I am a french resident and will be able to claim my UK state pension later this year. I currently work several hours a week under the Cheque Emploi system and am aware that I will have to claim my UK state pension through CARSAT? I was wondering how easy or difficult this may be and would welcome any advice from anyone who has been through this procedure. Many thanks, Joyce.
Joyce… I’m confused… are you saying that you have to claim your UK Pension through a French organization ???
surely you claim it from Gov UK…???
Will this change after Brexit?
Joyce is correct. If you have worked in France you claim via the organisation you paid social charges to. Will try to find a link for you.
You will need to scroll down a bit to find the explanation.
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Well, we learn a little something every day… 
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This seems a grey area to me although i am sure someone will provide thier wisdom .
I too reach uk retirement age this year and quality for full pension having 35 years contributions in UK. Laterly i worked in France for 10 years and claimed my french pension her in 2017 as the retirement age is 62 and not 65+ as it is in the U.K. my french pension provider ( formerly RSI) needed confirmation of my uk contributions before they could pay my french pension. I intend to cliam my uk pension directly from the uk very very soon. Is the suggestion that this is not possible?
You will have to claim via RSI (or whatever they are called now). The link I provided is fairly clear. You should phone the International pension section in Newcastle for more information. They will confirm what I’ve said.
Here’s the number for you
Update on UK state pension application.
The information provided in this thread suggesting the method of claiming a UK state pension while living elsewhere (France) is incorrect, in my case at least.
I read through all the information on the link provided above and could see no reason why i should not apply via this method. My application was sent in March and within 7 days my original certificates were returned together with a note that my claim was being dealt with.
Today I have received confirmation of my Uk state pension entitlements which I look forward to receiving very soon.
I hope my experience is helpful .
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Thank you for your reply, John. It will be easier for me if I can claim my UK state pension direct from the UK so here’s hoping!
Joyce, print off the application form on the international pension centre website and fill it in. As you work through it you might think it is specifically for foreign nationals but it is simply foramyonewho no longer lives in UK but has accrued national insurance credits there. I suggest you send original certificates by recorded delivery and they will return them within a few days.
In my case I had already claimed a French pension for the years I have worked here and to do that DWP had to send them a record of my national insurance contributions. The France pension used some of my Uk contributions to make up my pension to the minimum amount of years in order to get a French pension but that still left enough UK contributions for a full pension.
When my french pension started I was given a breakdown of how it had been calculated and I sent this calculation (original) with my uk application and kept a copy for my records.
DWP did not return this document(as yet) but really not worried on that score as I have a copy. I now have a full UK pension and a French one, result!
Good luck with your application, I feel sure all will be fine for you.
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Joyce ,John and Mandy,
thanks for this info,I’m just deciding whether to claim a smallish French pension this year as I finally have all the trimestres needed(aggregated from UK and France) However although I understood that officially when it came to claiming the UK one I should go through the French pension authorities, in practise it seems that as John did, a lot of people obtain it directly from the UK,so yes a grey area,I wonder if there are many people who have actually received their UK pension via the French system ?
I have another 4 years to go before I claim my UK pension but I’m looking into buying some extra contribution years to top it up
Yes, Carol, I’d still like to hear from anyone who has claimed their UK state pension via the French authorities purely out of interest to see how hard or easy this may be.
There are a number of websites that explain the French retirement system, one of which is below.
It may well be that getting your accrued UK state pension via the French system could be beneficial in terms of a euro based payment rather than sterling based when taking account of the turbulent exchange rates?
Reading through the link it seems that like all things in France there are many hoops to jump through to get where you want to be.
I too would be interested in anyone’s experience of following this route but why make a situation more complex than it needs to be? Unless of course the financial benefits outweigh the effort of finding out.
I can say from personal experience that in terms of time, effort and cost for official translations to get my French pension it took about 6 months to achieve.
The UK application required just one form to complete and provision of birth, marriage certificates as applicable. It took less than 8 weeks from posting info to DWP to receiving my UK pension offer!
Why make life more difficult than it needs to be?
Thanks once again, John, for posting such an informative link. When the time comes I’ll definitely claim my UK state pension through the UK authorities like you have. Kind regards.
I have lived in France for over 20 yrs and i claimed my uk pension directly from pensions dept UK.
I claimed ly french MSA pension directly from MSA The uk pension came in a matter of weeks and the french one took over a year. Both the french and uk forms eventualy link up as both ask what you earned in each country. Claiming the uk pension is extreamly easy and of course you can always phone them.
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