Hi Maggie,Maggie B wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2025 10:46 am Hi Photolady
My husband and I paid into the Social Insurance system in Cyprus from 2006 until 2012. We had a Limited Company at the time so we paid a hefty amount each month.
I turned 65 in March '24 and had submitted my application form to the International Pensions Department in good time. I hadn't heard anything from Nicosia for several months so I emailed Eupensions@sid.mlsi.gov.cy in October. Things moved very quickly after that.
They asked if I lived permanently in the UK and requested a scanned copy of my Birth Certificate which I duly returned along with a copy of our Marriage Certificate . . . .just for good measure.I received my first Cypriot pension payment early December backdated to March. I receive €113 per month but I think there is a 2.65% reduction. Once I got in touch directly with them the process was simplicity itself. When my husband retired in 2016 he had to jump through several hoops before he received his Cypriot pension so the system has improved immensely.
Thankfully, we kept our BoC account in Paphos after we returned to the UK because at the time they simply would not pay a pension into a Sterling account. I don't know what the situation is now?
Just this week I have requested an online code from the DWP to apply for my OAP in the UK. Like you, I am one of those ladies born at the wrong time!
Best of Luck. X
Maggie B
I received my first Cypriot pension payment early December backdated to March. I receive €113 per month but I think there is a 2.65% reduction. Once I got in touch directly with them the process was simplicity itself. When my husband retired in 2016 he had to jump through several hoops before he received his Cypriot pension so the system has improved immensely. This has been real pain - I contacted the SID EUPensions in Cyprus in January this year as I'd heard nothing back from DWP International UK after they confirmed my pension claim had been sent to SID in October 2024.
A gentleman in the Cyprus Pensions came back to me a couple of weeks later to inform me they had no record of any claim on my behalf and requested details of how the claim was sent to them, whether it was a hard copy by mail or be electronic method.
Emails back to DWP International (2 of them, sent several weeks apart in January) raised absolutely no response.
So I dug into the internet searches and came up with the email address for the Secretary - I've kept all of the emails in one single tracked email message, so forwarded everything to the DWP Secretary in the middle of February.
We went on holiday towards the end of that same month and I received an email response from a member of staff at the DWP to state the reference numbers of the claim they say was sent in October and that they've sent a second claim (different reference number) again in February.
I've just received an email from K. Malekkides in Cyprus to state they now have the claim and they need me to send them pretty much the same information (they have asked for the Marriage Certificate also) and details of any pension/employment payments for my husband.
They also need a Bank Account which accepts SEPA bank transfers, which apparently our current joint account does exactly that (according to the google search I entered).
So it sounds like we're good to go.
Can I ask please, did you send your paperwork by postal mail or by electronic email?
I'm going to send the documents by email attachment (my other half is scanning them now) just to keep all of the paperwork together and to continue the email chain of correspondence but will ask, them to let me know if they need it by hard copy as well.
Hopefully, this will sort the whole thing out once and for all and then I know exactly where my pension income is up to. I have a shortfall from my UK pension due to moving to Cyprus when we did and have been relying on the 11+ years I paid into the SI Fund during all of those years.
Thanks again for the information you detailed above as it seems pretty much to be the same scenario and process for me, which makes me feel a whole lot better!
Cheers, Shell
