered.
Re reliability of Philpost. It seems outgoing mail is not too bad but incoming mail can be a nightmare. In many places they do not deliver, you have to go to the Post Office to collect. This is fine if you know something is on the way! Some expats get the PO to text them when mail arrives.
It can take 3 weeks for mail received in Manila to filter its way through the system to Cebu - longer if you're in the province or one of the remoter islands.
Certainly in the built up areas , the utility companies don't trust the mail and deliver bills via courier. Even my bank hand delivers my monthly statements!
Parcels may, or may not, be received, depending on what the sorters think may be inside them - a bit harsh maybe, but it does happen. No individual thinking allowed here - my brother in law sent us a Xmas parcel in November which arrived in our local PO on 23rd December. No sign of it by mid Jan so visited them and said I was expecting a parcel. "we have been waiting for you to call for it Sir!" . My cell number was in large numbers on the front but no one had the notion to send a text.
so , in summation. For sending important documents - legal forms, passports etc use a courier like DHL. For less important documents us Philpost registered. Xmas cards etc use regular post as most seem to reach the recipient. To SEND mail here, again courier for important stuff like new credit cards etc or use one of the Royal Mail registered/tracked services, but be aware that tracking often stops once it reaches Manila!

luckily we live on a subdivision and one of the guards goes to the PO 3 times a week to collect any mail for the subdivision and they then deliver it on their security rounds.

Meggiesman

Very good - thanks

quiltman

you're welcome!

Thairetired2016

I just saw the subject of "Life Certificate". Last week I received one for the 2nd time. Seems every time I change location this gets sent. On both occasions the letter started with "since you didn't reply to our letter dated... we now have stopped your pension until you send ...". The letter I was supposed to have received never arrived. This time it was a letter dated 27 Nov 2017. The follow up to tell me about pension being stopped arrived a week ago. It is odd that 1st letter never arrives, the 2nd one always does. Problem is not Thailand mail as the 1st time I was based in EU, saga was the same. To get this life cert. certified cost me 100£ = 2 weeks pension. Only place to get it done is a notary.
Contrary to the UK, my other pension requires a yearly life cert. Letter never gets lost, embassy certifies for free.
I just pray this expensive document will not get lost.

quiltman

No answer for you re DWP first letter. Seems most expats here eventually get their letters but the problem was until last year you only got 8 weeks to respond and it was often the case the letter arrived after the 8 weeks or with only a couple of days left. However, if you phoned them they extended the deadline by another 8 weeks. We all complained and now you get 16 weeks from the date of the letter which gives us , usually, ample opportunity to respond.
I know a couple of expats who did not appear to get their letter and only found out when their pension was stopped. On calling International Pensions they were told that if they think they should have received a Life Cert letter to call IP and ask if one has been sent. In these cases I understand the DWP emailed them the form to print out and action. There is no Embassy or even consulate in Cebu so we have to use notaries etc. Luckily these are quite cheap!
I now expect an annual request from IP so if no letter received by about end of February I'll be calling them! My two other pensions are still every other year. I have a Belgian friend here and he says he has to do one twice a year!