How do I claim my State Retirement Pension?

You do not receive your State Retirement Pension
automatically on reaching state retirement age; you need
to make a claim.

You should be sent a letter about four months before you reach state retirement age inviting you to make a claim. However, you only need to make a claim two months before your retirement date. If you haven’t received a letter three months before you reach pension age, ask for a claim form from your local benefits office.The claim form is called BR1.

There are different ways you can make a claim:

• You can fill in the form yourself at home. Once you have filled it in, send it to the address given as soon as you can: it can sometimes take a while to sort out your contributions record. If you live in England,Wales or Scotland you can download a claim form from the DirectGov website
  
  
• You can backdate your claim for State Retirement Pension for up to 12 months from the date you claim. However, if you are also claiming an increase for a dependant be sure to make a claim within three months of becoming entitled. This is important, as these payments cannot be backdated by more than three months from the date you claim.
  
  
• You can put off, or defer, drawing your pension. This is explained in Going into hospital / Living overseas / Deferring your pension.

How will my pension be paid?

Normally, your pension will be paid directly into your bank
account. If you do not have an account you will be given
information on opening a bank, building society or post office
account. If you can’t manage an account, you can ask to have your pension paid by a cheque which you can cash at the post office. But you will have to rely on the post to get your payment, so it is usually better to have the money paid directly into an account if you can.

You can claim your pension from the day you reach pension
age or any day after that. However, pensions are not paid out on every day of the week so you may not be paid from the day you claim. Your pension will start on the next pension pay-day. New pensions are usually paid out on a Monday. You can choose to have your pension paid weekly in advance, or every four weeks or thirteen weeks in arrears.

Can someone else pick up my pension if I'm ill?

If you can’t get to a post office, bank or building society to take out cash you can arrange for someone else, such as a relative or friend, to take out money for you. Ask your bank or post office about what arrangements can be made. For example, you might want to think about arranging for a trusted relative or friend to have a card of their own. This would mean that they could withdraw money for you if you were unable to get out for any reason.