Hi from France! I'm in the same position as you, and hesitate to go to the Town Hall where I've been going until the Covid era. To my surprize, I discovered "physiotherapist" among the possibles, and mine will gladly sign the declaration at my next appointment....

Brilliant.

The policeman that I was going to approach is working away at the moment so I contacted a person that I know in the town hall to ask if we could arrange an appointment time to get it done as I do not want to be there with others. An appointment was made by them for me to go to see the Justice of Peace at the Police station because it is not something that they can do themselves.

Rosemary

I now have the proof of life form completed by the Justice of Peace to send to the pension office. As an added bonus I also have a lovely official print out for Spain. I wondered why he was asking me some silly questions about my mother and father and my present status. Both of the papers of course have the all important rubber stamp that they love so much here.

Rosemary

Good result. It helps to have friends in high places :-)

So true. I had a shock when I saw who the JP was because I am fairly friendly with his wife who works with the person that I contacted at the town hall so at various events when we see each other we have nodded hello to each other for years but never talked. Strange world.

Rosemary

Rosemary, lockdown is not the end of the world. I'm 65, asthma, COPD high risk but I've been out, been and had bloods taken, had an eye exam and even been to Tesco. Wear your mask, social distance, clean your hands, don't mess with the mask when your wearing it and really clean yourself when you get home.

My wife has gone out of retirement and back into mental nursing because the service is busier now than ever. Three areas are on the up, paranoia, anxiety attacks and agoraphobia, people are becoming frightened at the prospect of leaving their homes.

Wear your mask, follow the rules and get out of the house IMHO.

From the latest DWP info page re life certificates. It states that anyone of any nationality can certify these main thing is they must have known you for at least 2 years and be able to recognise you. Its the same rules as for passport photo signatures per the link. It then also outlines certain professions that can sign. However it doesn't say it has to be one of these professions so it could be a friend or neighbour but not anyone related to you.
https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-...-circumstances

I had one of these maybe 6 or 7 years back whilst living in France, my pharmacist happily signed it for me.

True she spoke perfect English so knew what what she was signing but she was also very familiar with the document having signed many of them for other customers, she was the 'go to' authority for everyone in the area.

Must say though it seems highly unusual to be getting one every year!

My husband has had to get one certified every year for the past 11 years for the County Council his Local Government pension comes from.

Me too, same reason. A bit discriminatory though, if I lived in UK I would not get one; the office told me that specifically.

This is the first time that I have had to complete the form so the County Council that my pension comes from appears to have let me off the hook until now but I suspect that now that it has started I may receive one every year.

Rosemary

I suspect that ALL expat pensioners living in the EU are likely to get one. You don't get on living in the UK because, should you die, when the death is registered one of the forms the person reporting the death signs is for them to let all statuary bodies know of the death, so DWP, local council, etc.

Practices seem to differ widely between different pension providers. My former employer's scheme (a trade union) sends me a simple form to complete just to confirm that my address and phone details are correct, only needs to be signed by me. I've had one proof of life form from the Civil Service pension scheme in 4 years. I think my husband has had one from the DWP in respect of his state pension in 6 years, but as I said earlier gets one every year from the County Council Pensions Department, but none at all from Legal & General who pay his annuity pension from a former private sector employer. All of the above whilst we've been living outside the UK.

I don't have any public body pensions but I can imagine those being more closely or frequently monitored than others.