Paphos Life

Exactly the same happened to my husband as happened to Lloyd. He had paid in 7 1/2 years here and 40 years in UK. He too received a letter to say his pension claim was rejected. The Citizens Advice place in Butcher Boy Rd were very helpful. We had to get a list of his contributions from Newcastle and we also asked for the list to be sent to ourselves as well. 4 months later we still had not received it so went back to the CA. They had received nothing either. We rang Newcastle and the file was still there with nothing done with it. 6 weeks later, we rang them back as we still had received nothing. They said the file was at HRMC for checking the contributions. Another 6 weeks and we received a copy. CA had not received anything so they took a copy of the list we had received. All dealt with then and all backdated funds received. It was actually Newcastle where the hold up was.

Mary

PhotoLady wrote: ↑Sun Apr 30, 2017 11:51 am At the end of the day, the money is legally yours whether it be overpayments or pensions. Nobody should have to pay someone to get it paid out, particularly in the case of a pension!

Lack of staff is not an excuse and I still say I don't believe the local people will sit back and wait for it to be their turn. Certainly if it's the best part of a year with no income.... Some people have obviously created their own niche in the market and I wouldn't be surprised to find there's someone at the other end assisting....

Over on the eastern side of the island, we are currently in a state of delirious excitement (I'm being ironic actually) at the thought of receiving our Title Deeds, 13 years after paying for the house. On my recent visit to Cyprus, one of our neighbours kindly gave us the direct line to the woman in Larnaca Land Registry, who would be dealing with us. Then he went on to say, that she issues a form, obviously written in Greek, which needed to be completed by us. She asks whether you are fluent in Greek, then says she'll arrange for a man, to complete the form on our behalf. Apparently, he phones you, asks you to meet him early morning, in the car park. You hand over 50 euros, he gives you the completed form. Job done. Quite disgusting I think. Probably her husband. Nice little earner huh?

Honestly, you could not make this up if you tried!

Unbelievable... AL

Out side many Govt places you will find many full time form fillers, I have used them when I Had to register a car, they provided the stamps filled out my forms, which were in Greek... I was pleased they were there to help me.....not a scam, they provide a service, no one has to use them.

But from recollection of a time we spent registering at the employment office in Limassol, the people outside there only made a small charge of around 2 or 3 Cy£ and not €50

WHL wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2017 8:31 pm Out side many Govt places you will find many full time form fillers, I have used them when I Had to register a car, they provided the stamps filled out my forms, which were in Greek... I was pleased they were there to help me.....not a scam, they provide a service, no one has to use them.

Oh, well that makes it ok I guess. Still, at least it helps the economy, (tax and Social Insurance), with all that declared income. Oh wait.....

As a long-serving UK Civil Servant, we often had foreigners(inc the odd Cypriot) coming into the office, requiring assistance in completing forms. It was part of the job-helping, not hindering people. All done with a smile, but without a bung.

If I pay someone to service my car, is that a bung, because I dont have the expertise to do it myself? If I cant read and write Greek and I pay someone to fill a form out is that a bung...not in my book, Im living in a country whos official language is Greek/Turkish, and as I haven't learnt either language, then its my fault, not the country's, so as I said, im pleased there was someone there to help me.

Finally, I am able to update you all 're my OH's claim for his Cypriot Pension!

Our first problem was not having a Euro Bank Account in the UK so we contacted the BOC branch in London who were more than happy to accommodate. We were sent cards, pins etc . . . . .but, when we asked them to verify our account with the Cypriot Authorities they informed us this was not possible unless we visited their branch 'in person.' (A 1200 mile round trip for us.) Arghhhhhh.

As a last ditch effort, we emailed the Paphos branch, who we still had a frozen account with and their reply was "No problem, just get your passports, utility bills etc verified by a UK notary and we will reopen your account when the pension is paid out." Turned out that was the easy bit.

My OH has been sending very polite emails to the Social Insurance office, Nicosia since last April (roughly every two months) always to be told we were in a very long queue, but we are convinced that the last one sent at the beginning of January was the one that 'sent him over the edge.' He replied that the pension (if approved) would be paid out by the end of January.

Sure enough this morning an official letter arrived from Nicosia informing him that his application had been examined and full payment, including all backpayments to May 2016 would arrive in his bank account on 31 January 2018. Yippeeeee

No need to pay for anyone's expertise . . . . . . . . . . just a steely determination AND 'restraint' in not losing the plot whilst communicating with the authorities. They do it when they are ready or are fed up replying to your emails.

Maggie B

PS It has got to said if we had not succeeded on our own we were going to contact Charis during our coming visit in May.

A result
Thank you!

Oh Jules, let's hope Thee and Me will not have to wait as long when we apply for ours.

MB

Bringing this particular thread back to the fore.....

I'm now just a few weeks away from receiving my UK Pension (the one which was stolen from me for 6 years, with it being pushed back to age 66 to get it).

I've also been allowed to apply for my OAP bus pass for my free travel. YIPPEE
Yes, that was also pushed back until I was allowed to receive my UK Pension...

So far, I've had the confirmation of my 4 weekly payment amounts from the DWP.

I did also contact the Cyprus Pension people about 18 months ago to see if I could find out any information from there. A friend of mine who still lives in Cyprus, sent me several links as the pension website had undergone changes.

After about 3 weeks I got an email reply back, which said:

Good morning. Since you live now in UK, you can contact the social services in UK and ask them to send a claim for you for Cyprus pernsion. The will inform you further for what they will need from you in order to send the claim. You must make your application 3 months before the age of 65.

Kind regards
Andreas Malekkides

for Director
of Social Insurance Services

7 Lord Byron Ave.,
1465 Nicosia
Tel: 22401772
Fax: 22401664

I did contact the DWP and ask what happens to my Cyprus pension - but the standard reply is you can only make contact about the pension/s in general 3 months before the official retirement date.

Since then - upon receipt of my UK Pension Claim, I have been sent forms to complete with regards to my Cyprus Pension, providing my SI number and dates of employment whilst there. I have a little over 11 years of SI deductions taken from my monthly salaries over that period.

I was also asked which bank account I wanted my pension/s to be paid into. I've currently stated my normal UK bank account, but I do have a Chase Card linked to a current account, which could possibly be used for the Cyprus payment.

So for the moment, the left hand is looking pretty good - but I'm still waiting to see what the Cyprus right hand will deliver.

We're planning a visit to Cyprus next summer - if all else fails, I may be going into the Social Insurance office to personally ask where my file is