UCL HUMAN RESOURCES
USS - Payment of Pensions overseas
How will my pension be paid if I move abroad?
Should you move abroad all your USS benefits would remain unchanged. However, as USS process all monthly pension payments via the Banker's Automated Clearing Service (BACS), it will be necessary for you to maintain a United Kingdom bank or building society account into which your monthly pension can be credited.
Alternatively, you may wish to consider using a service operated by Citibank called Worldlink Payment Services which is designed to deliver regular payments direct to overseas bank accounts. If you wish to consider this option, USS would pay your pension via BACS to a unique Citibank account and they would then transfer your pension payment to your overseas bank account.
USS advise that the benefits of this service are:
Should you wish to change to this payment method please write to USS pensions payroll section and they will send you the bank mandate form that will need to be completed.
How will my pension be taxed if I move abroad?
Your gross pension is subject to PAYE income tax unless you personally apply to the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for exemption on the grounds that you are non-resident.
Should you wish to apply for exemption, please complete a form P85 which can be obtained from the HMRC website http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/p85.pdf and return to HMRC, Merseyside Area at the address shown below.
Once your form has been received and processed, HMRC will forward it to the Centre for Non-Residents (CNR) for its consideration. If tax exemption is granted, CNR and/or HMRC will provide Universities Superannuation Scheme Ltd with the appropriate authorisation to amend your tax coding so that your pension payments can be made without deduction of UK income tax.
Please note that it is not unusual for completion of the exemption procedure to take up to eight months. Any overpayment of income tax however, will eventually be refunded to you in one of the following ways;
The addresses of both departments who deal with tax exemption are listed below:
HM Revenue & Customs, Merseyside Area, Regian House, James Street, Liverpool, L75 1AA.
HM Revenue & Customs, Centre for Non-Residents, Fitzroy House, PO Box 46, Nottingham, HG2 1BD
Please quote tax reference 428/U168 and your National Insurance Number in any communication with these departments.
Overseas existence checks
From time to time USS will write to pensioners living overseas. USS trustees have a duty to ensure that pensions paid by USS are actually being received by the pensioner entitled to the pension.
The following section contains a list of questions and answers that may be of assistance to those receiving the letter.
Who can be a witness?
The witness should be a suitable person, for example:
A relative CANNOT be a witness.
What if I do not recognise the bank sort code and account number quoted in the details?
If you use/or have been transferred to Citibank’s Worldlink Payment Services to remit payments to your overseas bank account the details shown are the Citibank’ bank details USS use to make the initial transfer of your pension payment to Citibank who will then send it to your overseas bank account. In these cases the payment reference will show your Citibank reference.
1-19 Torrington Place - 9th and 10th Floors - London WC1E 7HB -
