Maeve Leahy

Dear Goandeas, Can you outline how one can access the pension department website to view the process of your application? This would help other applicants as the HMRC website does not advise how to do this. Many thanks, Maeve

I submitted a CF83 and it was received by PT Operations in May 2023. I received a letter yesterday telling me that I should contact the International Pensions Centre as I was within 6 months of retirement. I phoned the International Pensions Centre and was told I had to contact PT Operations again to obtain a copy of their documentation (an assessment of which years I could pay for and how much it would cost) as it had not been forwarded to the International Pension Centre or I could wait a further four weeks to receive the information by post - Apparently, it can over a monthe for PT Operations to transfer documentation to the International Pension Centre! I phoned PT Operations this morning and after repeated questioning discovered that PT Operations opened my CF83 application on 29/2/24, noted I was within 6 months of retirement and did not do any futher work on my application apart from sending me the letter described above. I phoned the International Pension Centre again and was told I had been transferred to the wrong extension and I should phone in again!! I phoned again, outlined my circumstances for the fourth time in 24 hours and lo and behold, the very nice man pressed a button to start the process of establishing which years I can pay for and how much it will cost. This will take approximately 16 weeks, bringing me within 6 weeks of my retirment date. Obviously if I pass my retirement date before I receive the document and pay the bill, my state pension amount will not include the uplift due to payment of the added years. Finally, I checked the number I called on the last 2 occasions and it was the same!!! The lesson for all forum users here is if you live abroad and are within 6 months of retirement, all the person answering the call at the International Pension Centre has to do is press a button!! There are so many lessons for training of HMRC staff that I would be here until after my 29 year old daughter's retirment age to document them!!!