SA29. Your social security insurance, benefits and healthcare rights in the European Economic Area
Benefits
20. State Pension
If you want to ask about your own pension rights in another EEA country, you must ask the authorities who run the pension scheme in that country.
UK State Pension age
UK State Pension age is 65 for men and 60 for women. But over a 10-year period starting on 6 April 2010, UK State Pension age for women will change from age 60 to age 65. This means:
- women born on or before 5 April 1950 will reach State Pension age at age 60;
- women born on or after 6 April 1955 will reach State Pension age at age 65;
- women born on or after 6 April 1950 and on or before 6 April 1955 will reach State Pension age at 60 plus 1 month for every month or part month their date of birth is after 5 April 1950. For these women, State Pension will always be awarded from the 6th of the same month.
See the following example.
Example
A woman is born on 21 November 1950.
Number of months from 6 April 1950 to 21 November 1950 = 8
(November counts as one month).
UK State Pension age = July 2011
(age 60 is November 2010 plus 8 months = July 2011).
State Pension will be paid from 6 July 2011.
UK State Pension forecast
If you are not within four months of UK State Pension age (see above for UK State Pension age), you can ask for a forecast of what UK State Pension you can expect to get. It will tell you what your State Pension is now and whether or not you can get more by the time you reach UK State Pension age. But it will not include any insurance you have paid in another EEA country.
If you are living in another EEA country or you are going abroad soon, write to the HM Revenue and Customs and ask for an application form. If you are living in the UK and you are not going to live in another EEA country for some time, you should get application form BR19 from your Jobcentre Plus or social security office.
How to claim your State Pension
Every EEA country has its own rules. You must follow these rules before a State Pension can be paid to you. The age that you can start to get your State Pension may also be different in other countries.
You can claim your State Pension directly from any EEA country in which you have been insured. Or you can claim from the EEA country you live in when you are getting near State Pension age.
If you have been insured in the UK, we will usually send you a claim form about four months before you reach UK State Pension age. The form will ask you if you want to claim a UK State Pension. It asks you to tell us about any insurance and residence you may have in other countries.
But you do not have to claim your State Pension as soon as you reach UK State Pension age, you can claim it later. If you decide to claim it later, when you finally do claim, you may get extra weekly pension or the choice of a one-off taxable lump sum payment. For more information please see Your State Pension Choice- Pension now or extra pension later: A guide to State Pension deferral.
Remember to tell The Pension Service when you change your address, or the form may not get to you.
If you claim State Pension in the EEA country where you live, that country will pass details of your claim to any other EEA country where you have been insured.
How your claim is worked out
Each EEA country where you have paid insurance towards a State Pension will look at your insurance under its own scheme and will work out how much State Pension you can have. As long as you meet the rules, you will get a State Pension from each country.
Each country will also look at any insurance you have in another EEA country. This can help you to get a State Pension, or a higher State Pension, under its own scheme.
To do this, each country sends details of your insurance record to the others.
Each country then works out how much to pay you.
They do it in two ways:
- Method A
Each country works out how much State Pension you can get, just from what you have paid into its own social security scheme. - Method B
Each country adds together your insurance in all countries. Then each one sees how much State Pension you would get if your insurance had all been paid into its own social security scheme. But each country only has to pay you part of this. How much it pays you depends on how much you have paid into its scheme.
For example, if one-third of the insurance you have paid was from the UK, then the UK would pay one-third of the total State Pension it has worked out you could get. All the other countries usually work out how much they are going to pay in the same way.
If a country has worked out your State Pension using Method A, it will usually pay it to you while you wait for Method B to be calculated. If your State Pension is higher under Method B, you will get the higher one without having to ask.
Any UK graduated contributions you have paid are not used in working out Methods A and B. But you can get a State Pension from these contributions whether or not you get a State Pension using Methods A or B above.
How your State Pension will be paid
Each EEA country decides how it will pay your State Pension. If you have any questions about this, get in touch with the authorities who run the State Pension scheme in that country. If you are in the UK, you can be paid a State Pension from any other EEA country. But if you are, any UK Pension Credit, Income Support or income based Jobseekers Allowance that you or your partner have been getting may be reduced or stop
You can be paid a UK State Pension (with an extra amount if you are aged 80 or more), in any other EEA country. You will get the same as you would get in the UK.
You will usually be paid straight into your bank or building society account in the UK or your bank account abroad, if you have one. Or, if you wish, you can choose to have payment by payable orders sent straight to you by post. Whichever you choose, payment is made every one (only to accounts in the UK), four or 13 weeks in arrears.
Any arrears of State Pension which may be due from before you started being paid your State Pension will usually be paid straight to you. But:
- if you are in the UK and the arrears of State Pension are from another EEA country,
- and you or your partner have been getting Pension Credit, Income Support or income based Jobseekers Allowance for the time that the arrears cover,
we can take back all, or part, of what we paid you or your partner out of the money the other country owes you.
If you are in another EEA country, the authorities there may have been helping you by paying you benefit while you have been waiting for your State Pension to be paid from the UK. When your UK State Pension is paid, the other country can then take off the amount they paid you from your UK State Pension. If there is anything left over, it will be paid to you.
Getting an increase for your dependants
If you get a State Pension from any EEA country, you may also be paid an increase for certain adults who depend on you.You may get this increase even if the person who depends on you is in another EEA country.
There are special rules for children who depend on you. If the EEA country you live in pays you a State Pension, it should pay the benefits for your children too. It will base them on its own scheme.
If you do not get a State Pension in the country where you live, and you and your husband, wife or civil partner are not working, the benefits for your children will be paid by either:
- the country that you get a State Pension from;
- or if you get a State Pension from two countries, the country where you were insured for the longest time.
The insurance you have paid in the UK may be used by other EEA countries when they decide what benefit you can get.