State Pension payments to Germany

[Will]

Hi Everyone,
hope someone might be able to guide me with this issue regarding transferring UK state pension to Germany, apparently you have the use a QROPS organization recommended/approved by HMRC, do you know the best way to set this up? Can I not simple give my bank details of use Wise?

[GaryC]

You cannot transfer the state pension but when it is payable you can have it paid into any account in £ or €.

Private pensions are a different matter.

[Steve T]

In my opinion you are better off making voluntary NI payments. Because you are working abroad you should only have to category 2 payments which are currently £3.50 per week. Look on the Gov.UK for how to do this. By doing this you can build up right to both a german pension and UK pension.

[HEM]

I did that prior to my retirement in 2018 & it was the best financial move I ever made,

[GaryC]

In my opinion you are better off making voluntary NI payments. Because you are working abroad you should only have to category 2 payments which are currently £3.50 per week. Look on the Gov.UK for how to do this. By doing this you can build up right to both a german pension and UK pension.

That is indeed a good deal but if OP wants to go down that route they must send form CF83 to HMRC BEFORE 5 April 2025, otherwise 2006/07 to 2018/19 go out of date for payment.

[john_b]

So glad I finally got my act together after years of procrastination and got all this sorted out this March, well in time before the April deadline.

[Will]

You cannot transfer the state pension but when it is payable you can have it paid into any account in £ or €.

Private pensions are a different matter.

Hi GaryC, thanks for your reply, I worded that a bit wrong unfortunately I didn’t mean transfer the state pension to German pension, I meant transferring the monthly payments into a German bank account, I read somewhere that it is only possible for payments to be made into QROPS organization recommended/approved by HMRC?

[GaryC]

I think you are confusing the state pension with other pension saving options. You can simply have your state pension paid into whichever bank you want in £/$/€