Can anybody help ? If not have a smile at my expense.
I have been working in France for 3+ years as self employed, (under the micro entreprise system) thus obligatorily paying into the French pension system via CIPAV, the pension body covering my sector of independent workers. Working here has given me health cover via RAM after my E106 (CPAM cover) expired.
I have entitlement to a full UK pension after topping up my contributions, a small Dutch state pension from an earlier period of residence and work in the Netherlands and now, I hope, a very small French pension.
This is where the fun is starting.
I decided to continue working after turning 65 last January, ask for my Dutch pension immediately, defer my UK pension until 2011 and to wait until I stop work before drawing my French pension in the vain hope that it might grow a tiny bit. That was encouraged by the fact that if you continue working after drawing your French pension you still have to pay pension contributions but they do not count for anything.
Th current EU rules say you have to apply for all your state pensions via the last country in which you worked, France in my case. If I understand it correctly, the spirit of this single application point is to ensure no migrant worker receives less pension than he would be theoretically entitled to, if all his contributions had been made in one country, presumably the last worked in. To effect this and exchange information, there is a complex set of forms, E202, E205, E207 etc.
So I wrote to CIPAV to ask if all of this was possible and request the necessary forms to start the ball rolling. They eventually sent me a standard application form for my French pension and ignored all my other questions. Good start. Phoning them is almost impossible, “Tous nos conseillers sont occupés, blah blah…” Eventually, when I got through, they agreed they had sent the wrong form but didn’t know which one was needed because there were so many, could I ask the Dutch and let them know! Both the Dutch and the British told me about the E202 form set. Next, curiously out of the blue, I received 2 completed E205s from the French, one for NL and the other for UK. One should have gone directly to NL not to me, the other who knows?
It was now time to start the application for my UK pension so in August, off went a letter to CIPAV requesting a “BR1” form as advised by the UK pension people.
All I got from CIPAV was another standard application form for a French pension and a promise to answer my questions by separate letter. In a subsequent phone call CIPAV stated they did not have the BR1 form and that I should ask the UK for one.
One call to the UK told me to download one. Download I did but more questions than answers led to a subsequent call to ask for advice on completing it. It then transpired that this was not the right form at all.
Six months down the line after many phone calls to the Dutch and the British and fewer to CIPAV I am still waiting for the correct forms to complete and the Dutch are still waiting for the French to send them them a completed E202.
How they will cope with staggered pension applications? The system seems floored.
Three different calls to the UK office got three differing answers. The French clearly do not know which forms to use. Neither the British nor the Dutch can tell me which form to complete to give the French the necessary information.
There may be light at the end of the tunnel. When the UK was pressed on where I should go to get help they recommended CLEISS (Center of European and International Liaisons for Social Security). CLEISS suggested that I should contact RSI, my equivalent to the National Insurance Office, rather than CIPAV the pension people. Now is that logical, or is it me ? Curious that CIPAV never mentioned anything.
Anybody out there got the tee-shirt ?
I have been working in France for 3+ years as self employed, (under the micro entreprise system) thus obligatorily paying into the French pension system via CIPAV, the pension body covering my sector of independent workers. Working here has given me health cover via RAM after my E106 (CPAM cover) expired.
I have entitlement to a full UK pension after topping up my contributions, a small Dutch state pension from an earlier period of residence and work in the Netherlands and now, I hope, a very small French pension.
This is where the fun is starting.
I decided to continue working after turning 65 last January, ask for my Dutch pension immediately, defer my UK pension until 2011 and to wait until I stop work before drawing my French pension in the vain hope that it might grow a tiny bit. That was encouraged by the fact that if you continue working after drawing your French pension you still have to pay pension contributions but they do not count for anything.
Th current EU rules say you have to apply for all your state pensions via the last country in which you worked, France in my case. If I understand it correctly, the spirit of this single application point is to ensure no migrant worker receives less pension than he would be theoretically entitled to, if all his contributions had been made in one country, presumably the last worked in. To effect this and exchange information, there is a complex set of forms, E202, E205, E207 etc.
So I wrote to CIPAV to ask if all of this was possible and request the necessary forms to start the ball rolling. They eventually sent me a standard application form for my French pension and ignored all my other questions. Good start. Phoning them is almost impossible, “Tous nos conseillers sont occupés, blah blah…” Eventually, when I got through, they agreed they had sent the wrong form but didn’t know which one was needed because there were so many, could I ask the Dutch and let them know! Both the Dutch and the British told me about the E202 form set. Next, curiously out of the blue, I received 2 completed E205s from the French, one for NL and the other for UK. One should have gone directly to NL not to me, the other who knows?
It was now time to start the application for my UK pension so in August, off went a letter to CIPAV requesting a “BR1” form as advised by the UK pension people.
All I got from CIPAV was another standard application form for a French pension and a promise to answer my questions by separate letter. In a subsequent phone call CIPAV stated they did not have the BR1 form and that I should ask the UK for one.
One call to the UK told me to download one. Download I did but more questions than answers led to a subsequent call to ask for advice on completing it. It then transpired that this was not the right form at all.
Six months down the line after many phone calls to the Dutch and the British and fewer to CIPAV I am still waiting for the correct forms to complete and the Dutch are still waiting for the French to send them them a completed E202.
How they will cope with staggered pension applications? The system seems floored.
Three different calls to the UK office got three differing answers. The French clearly do not know which forms to use. Neither the British nor the Dutch can tell me which form to complete to give the French the necessary information.
There may be light at the end of the tunnel. When the UK was pressed on where I should go to get help they recommended CLEISS (Center of European and International Liaisons for Social Security). CLEISS suggested that I should contact RSI, my equivalent to the National Insurance Office, rather than CIPAV the pension people. Now is that logical, or is it me ? Curious that CIPAV never mentioned anything.
Anybody out there got the tee-shirt ?