At the grand old age of 63 I'm finally sorting out my pension and managed to pay off the various missing years in my UK NI contributions before the imminent deadline in April of this year, which will mean a better UK pension. I finally have a fairly comprehensive overview of the last four decades, including a period of 7 years living back in the UK and also a couple of years in Denmark, both periods in full employment and all taxes paid.
However there are still some gaps in my Lückenauskunft, going back to my last years at school in the at the end of the 70's, then the 80's & early 90's when I was variously an undergraduate, then a postgraduate student in the UK before moving to Germany. I can vaguely remember some of the temporary jobs I did for a few months when I moved from Newcastle down to London in the mid 80's, but it's quite a challenge to recall precise dates when these jobs started and finished. I might have signed on a couple of times, but I was mostly working.
For those who have already gone through this process, how precise do you have to be when submitting this information? Of course my UK NI number will indicate how much I contributed whilst domiciled in the UK, but I want to be sure I'm not missing out.
A Canadian friend (with British citizenship) had a meeting in person with the DRV a few years ago, should I prepare for such an encounter by producing as comprehensive overview as possible? What do they want to see as proof, for instance degree certificates to prove Higher Education attendance?
DRV - Lückenauskunft?
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Re: DRV - Lückenauskunft?
Hi, I just fished around in my DRV folder and found copies from my application process back in 2019. Don't know if everything is there but I seem to remember it was reasonably painless.
My old CVs were very useful for addresses and dates.
Before the face to face interviee I was sent a questionnaire to fill in with the usual dates, tax and social security numbers, addresses etc etc. For some bits I could only give a broad outline eg as I went to eight schools I just put the year I started primary school and when I finished my A levels. I think I brought my O and A level certs to the interview which basically was some confirmation of end of school dates.
Like most students I had various temporary jobs of unbeknown dates so wrote down exactly that. And of course they liased with the then DSS to access any periods of contributions paid. I was an au pair in France before uni and had absolutely no documentation for that but it was included in their assessment.
Very important were the childrens' birth certs and I just supplied as best I could the dates of the relatively short period when I finished maternity leave and wasn't working.
They went through the answers in the interview and were understanding about the bittiness of student jobs etc. They asked for any docs I hadn't supplied. They put the answers in the format they needed and later I got a written summary from them asking me to formally confirm my info. I must have brought my degree and postgrad professional certs to the interview as they were ticked off. I must have brought along my own birth and marriage certs and possibly my husband's too, can't remember.
(This was all before the conclusion of Brexshittiness, whether that has complicated matters I don't know.)
My old CVs were very useful for addresses and dates.
Before the face to face interviee I was sent a questionnaire to fill in with the usual dates, tax and social security numbers, addresses etc etc. For some bits I could only give a broad outline eg as I went to eight schools I just put the year I started primary school and when I finished my A levels. I think I brought my O and A level certs to the interview which basically was some confirmation of end of school dates.
Like most students I had various temporary jobs of unbeknown dates so wrote down exactly that. And of course they liased with the then DSS to access any periods of contributions paid. I was an au pair in France before uni and had absolutely no documentation for that but it was included in their assessment.
Very important were the childrens' birth certs and I just supplied as best I could the dates of the relatively short period when I finished maternity leave and wasn't working.
They went through the answers in the interview and were understanding about the bittiness of student jobs etc. They asked for any docs I hadn't supplied. They put the answers in the format they needed and later I got a written summary from them asking me to formally confirm my info. I must have brought my degree and postgrad professional certs to the interview as they were ticked off. I must have brought along my own birth and marriage certs and possibly my husband's too, can't remember.
(This was all before the conclusion of Brexshittiness, whether that has complicated matters I don't know.)