scot47

DWP just wrote to tell me my pension is now £143.91 weekly. Thanks to Attendance Allowance, Disability Premium and Housing Benefit it is boosted to a level that allows me to survive in my dotage. Concessionart Travel plus NHS are also a boon.

Helen1964

Good to know all those years of paying tax weren’t wasted after all!

scot47

Paying National Insurance is what gets the Pension. Tax just goes to fund foreign wars and gets you no brownie points ! But yes. I mam reaping the reawrds of paying NI Contributions. Many were on a voluntary basis when I was working in Africa. The Middle East and the Balkans.

scrubbedexpat142

Thank God you had the foresight to keep up with the contributions!

I look forward to receiving my first payment next week, just 5 months after claiming!

Helen1964

I thought tax paid for the NHS.

BristolUK

Plus Attendance Allowance, Disability Premium and Housing Benefit.

scot47

The difference between Contributory and Non-contributory. Top marks for all those who know the difference !

Chriscro

Lucky you ! I claimed in November, received my documents back in early January, after that nothing.... when they failed to pay my pension as requested I filled in the online form, which states they respond in 10 working days, a Month on still nothing ....

scrubbedexpat142

I had the same issue with the online contact, never heard back. Funnily enough my docs were returned within a few weeks of sending in, then the long wait began!

Chriscro

How did you get them to pay up ?

scrubbedexpat142

You have to phone them. This requires persistence as you have to navigate the menus - and then hope to join the queue - and then wait for an answer! It's the only way!

Chriscro

Thanks for the advice.

They should just settle claims correctly, 5.5 Months and no payment or response to the claim or online form, did it take just one phone call to get them to pay up ?

scrubbedexpat142

Well, the first phone call seemed to trigger setting it up, however it took 3 more to sort out actually paying the money correctly, and that's another story! Also letters from DWP take at least 28 days to reach you (well, Hungary anyway) & payments 8 working days!

Normal world - post UK > Hungary, 2 days, bank transfers, 24 hours max!

Chriscro

Wow, that’s a terrible indictment of how International DWP works or rather doesn’t work.....

dougal03

International DWP is the most incompetent part of an incompetent British Govn.I think.My pension had been paid into my Spanish Bank for several years.Then,without warning it was stopped ,no letter,no explanation,nada.As I had some cash in hand for my everyday needs I did not notice this until 3 months later & actually wrote a letter to Theresa Coffey,head of DWP,to ask for an explanation since this was an Entitlement,not a Welfare payment graciously approved by her department & even so,should not have been cancelled without some explained reason.I believe I was so angry because I had just read about some poor elderly lady who had had a benefit stopped,later found to be "a mistake" & had ended her life in despair.The outcome was an acknowledgement that"Lessons have been learned".Of course it was a minion,not Ms.Coffey who replied sometime later in early 2020 to say that an answer to my query would be addressed but due to the pandemic there would be a delay.To this date I am still waiting,although my payments were promptly re-instated.Then I changed my address & ,again wrote a letter to the International DWP to inform them of this.Unbelievably,& remember this is an International Dept.,back came a letter to ask if I could shorten my new address,leave out any bit that was"unnecessary"as the full address "would not fit on their equipment".Thinking about it I did consider asking the Spanish P.M.if he could change to more Anglicized names for apartments,roads & towns like Fawlty Towers,Main Street,Torquay.I do prefer to write each time & in some cases this is the requested method,but you also have to cope with a regional accent,often having to ask for a repeat answer during a phone conversation if unsure.I dread to think how this department deals with queries & new addresses from British Nationals residing in say,Eastern European countries......all those foreign words,with strange symbols over some of the letters,not very British!