Just for information. I contacted International Pensions to see if they had sent Proof of life requests so I could avoid the annual non payment and the phone call etc to International pensions.
here is the response:Thank you for contacting the International Pension Centre.

I have checked your records and can confirm we have not yet asked you to take part in a life certificate exercise.
We plan to issue life certificates to Philippines in October 2025. There is no action to take until this time. Sending a life certificate before this time will not stop a life certificate being sent in October.

I have attached a form to this email for future reference.

Please note, due to unexpected circumstances, the month provided may change.

Yours Sincerely

Emily



0044 191 218 7777

Option 3

Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm UK time

Looks like we are OK for most of this year instead of pension being stopped around April due to not getting Proof of Life request!

A word of caution. About three years ago I had a similar interaction with DWP only to discover the person with whom I was conversing with conveyed false information.
My records show that every March they despatch a Proof of Life letter. So this year I sent a Proof of Life Certificate (a photocopy of lasts years document) through a friend who was visiting from the UK.
I will make a follow call via Skype (before it taken down in April) and report back via this thread.

Yes,I was rather surprised at the response! Usually my Proof of Life is sent out by DWP in October and my wifes in January. Mind you we never get them of course!

Will keep fingers crossed and see what happens.

As promised I called DWP vis Skype a couple of hours ago and they confirmed that they had received my Proof of Life paperwork on the 25 February. The very nice lady added updates will be sent by SMS. Now that is progress indeed.
Perhaps they are finally accepting that we in this Land of 7123 Islands do have a problem with Philpost.

Wow! That is indeed good news - if it works................
A minor miracle occurred today. The subdivision guard knocked on door and said here are two envelopes for you and your wife. They were from International pensions with details of the pension increase next month! Written on Feb 1st, postmarked received here on March 7 and collected by guard this morning. I had to have a sniff of smelling salts - only 6 weeks from UK.
Need to go lie down in a darkened room..........

Thanks for the update.

Encouraged by quiltman's good news, and not having received my pension increase letter( being only 15kms from the Central Post Office) I went to the Marikina PO to enquire about my missing letter. So last Tuesday I had a nice conversation with the Post Mistress (I am not WOKE!) On Thursday my letter arrived. dated 27 January with two other Philpost date stamps of 24 February and 6 March.
I really cannot understand why the DWP doesn't utilise 21st Century technology,like my other three pension providers , and still insist on using snail mail.

Yes I was extremely surprised when a pension increase letter arrived early this month. The last one I received arrived thirteen months after it was sent. Along with other mail. If you do contact them regarding Proof of Life, and they confirm a letter was sent. They will e-mail you a copy. Better to do it by e-mail in the first instance.

A couple of weeks ago I used the DWP website to send an email explaining the plight of residents in the Philippines regarding the difficulties in receiving snail mail in a timely fashion.
I highlighted that my other pension providers had already started using 21st Century IT/AI to verify proof of life.
This is the reply I have just read.

"Good Afternoon
Thank you for contacting the International Pension Centre.We appreciate your feedback, and we are looking into future digital solutions however we need to consider the best solution to benefit all our customers as not everyone will be technical minded or have support in place to assist them. I have checked your records and can confirm we have not yet asked you to take part in a life certificate exercise.We plan to issue life certificates to Philippines in October 2025. There is no action to take until this time. Sending a life certificate before this time will not stop a life certificate being sent in October.

I have attached a form to this email for future reference.

Yours Sincerely"

So there we have it.

Well I never! Thanks for posting this.
At least it confirms that POL for us looks like October, so in early December they get an email to check forms have been sent..
don't really understand their logic though. Surely they could email all of us expats who have an email logged with them and if no email then they could just send the letters as normal. Oh, I forgot this is HMG we're dealing with.
If you have no support in place to assist you, then how the heck do you get the form completed, notarised and got back to Wolverhampton?
Oh well , we'll just plod along as usual.
Again, thanks for following this up.

The DWP also downloaded all of the Proof of Life forms and associated literature. In my case around November I will print a form, complete it and send on to Wolverhampton.

If anyone has an interest in the documents I will happily email them.

Yes Please as my response said documents attached but no attachment! are they different from previous years?
Thanks in advance.
Quiltman

A PROPOSAL
Many on this forum have expressed frustration with the performance of Philpost which has resulted in many of us having our DWP pensions halted.
For some this could be a real problem. I am probably not alone in highlighting this issue directly with DWP. They seem reluctant to introduce 21st Century applications through which we can show Proof of Life.
So I am proposing that we individually communicate with the Consular Section pf the British Embassy to highlight our predicament.

Finally now that Skype is no longer available does any one have a practical cost effective alternative?

B, I think if you complain to the Embassy here it will have to conform to something consular. A general gripe wont register with them. All you will get is an AI generated reply asking you to contact the DWP.

Interesting...you can follow on the Embassy site about govt departments and any blogs. Get to Pensions and find none!

It's not just here there is an almost non existing post service so perhaps worth scanning other BE discussions?

Re phoning, why do it? We know it's October. A great help. The forms are acceptable to be copied without the address. I have used them before like that. If you still get stopped it's likely a delivery issue...which I have never had. My issues have always been with the form, who signed it, lack of stamp etc Then just spend a few hundred with Globe, Smart etc to start the restoration. Resend.

Thinking is one thing doing is something else.
Why tolerate inefficiency?

We could ask our MPs...even though I think we probably are mostly not viewed as constituents, Even though technically we can vote here.

Yes, proof of life should be updated. One day the whole situation may be so bad or look so out of date that they are forced to do something. Think that will be when expats in the bigger countries for numbers are badly affected. That's not the Philippines. Rather US, Canada, Australia etc.

IMO complaining more about the situation here wont achieve anything more. We already have a potential modus vivendi in October. Let's see after that.