Late payment of overseas pensions (FOI)

​Request 

Since January 2021, apparently due to Brexit, pensions sent to some overseas pensioners have been returned unpaid.

I’m asking how many pensioners a month have been in the situation where their pension has not been paid into their accounts on the expected date due to this situation and in which countries those pensioners reside.

Response

There has been no delay in Government paying pensions during 2021.

However, payment rejections have occurred 226 times since January 2021. They could be from any country that payments are made to and could also be for several reasons; the customer may not have supplied the correct details, or the bank could reject them for other reasons.

The most recent rejections occurred from banks in Norway, Denmark and Poland but this is not definitive as per the above.

It should be noted that this figure does not account for multiple failures for one individual, so the number of individuals would be lower, however, the information regarding individuals is not available.