A check of the government website produced the following:

Pension Claim Line 0800 731 7898 (to claim by phone ) 8am - 8pm

emai:l tvp.internationalquerie at thepensionservice.gsi.gov.uk / england code from 44 191 218 7777 8am - 8 pm ( Newcastle).

There is also a handy guide to completing the International Claim Form available as a PDF should you need to do this. The form itself is 25 pages long, but if you provide the doumentation asked for ( i.e birth certificate, marriage or divorce documents etc) the the form is straightforward and only a few sections need to be completed. It all depends on your current circumstances and t may be possible to do everything by phone.

The pension will be paid into your bank account and converted to local currency. Payment schedule is either every 4 weeks or every 13 weeks - in arrears.

The only question would be is how or where to make the payment? If it needs to be from a UK bank account, that might be troublesome for an FT in China with only a chinese bank card, unless a western union transfer or bank money transfer would suffice? Again, clarity of information, I can agree with foxy here, it is a nightmare at times.

Problem with a UK bank account for payments is the charges for withdrawals using ATM's in China and also you might need to tell the UK bank where you are so they know it is you making the withdrawals overseas.. Worst case could be that the bank put a stop on your account and make you go through the Labours of Hercules to get it un-stopped..

I think that the Pension Service will pay direct into a foreign bank account - but this needs checking too

Pray tell, sans rental income, seems impossible to me.

But then I have met chinese migrant workers with more saved in RMB on their bank card than many drunken womanizing ft's in China could ever save.

By following your good example to us all San Mig. I recall that you returned to England for best part of a year and managed to eke out all the dosh you saved in China to support yourself, until your next China gig- where did you say, South of China? Now, if you hadn't of gorn home for a year, you'd have been able to pay the government for your pension.

Thank you, that could be useful-maybe I will bring my son's contributions up to date, all 15 years-worth.

I agree the problem is the clarity and ease of which it can be done.

Banks can be frustrating to deal with, again not personal, just ask foxy of his troubles!

Right you are. If you are correct about only having to pay £130 for each year to catch up, it would be wise for an FT who has even been away in China for ten years to hand over the £1300. You brought up some interesting stuff, thank you.

Here is the link to the Voluntary £130

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/volcontr/basics.htm
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/volcontr/toppingup.htm

As ever, I suggest contacting HMRC to check stuff..

Interesting digitalspy link, given Prince Philips connections with the Nazis, and the daily mails right wing stance and support for the royals, I can truly believe it.

It wasn't just the Daily Mail... It was the Daily Mirror and Express too.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/dec/06/dailymail-oswald-mosley

Actually Phil the Greek is more "royal" than Frau Windsor... But he wasn't a Nazi, it would have been a bit difficult what with him being in the royal Navy, although I agree some of his relatives were Nazis, which goes to prove that "you can pick your friends but not your family".

Even on chinese FT salary? How pray tell then did you save money, last I checked the pensions department or whatever they name themselves require either a annual or monthly payment

Maybe I'm a rental income man like some other posters hahahaha. As for the method- well, nobody comes to China without a debit card or cheque book- do they?

I suppose if a retuning expat can't access benefits such as NHS hospital treatment, or can't be housed as one of the UK's many housing welfare recipients for one reason or another, he can always commit a crime that will guarantee a custodial sentence as a last resort.

Yep, Mark. You're right. Desperately impoverished Brit expats who have returned to Blighty have this option if the welfare state refuses to assist them. In jail will mean free grub, free accommodation and free medical attention of a higher quality than that available in many countries outside the UK to such people. What's more, I would think the palliative care one would receive in the UK on the NHS would be much better than that available to poor expats in Asia.

I suppose if a retuning expat can't access benefits such as NHS hospital treatment, or can't be housed as one of the UK's many housing welfare recipients for one reason or another, he can always commit a crime that will guarantee a custodial sentence as a last resort. He can be detained at Her Majesty's 'Pleasure'. At least the UK has a safety net of a kind in place for its impoverished passport holders, unlike most Asian countries.

Interesting digitalspy link, given Prince Philips connections with the Nazis, and the daily mails right wing stance and support for the royals, I can truly believe it.

Now I know what the 53 quid /week was about!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302343/Iain-Duncan-Smith-defends-welfare-cuts-I-live-53-week.html

Ahh I see.. Two things

1. Ian Duncan Smith is a Tory idiot - he is busy cutting benefits which I do admit have got out of control because some people with heaps of kids can get quite a lot though.. It is a Tory stunt that they tried out in the 1980's to show that "Rich MP's" do know how to live, for maybe a week, like common poor people who don't vote Tory anyway

2. The Daily Mail is a crap newspaper read by busybodies and net curtain twitchers, incidentally as an example of the Daily Mail's readership - it supported Hitler before the 1939 war... http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1402430

Further to what you have posted, I wonder what a Chinese wife in China could receive, if anything, from the UK if her Brit pensioner husband died there! Another thing is if an old Brit with little savings who had been living abroad became seriously ill in China, and returned to the UK without having any property there, could he get free NHS treatment and/or free housing? Or would he be left in the mire by social services? Couldn't be deported, anyway.

NHS is free to all UK citizens but remember there are rules on Non Domiciled and Resident etc..etc.. http://www.res-non-dom.barclays.com/moving-to-england/ look down to "Thinks to think about"

Maybe a trip to the UK Embassy would be in order to find out more or to get who to contact..

This is interesting. Now your figure is right, but I know you will get extra if you are married even if your wife is 40 years your junior- well, you will if you live in the UK; but what about Foxy Poster, will he get extra for his Chinese wife, both of them living in China? I know that i will be getting more than the £110.15- I assume that's because i have a Chinese wife. I have always paid my contribution when away from UK.

Further to what you have posted, I wonder what a Chinese wife in China could receive, if anything, from the UK if her Brit pensioner husband died there! Another thing is if an old Brit with little savings who had been living abroad became seriously ill in China, and returned to the UK without having any property there, could he get free NHS treatment and/or free housing? Or would he be left in the mire by social services? Couldn't be deported, anyway.

Thanks for posting. I had heard on the BBC World Service online somebody bemoaning 53 quid a week what I had presumed a pension payment. I dunno how I posted 53 quid/month? A slip of the pen! Now i'm wondering what the 53 quid a week was in relation to!

I believe the UK's austerity measures means the maximum state pension is only 53 quid/month.

£53.00 a month? I don't think so....

Its £110.15 per week at present...
https://www.gov.uk/state-pension/overview
Obviously retiring in China, a non reciprocal agreement country, means a frozen pension at the point you left UK and you need 30 years contributions for the full amount..

And if a retiree defers their pension claim for a few years, then they can get an enhanced pension or lump sum..
https://www.gov.uk/deferring-state-pension Not sure how that works with a "frozen pension" though.

This is interesting. Now your figure is right, but I know you will get extra if you are married even if your wife is 40 years your junior- well, you will if you live in the UK; but what about Foxy Poster, will he get extra for his Chinese wife, both of them living in China? I know that i will be getting more than the £110.15- I assume that's because i have a Chinese wife. I have always paid my contribution when away from UK.

Thanks for expanding on what I had posted in this thread. Personally, I've a few years to wait until I reach 65 or 67 (God willing?), or whatever age my state pension would become available to me. So, I haven't looked into the state pension payments to expat oldtimers residing in the PRC in detail. Another reason, a minor one in my case why I haven't done so is that my contributions have been made over a much shorter period back in Blighty, which would mean my pension would be less than 1/2 what most UK citizens could get back home.

At present I receive a superannuated teachers' pension here in the PRC. At first I was told I could only get monthly payments into a BOC account here. But now, after complaining and protracted unpleasantness over bungling re SPPA and their appointed bank, Citibank , I was offered annual payments in arrears, which I have gladly accepted. That means that my relatively young Chinese wife will be able to get that too after my death, albeit at 60% of what I receive. It's very good that unlike the state pension, those payments aren't frozen. I also receive another occupational pension annually into my BOC account, since I became 50, that one annually, also not frozen. The SPPA at first wouldn't budge....... some progress, pilgrim's progress perhaps!

The payment of the UK state pension to those retiring abroad is not new and was agreed in 1955.

Yes i know-but I didn't know that they will send you a cheque in UK currency to your address in China. Anyway, not every-body has seen the good information that yourself and Foxy Poster have submitted, so no harm in my saying it again-am i right or am I right? Would you agree that them sending you a cheque could be very handy for those British FT's who lack a debit card to withdraw their pensions?

Informative post. Thanks.

This is gay news for us ageing FT's who may wish to retire in China. Look at the second paragraph; they will send you a cheque in UK currency which you can just trot down to Bank of China.