The overseas pensioner

Contents

• Eligibility »
• Claiming the State Pension Abroad »
• Payment of the State Pension »
• Increases to the State Pension in Payment »
• Further Reading»

Eligibility

The fact that an individual retires outside of the UK does not impact upon their eligibility for the majority of State Pension Entitlement. The main exception to this rule is the Category D Basic State Pension where entitlement is based upon the claimant being resident in the UK.

Claiming the State Pension Abroad

How this done will depend upon the country in which the individual is resident when making their claim and also the country(ies) in which they have worked.

If an individual has worked in the UK and overseas, they should contact the International Pension Centre:

The Pension Service 11
Mail Handling Site A
Wolverhampton
WV98 1LW
United Kingdom
tvp.internationalqueries@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)191 218 7777
Textphone: +44 (0)191 218 7280

Claimants who only worked overseas, only lived overseas or are currently working overseas, in one of the following countries:

Austria	Belgium	Bulgaria	Croatia	Cyprus
Czech Republic	Denmark	Estonia	Finland	France
Germany	Gibraltar	Greece	Hungary	Iceland
Ireland	Italy	Latvia	Liechtenstein	Lithuania
Luxembourg	Malta	Netherlands	Norway	Poland
Portugal	Romania	Slovakia	Slovenia	Spain
Sweden	Switzerland

 Should contact the relevant authority of the country in which the individual is resident to claim the State Pension.

In the case of all other countries, the claimant should contact the International Pension Centre.

Payment of the State Pension

The State Pension can be paid into:

• a bank in the country in which the pensioner is resident
• a bank or building society in the UK

It can only be paid to one bank account. This means if a pensioner spends sometime in the UK and sometime overseas, they will need to decide which jurisdiction they wish the payment to be made to.

The bank account can be:

• an account in pensioner's sole name
• a joint account
• someone else's account; - if the pensioner has their permission and keeps to the terms and conditions of the account

The DWP will need to be provided with the IBAN and BIC numbers for payments for some countries outside the UK.

The payment will be made in the local currency of the country in which the payments are made. The actual amount received will vary with exchange rates.

Increases to the State Pension in Payment

Whilst the DWP will pay the UK State Pension worldwide. Increases will only be paid to pension in payment if the recipient lives in:

• the European Economic Area (EEA), Gibraltar or Switzerland
• a country that has a social security agreement with the UK that allows for cost of living increases to the State Pension

Citizens of EEA countries, Gibraltar or Switzerland entitled to a social security benefit or pension will keep their entitlement if they move between those countries.

A list of the current EEA countries can be found at on the UK Government website.

The UK has agreements with some other countries to protect the social security rights of workers moving between the 2 countries.

These are sometimes known as bilateral or reciprocal agreements.

The following countries have such agreements UK pensioners will receive increases on their UK State Pension, in payment each year:

Barbados	Bermuda	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Guernsey	Isle of Man
Israel	Jamaica	Jersey	Kosovo	Macedonia
Mauritius	Montenegro	Philippines	Serbia	Turkey
USA

The UK has social security agreements with Canada and New Zealand, but annual increase in the UK State Pension is not paid to UK pensioners resident in these countries.

Further Reading