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UK state pension and USA social security

UK state pension and USA social security

Old Dec 1st 2015, 2:31 pm
  #976  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Originally Posted by scottiedoggie
I would like to hear from anyone who is already receiving US and UK pensions, regarding the tax situation.
If you are a US tax resident and a non-UK resident then US SS and other US pensions and UK state pension and other UK pensions are only taxable in the US.

You should make sure you either file a US-Individual-2002 with HMRC (via the IRS) to claim a treaty exemption so that no UK tax will be due or withheld or, if your income is low enough, file an R43 form to claim a UK personal allowance to avoid UK taxation.
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Old Dec 1st 2015, 3:06 pm
  #977  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

To request benefit information: 011 44 191 218 3600 (from USA)
To find out about voluntary contributions: 011 44 191 203 7010
If you are already over 65 and have all qualifying years: 011 44 191 218 7777

8 hour time difference for me here in the Great Pacific Northwest.
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Old Dec 1st 2015, 5:25 pm
  #978  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Originally Posted by scottiedoggie
To request benefit information: 011 44 191 218 3600 (from USA)
To find out about voluntary contributions: 011 44 191 203 7010
If you are already over 65 and have all qualifying years: 011 44 191 218 7777

8 hour time difference for me here in the Great Pacific Northwest.
Ta muchly!
Reason I asked is I recently tried many times to contact them re: a letter to them for voluntary NI's. Could never get someone to pick up the phone. I can't recall which number I used, but it may have been a different department. They did finally write back, I thought the original letter to them hadn't gotten lost. I'll make a note of these numbers.

Thanks
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Old Dec 2nd 2015, 9:39 pm
  #979  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

British company pension and California defined benefit pension.

Does anybody know if I can claim on the CA Company’s Defined Benefit plan, whilst I worked there? I worked for a UK company and transfer to the CA office from 1987-1996. I will get a pension from the UK Company for the time I worked in both countries. However I just found out that the US Company had a defined benefit pension. I was in their 401k program and am a Green Card holder. I have requested a copy of the plan, but haven’t heard back yet.
Thanks any advice or direction anybody can offer.
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Old Dec 3rd 2015, 9:54 am
  #980  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Originally Posted by ritzola
British company pension and California defined benefit pension.

Does anybody know if I can claim on the CA Company’s Defined Benefit plan, whilst I worked there? I worked for a UK company and transfer to the CA office from 1987-1996. I will get a pension from the UK Company for the time I worked in both countries. However I just found out that the US Company had a defined benefit pension. I was in their 401k program and am a Green Card holder. I have requested a copy of the plan, but haven’t heard back yet.
Thanks any advice or direction anybody can offer.
You will have to ask the company about whether you qualify for the DB plan. I assume that you are managing your 401k and have investigated the IRA rollover options.
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Old Dec 3rd 2015, 3:32 pm
  #981  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Hi, thanks for your fast reply. Correct, I rolled the 401k over to Vanguard. I was looking for somewhere to go for an independent opinion, other than the companies. I believe the DB was frozen in 08/09 and possible underfunded. So I’m thinking their quickest (and cheapest) answer is going to be no, to get rid of me. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks again.
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Old Dec 3rd 2015, 3:34 pm
  #982  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Originally Posted by nun
You will have to ask the company about whether you qualify for the DB plan. I assume that you are managing your 401k and have investigated the IRA rollover options.

Hi, thanks for your fast reply. Correct, I rolled the 401k over to Vanguard. I was looking for somewhere to go for an independent opinion, other than the companies. I believe the DB was frozen in 08/09 and possible underfunded. So I’m thinking their quickest (and cheapest) answer is going to be no, to get rid of me. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks again.
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Old Dec 4th 2015, 7:42 pm
  #983  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

I know most of these point don't affect people here, but here is the latest on pensions from money box.

I’m going to bang on about the state pension again. Well, it’s been on my mind. I gave my evidence to the Work & Pensions Select Committee in Parliament ten days ago. Before I was questioned the MPs quizzed the former Pensions Minister Steve Webb. He lost his seat in the General Election and is now Director of Policy at the insurers Royal London.

He admitted quite frankly to the Committee that his reforms of the state pension – which begin on 6 April – had to be done at nil cost. Or as he put it “When I went to the Treasury wanting to reform the State Pension, the one thing they said to me is—and I paraphrase slightly—‘Steve, you can do what the hell you like, just don’t spend any more money.’”

In fact the new state pension will, in the long term, cost less than the present one. Job done. But the more I looked at the various groups and campaigners who are complaining about how the new state pension will treat them the more I thought that every niggling unfairness about it came from Steve Webb’s nil cost brief.

Now, without sounding too much like Meryl Streep and Steve Martin, it’s complicated. So bear with me.

1. Women born 6 April 1951 to 5 April 1953 all reach state pension age before the new state pension begins. So they won’t get the new state pension while men of the same age – who will be 65 when it begins – will. That is sex discrimination and they want the choice to have new or old.

2. The problems of women born 6 April 1953 to 5 April 1959 were covered in this newsletter two weeks ago. They were told about their state pension age rise just a couple of years before they were 60 and their age was raised not once but twice. That didn’t happen to any men.

3. As I reported here three weeks ago women will generally do less well than men out of the new state pension. Even by the 2050s one in seven women won’t get the full amount because they don’t have 35 years’ contributions compared with one in ten men. It is also expected that more women than men will not get a pension at all because they won’t get the minimum ten years’ contributions.

4. The new state pension will not allow women to claim a pension on their husband’s contributions either while he is alive or after his death. If they have an inadequate pension of their own they will have to rely on means-tested pension credit which is itself being cut by up to £13 a week.

5. Transitional rules cut back on the new State Pension for anyone who was not paying into SERPS and the State Second Pension which topped up the basic pension. As a result many will get little more than the old state pension in the first years of the new scheme. DWP figures show women are more likely to be affected than men.

6. And finally the cold-towel-round-head rules which affect people who were in company schemes. Under these rules the DWP will no longer inflation-proof part of their company scheme through the state pension. This rule will probably affect men more than women.

All those six items cut the cost of the new state pension to keep within the Treasury rules. All leave some groups – mainly women – feeling unfairly treated. Perhaps it’s a price worth paying to simplify the state pension and keep it affordable in the long term. But we should at least be clear who is paying that price.
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Old Dec 4th 2015, 7:56 pm
  #984  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Originally Posted by mrken30
I know most of these point don't affect people here, but here is the latest on pensions from money box.

1. Women born 6 April 1951 to 5 April 1953 all reach state pension age before the new state pension begins. So they won’t get the new state pension while men of the same age – who will be 65 when it begins – will. That is sex discrimination and they want the choice to have new or old.
I can certainly see some merit in giving women that choice, if by "new" it means waiting for the same age as men do. If by "new" they want women to be eligible for the new amount but at an earlier age than men, I strongly disagree. That is just increasing sex discrimination in favour of women.

Originally Posted by mrken30
...

2. The problems of women born 6 April 1953 to 5 April 1959 were covered in this newsletter two weeks ago. They were told about their state pension age rise just a couple of years before they were 60 and their age was raised not once but twice. That didn’t happen to any men.
That's a little misleading. The phasing out of the age 60 retirement age for women was announced 20 years ago. The increase in pension age from age 65 affects both men and women who were equally told "about their state pension age rise just a couple of years before they were 60".

Additionally, I'm hard pressed to describe a phasing out of a discrimination in favour of women as being discrimination against women.

Last edited by Giantaxe; Dec 4th 2015 at 8:06 pm.
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Old Dec 4th 2015, 8:17 pm
  #985  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

I need an opinion/thoughts on claiminr UK State Pension as well as the US SS. My brother contributed fully to the US SS for 30 years and been claiming his SS for the past several years. Prior to moving to the US, he had worked in the UK in the 1960s for 7 years. When he filed his claim to the UK DWP recently, he was advised that he did not qualify for the UK State Pension because he had only 7 years and the minimum required in his case was 11 years. My understanding was that he could take credits for some of his US years to make up for the shortage of years/contributions in the UK without affecting his US SS. Furthermore, I thought this way he could qualify for Pension in both countries. Could someone ( Lansbury, nun)and others please opine on this subject?

The letter from the DWP ends saying that they will be contacting their counterpart in the US "to see if we can improve your pension". What in your opinion does this mean? SS Pension in the US or the UK?
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Old Dec 4th 2015, 10:25 pm
  #986  
 
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

You can only move credits from one country to the other if you don't qualify for a pension in either. Also it must be done before claiming a pension I believe.

As your brother qualifies for SS he can't use credits from that for his UK pension. I suspect when the DWP look into improving his pension he will be told that it cannot be done.
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Old Dec 4th 2015, 10:46 pm
  #987  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Originally Posted by lansbury
You can only move credits from one country to the other if you don't qualify for a pension in either. Also it must be done before claiming a pension I believe.

As your brother qualifies for SS he can't use credits from that for his UK pension. I suspect when the DWP look into improving his pension he will be told that it cannot be done.
Thanks lansbury. I probably misunderstood the use of credits in one country for purposes of qualifying in the other. Still a bit confused, though.

Here is what I found
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Old Dec 4th 2015, 10:48 pm
  #988  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Originally Posted by UK2US1979
Thanks lansbury. I probably misunderstood the use of credits in one country for purposes of qualifying in the other. Still a bit confused, though.

Here is what I found
Here is what I found
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Old Dec 4th 2015, 10:56 pm
  #989  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Originally Posted by lansbury
You can only move credits from one country to the other if you don't qualify for a pension in either. Also it must be done before claiming a pension I believe.

As your brother qualifies for SS he can't use credits from that for his UK pension. I suspect when the DWP look into improving his pension he will be told that it cannot be done.
Lets try again for the third time! For some reason it is not letting me post excerpts from Totalization Agreement.

https://www.ssa.gov/international/Ag...phlets/uk.html
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Old Dec 4th 2015, 11:21 pm
  #990  
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Default Re: UK state pension and USA social security

Originally Posted by UK2US1979
Lets try again for the third time! For some reason it is not letting me post excerpts from Totalization Agreement.

https://www.ssa.gov/international/Ag...phlets/uk.html
Please check the following sections : "Benefits from the UK" and "How credits get counted". It ends with ...< Although each country may count your credits in the other country, your credits are not actually transferred from one country to the other. They remain in your record in the country where you earned them and can also be used to qualify for benefits there.....>

What are your thoughts on this?
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