Cypriot Pension paid to UK

[Maggie B]

Good afternoon Folks.

As a few of you will know my husband and I lived in Paphos for several years and duly paid our Taxes and Social Insurance to the relevant authorities. My OH retired (aged 65) last August, completed the required paperwork to apply for his pension and he received a letter today stating he MUST have a Euro account in this country (UK) to receive it.

Tesco Bank have informed us today they have never heard of this before but we are to send the required paperwork to them to look into it for us.

Can I ask - has this happened to anyone else and is there a way around it??

Hope you don't mind me posting this in General Section Dominic - even for a couple of days.

Maggie B

[trevnhil]

I would look into whether the Bank of Cyprus UK can help with this.. Of course it would mean opening an account with them in the UK..

Cheers. Trev..

[PhotoLady]

Glad you posted this Maggie B as I too will be looking to claim a pension from Cyprus in respect of the contributions I paid whilst working there up until last year.... interested to see what the outcome is.

Would you please be so kind as to update the thread when you have more information?

[mickyt]

This is nonsense! Under current EU Directives the only authority to claim any Retirement Pension (and maybe other benefits) is the authority in the country where you are currently residing. In the case of the UK it is Dept for Works and Pensions (DWP).
The DWP make the application on your behalf (EU Requirement) and subject to any award, get the money from the EU country (and it could be countries) where you made contributions. If you had worked in all the EU countries, you would declare them on the paperwork sent to you from DWP and the relevant DWP unit make all the calls to gather together all your entitlements.
You do not have to open a € Bank Account it is paid (provided they get any) to you in £Stg into the bank you nominated to have your UK Retifrement Pension paid into.
HTH

[PaphosAL]

This might make sense in a funny kind of way... If you get €400 pension from CY each month, (for example), then this should arrive in your UK € bank account as €400 yes?

YOU can then keep track of forex rate movements to decide when to txfr € to £ from one account to another, perhaps using Currency Fair (and the median rate, rather than the UK bank rip-off 10% either side of median, for buy/sell, grrrrrr)?

Cheers- AL

[Maggie B]

Yes Mickyt, my OH did all this through the DWP and they informed him he would hear from the Cypriot Social Insurance Services direct.

That is EXACTLY what happened. So why do say it is nonsense??? We have followed all the guidance from the DWP.

Maggie B

[Maggie B]

Trev, you are a wee genius. Why did I not think of that???

Hey Jules, Nae Probs. X

Cheers Al.

Maggie B

[Poppy]

mickyt ,if I understand you correctly then you are saying that my pension from the UK should have been paid by the cypriot authorities when I lived in Cyprus. Not correct of course as our UK Pensions were paid directly to us by them either into a UK sterling account in the UK or a euro account into a cypriot Bank.

[PhotoLady]

It depends Poppy (as far as I'm aware) on where you are living at the time you make your claim for the pension... ie, I worked for many years in Cyprus but when I retire (eventually) I will not be in Cyprus.

So, if for arguments sake I say I will be living in UK, I will claim my UK pension as normal and the UK dept (as above says DWP but there is an International dept, I believe) will take care of the claim for the pension entitlement I built up whilst working and paying SI in Cyprus.

However, if you reached your retirement age whilst in Cyprus, I believe that's where you should have put a claim in for your UK pension to be paid. Where you choose to have the money sent is your choice...

I tried to ask questions from the DWP lady who came to visit my Mum when her pension needed to be reviewed when my Dad went into the nursing home and she indicated there's a DWP dept that will handle any claim for my Cyprus pension at this end.

Unless Brexit puts the scuppers on that too!

[Poppy]

No Jules borh me and my husband reached our pension age whilst living and being tax resident in Cyprus but the cypriot authorities had nothing at all to do with our claims.

[Rita Sherry]

Hello Maggie

The following is the address of the International Pensions Centre in the UK - try them. I have always found them very helpful and au fait with procedures relating to overseas matters more so than the general office who solely deal with UK matters.

The Pensions Service
International Pension Centre
Tyneview Park
Newcastle pon Tyne
NE98 1BA

telephone: 0191 21 87307

If you telephone have your National Insurance number handy.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes

Rita

[smudger]

Hate to say this Maggie, but HIC is well documented in raising the profile of a local magician here in Cyprus who actually prised his wife's pension from the CY authorities after an inordinate wait. Give him a pm.

Jacs

[PhotoLady]

Thanks Rita for the contact details.... Very handy to have

[Rita Sherry]

Jules

Your welcome

Rita

[Reesy]

You have told the story several times Lloyd , and I did listen. After trying to apply for a Cyprus pension without success for around 12 months I contacted Charis. It took about 6 months , but I am now in receipt of two pensions, one from the U.K. and the other from the Cypriot government. It was also backdated to the date of my original claim , over 18 months. It is a good example of the value of the forum...and a big thank you to Lloyd!

[WHL]

Great for you guys, but in this day and age its disgusting that you can only get whats rightly yours (pension) by paying someone who has contacts to get you what you are legally entitled to, Not good .

[PhotoLady]

Not only is it not good.... It most certainly cannot be legal either. Is it only non-Cypriot claims that get pushed to the back of the queue or do the local people have to resort to paying a lawyer as well?

Something stinks there! There's a scam in there, I can smell it....

[WHL]

Not only is it not good.... It most certainly cannot be legal either. Is it only non-Cypriot claims that get pushed to the back of the queue or do the local people have to resort to paying a lawyer as well?

Something stinks there! There's a scam in there, I can smell it....

I dont think it is a scam, its simply government workers,many of which only got their guaranteed jobs for life, benefits for life, free healthcare for life etc etc, people who only got their jobs, by not what you know but who you know.. people working at snails pace, determined to safe guard, what they have.. their corrupt unions will fight tooth and nail not to change anything....HIC said there were bundles of files stacked to the ceiling....really when everything could be on computer? this is 2017 not 1917... so to answer your question, its the same for locals and expats..the agents get payed to go in there, find their friends/relatives/political buddys and get them to put your missing file at the top of the pile..as i said in this day its a disgusting and shouldn't happen.

[WHL]

Please read what I said again....I wasn't berating you personally..I was berating the system that drives people to use agents, I cant see the need for you to bring up Syria/Iraq etc into a discussion, about pensions?.

[Lofos-Jan]

The problem is more about not knowing your rights and therefore not being in a strong position to complain. The Citizens Service Centre has been an brilliant addition over recent years and once armed with the information you need, you can start to chase things up yourself. I certainly wouldn't pay anyone to do this for me and would keep contacting the relevant departments until I had the desired outcome. I don't think it is so much about backlogs as it about speaking to the right people/departments. I have gleaned a wealth of information over the years and could no doubt set myself up on a good little earner but I prefer to impart this information across many forums to help people to help themselves. I wish that more people would do so.

As soon as I go through my own pension claim, I will of course share the process.

Jeanne