Pensions

[claire tudge]

For all you lucky retirees out there, could you give any advice about transferring an English penion to Italy, and the costs of living compared to the uk, its difficult to work this out based on two weeks holiday a year

[GAIL]

we have lived in sunny scalea for nearly two years, 1] it is very easy to have your pension in ITALY, RING NEWCASTLE OVER SEAS DEPT they will send you a form to fill in, they will ask you for all your bank details in italy ,you will need to go in person to your bank[ example scalea] a] correct account number and the i. ban code of the bank plus other code of the bank to recieve your pension in to your account b] the bank also has to stamp it. regards to payment newcastle pay out every 28 days and allow another 5 working days to recieve it in your bank, we have done it twice, for my husband and my self with out any problems. Life is so laid back here, it is wonderful we have met so many people [italians] they make you feel so welcome if they know you live here all the year round and not just on holiday As regards to cost of living , it depends on lots of things gas, electric water rubbish bills are cheaper [ if you have a resident cert. from the town hall ] I know if you are classed as a non resident electric bills are more expensive but still less than England. water cost less than England , Gas we use bottle gas 25kilos every 3 months 25euro . food again it depends on what you want to eat, we only eat italian there fore we buy all the italian veg. fruit meat and fish, if you look for engish food [not much about] you will find that they are more expensive than England. its so nice to sit out side a bar have your breakfast cappucino and a crossete all for 2 euro , that would be impossible in England we would have to pay 2pound just for a cappucino [lytham st annes ] Down side The winter is mild but not much to do in Scalea how ever Summer soon comes around. Hope this has help you a little best wishes Clare for your move. gail

[claire tudge]

Thanks Gail for all your advice

[Margaret]

Couldn't resist a hollow laugh. We'll be getting pensions from 4 different countries. Three of them have been a piece of cake and would have sent them to Mongolia if we'd wanted. The 4th was .....Italy, and we still haven't been able to find out when or how much, let alone where to! When I spoke to someone in Newcastle (GB International office as you said) they said they had someone that was still trying after a year. (If anyone's interested the Italian equivalent of Newcastle is in Naples).

[GAIL]

HI Claire , Margaret, Just to explain how myself and my husband got our English pensins in our bank in Scalea . We are resident in Scalea for the past two years [love it ] we wrote to Newcastle in May 2009 asking for a fore cast of what we would get each month, they soon sent all the details plus forms to fill in i.e. bank acc. etc. Iwas 60 in JULY. RECIEVED my pension in AUGUST comes in the bank every 28 days. We did the same for my husband in August, 65 OCT. RECIEVED his pension in NOV. We keep our private pensions in our bank in England . it seemed a lot of hassel to get them to be paid in ITALY . Best wishes Gail