The last newsletter mentioned the life certification exercise that Veterans UK/Defence Business Services was conducting amongst expat pensioners to ensure that those receiving Armed Forces Pensions were still alive. They have now completed Tranche 1 of this exercise and identified some 219 pensioners who have not responded.
Several members who have retired overseas have told us they feel the ‘Life Certification’ exercise, is unnecessarily intrusive and it may be that some of you have not responded because of this. However, as the General Register Office (GRO) in the UK is not automatically notified of the death of a British citizen overseas, it is the only way that DBS can be sure the pension recipient is still alive and that the payments are not being misdirected.
So intrusive or not, it is a vitally important exercise you must complete if you want to continue to receive your pension payments, and our unequivocal advice is to return it in a timely fashion. Otherwise your pension will be suspended until such time as you start screaming, prove that you do exist and can get it reinstated. So act now rather than after you notice you can no longer pay the bills.
Read more here – Ensuring the right payments are made to the right people
