Backdated UK Pension Increases - French News Article

[nomoss]

Before any more people call the UK Pension Service in connection with the article in February "French News", expecting a bonanza.

If you don't have French News, the article originally appeard in LFN Digestive, available here http://lfn.org.uk/ by suscribing to it.

We just contacted the Pension service, and the information in the article, which quotes Liberal Democrat MP Steve Webb, is apparently erroneous, in that the increase is not back paid from the year in which the age of 60 was reached.

I think the information is also on Mr Webb's webbsite.

It is now possible for women over 60, with a reduced pension, to make backdated payments up to the year in which they reached 60, but the increase in pension is only back paid from the date on which the payments are received.

Cost is about £300 for each year back paid, and the increase for each year is around £1.50, so it takes about 4 years to break even, if you are still around.

Not surprisingly the Pension Service have had several enquiries this morning

 

Edit: Add details missed out.

 

[Steve Webb MP]

As ever, the Pension Service are being "economical with the actualite".

It is true that in normal circumstances, when you buy a year of 'class 3' NI contributions your improved pension only starts from the year in which you pay the contributions.

HOWEVER, a special scheme operates for the years 1996/97 to 2001/02.   If you buy back a year in that period, any improvement in your pension is backdated to when you first drew your pension - usually age 60 for a woman, though some do not claim on their 60th birthday.   The reason for the special rule is that the Government of the day failed to send people 'deficiency notices' for those years - ie failed to tell people they had gaps in their NIC record.   To make up for this error they set up a special programme to allow people to make good the missing years on favourable terms, including backdating.

The information on my website - www.stevewebb.org.uk - is entirely accurate.

Steve Webb MP

[Cat]

Welcome to the forum, and many thanks for giving us more information on the issue.

 

[nomoss]

Thank you for your response, Mr Webb. We would have contacted you via the email address on your website, but it stated there that this is only for use by your constituents.

My wife called to enquire about paying the years 96/97 and 97/98, what increase she would get, and the total of the back payments of her pension she would receive.

She called the first number quoted in the French News article, 00448456060265. She was told that they did not deal with this, and gave her another number, 00448453021479, which turned out to be an HMRC helpline.

There she was told that she could pay only 1996/7, as she reached 60 (just) before April 5 1998, which would cost £309.40. They could not tell her how much pension increase would result, nor anything about back payment of this, and gave her another number to call, 00448453013011.

On calling this last number, she was told that paying 1996/7 would increase her pension by between £1.50 and £1.60 per week, but that no increased pension payment would be due for any period before the date on which such a payment was received.

On stating that she had been led to believe that any increase in her pension would be back paid from her 60th birthday, the gentleman asked her if she got this information from the French News. She confirmed this, and he replied that he had received other calls as a result of the article, and that they would be contacting Mr Webb about the information.

As it happens, after wading through some of the information we have, since both our pensions are determined by contributions made both in UK and other EU countries, and are also interdependent, any increase in my wife’s pension would affect other calculations for our UK and EU pensions.  From bitter experience we have decided that this could result in a decrease in the total of our pensions, so will not pursue the matter.

This does not alter the fact that the gentleman she spoke to completely dismissed the information in the French News article, nor that pensions paid seem to be the result of esoteric calculations and individuals' own knowledge of what they are entitled to claim.

Nor should it be necessary for people to go through administrative hoops in order to get pensions and other benefits to which they are entitled. Changes in pension payments we receive from other EU countries have been made with no necessity for us to make any claims apart from our initial applications.

 

[nomoss]

While going through the documents covering our initial claims our UK pensions, I notice that whereas I requested a Pension Forecast in 2000, my wife simply applied for her Pension in 1998, a month before she was 60, as she had never heard of the existence of a Pension Forecast at that time.

I was told how much Pension I would receive, plus I was sent a list of years and amounts I could back pay, in order to increase my Pension.

My wife did not receive any information at all about making back payments. If she had been informed, as I was, of this option, it seems she could have back paid several years, probably from 1992/3 through to 1996/7, to improve her Pension.

I was offered the possibility of back paying the previous 6 years at that time, so I assume this would have been the case for my wife. Unless this is yet another example of women being treated differently. My wife thinks “victimised” would be a more appropriate term.

Since we are resident in France and have no representation in the UK, maybe we should try to interest our EU representative in this case.