State Pension in EEA countries
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 must mention any periods of insurance or residence in another country when you first claim your pension. Failure to do so may affect the date from which your claim for a pension from other countries will begin.
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.
How to claim your State Pension
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. This form asks you to tell us about any insurance and residence you may have in other countries.
If you are living in any EEA country you should claim as follows:
- if you have worked in the country you are now living in your claim for your UK State Pension should be made through the pension institution in that country. You should contact that institution for details of what you need to do, if you have not already done so
- if you have not worked in the country you are living in then you should claim your UK State Pension direct from IPC, unless you have worked in another EEA country since leaving the UK, in which case you should make your claim through the last institution you were insured with.
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.
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 state pension or the choice of a one-off taxable lump sum payment. For more information, please see State Pension Deferral (Directgov).
Remember to tell The Pension Service, when you change your address, or the form may not get to you.
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 Jobseeker's 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.
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 Jobseeker's 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 member state, 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 member state.
There are special rules for children who depend on you. If you live in an EEA Member State; neither you nor your partner (if you have one) work and you receive a pension from either:
- the EEA Member State where you live
or
- another EEA Member State
the EEA Member State that pays your pension will have primary responsibility for paying family benefits for your children.
If however you receive a pension from more than one EEA Member State, family benefits for your children shall primarily be provided by either:
- the EEA Member State where your children live (provided you receive a pension from that EEA Member State)
- the EEA Member State where the longest period of insurance or residence was spent
or
The insurance you have paid in the UK may be used by other EEA member state when they decide what benefit you can get.
