How long does one need to live in Switzerland for before retiring in order to qualify for old age pension? What is the maximum that one can get annually and how many years minimum does one need to live here to get this pension before one retires?

Is there a table of years living in Switzerland and how much one can get in pension when retired? What is the current retirement age for women in Switzerland? Can a person who does not work be part of this plan, e.g. if only one person in a married couple works and the other one stays at home. Is this insurance obligatory by Swiss law? Thanks.

What about the governement pension from UK if someone is a British citizen and residing in Switzerland with C permit? Thanks

Here is a good link in English, see the PDF overview doc. in the top right hand corner. See section on 1st pillar.

http://www.bsv.admin.ch/themen/ueber...x.html?lang=en

I believe current retirement age for women is 64, although there is some talk of raising it for men and women I think.

You should also see if a bilateral old age pension agreement exists between Swiss and UK; or rather the Swiss/EU agreements I believe. There is one for my country of origin, and thus there are advantages in terms of qualifying years, payouts, etc.

RE: You should also see if a bilateral old age pension agreement exists between Swiss and UK

Do you know which office in Switzerland I would need to contact to find out if there is a bilateral treaty?

It is apparently covered under the agreement on the free movement of persons. See this webpage, http://www.bsv.admin.ch/soziale_sich...x.html?lang=en

and in particular, the two documents at the bottom of the page.

The other 'internet links' on the page may be useful.

Does the bilateral agreement cover US as there was nothing on the webpage about US only EU countries?

No, Switzerland has bilaterals with a number of other coutries plus the EU. For the US one, see here:

http://www.ssa.gov/international/Agr.../switzrld.html

Thank you all for your kind answers. So how does this bilateral agreement between UK and Switzerland work? If upon retirement one is Swiss resident, does one get pension from UK and from Switzerland upon retirement or is it all lumped into one and one gets paid by the Swiss only? Does one need to notify anybody or do anything or is it done automatically?

Also does one loose the US social security pension if one gave up US green card? or if one moved to Switzerland as there is no bilateral agreement between US and Switzerland?

Check out the UK or Irish government social security sites for an English version of how the calculations are done. Basically when you apply for the pension in Switzerland your contributions in the UK will be taken into account in calculating how much you will be paid... So far I have not met anyone who has had their pension paid under these rules, so I'm interested to hear how it goes...

Depending on how much you contributed you might qualify for a small payment from the US. I would suggest you contact the US authorities to find out what has to be done.

Good luck with that,

Jim.

Interesting. How come you have never met anyone who has had their pension paid under these rules? Do the rules not work well?

Has anybody here met anyone who has had their pension paid under these rules?

I retired last May and completed the standard AHV forms I had received from my Gemeinde in Ittigen, noting all my activities since the age of 16 years.

(Employers in CH, UK, and Germany), marriage, birth of children, divorce, death etc. )

These were passed to my last employer's pension fund, who on behalf of the Swiss AHV, is now paying me AHV after my 20 years of Swiss contributions.
The Swiss also pay me quite a good extra child allowance as my 2 children are still studying full time here.

My details were also passed to a Swiss AHV offfice in Geneva, who passed them on to Newcastle in UK, and Berlin in BRD.

Newcastle are paying me a pension for my 16 years of work, in Francs into my Swiss Finance Post account here.

Berlin (Maybe 12 years) keep asking for details of what I did from age 16 to when I started full time work....

The system is that each EU country where you have a claim, calculates your worth as though you were still living in that country. This money is then converted to Swiss Francs and paid every month into my Swiss account.

Tip: as you can see I worked for 48 years, but if you are missing contribution years, you should contact your fund and ask to top your contributions.

A friend of mine did this in UK, and after only 2 years receiving an increased pension the extra amount she received was more than the amount she had paid in. But you can't do this after your 60th. Birthday!

http://www.ahv-iv.info/

I think you need to talk to your pensions specialist at your Gemeinde or Commune. Maybe my post below is relevant to you, I have lived here since October 1989 and I have a C permit.

Do you know whom I would need to contact in the UK as I have a number of gaps between jobs (6 to 12 months in length). Also what kind of money are we talking about per year?

Also if someone had a high salary, would that mean that they made bigger contributions to state pension and therfore are entitled to a bigger pension payments upon retirement?

But remember that in the UK you now only need 30 years' of contributions to get a full state pension and that activities like being a SAHM in receipt of child benefit gets a 'stamp' for that year - don't accidentally overpay!

kodokan

So each commune has a pensions specialist? So I just need to email my gemande and ask for a name? Could they explain to me all the rules and regulations with the bilateral agreements.

How much can one expect to receive from the UK per month or per year, i.e. a range from min to max?

Do any other acitivies other than SAHM get a 'stamp' for that year? setting up your own business, or other reasons for not working?

Who would I need to get in touch with in order to find out what is my current status in the UK state pension plan? I had a number for jobs which paid very well but I had gaps between these jobs (6 months up to a few years when setting up my own business) so do I need to close those gaps?

It might be helpful to know that you will not overpay. I have paid voluntary contributions for a while and got a letter to say that the rules have changed and I have overpaid and can expect a refund - which I got last month.
It seems that everyones contributions are being checked. You can ask for a pension forecast - I believe that you can do it online now.

Thanks. Do you have an internet link to check the pension farecast?

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensions...ning/index.htm

kodokan

Just noticed this one - the answer is 'depends'.

The State Pension is a flat rate for everyone - if you've paid sufficient National Insurance in a year (and you would have to earn less than minimum wage not to, I think) then that year becomes a 'qualifying year' and counts towards the 30 years required for a full pension. But a full pension is only about 85 quid a week or so.

But whilst you are working and paying NIU, you also build up a personal pot of money for retirement. This has been called State Earnings Related Pension (SERPS) previously, but I believe is now the State Second Pension (SSP). This, as the name suggest, IS earnings related, but only up to a certain threshold, which I think is 30-something thousand. After that, your mega earnings don't get you any more credit.

And bear in mind that many people are opted out of the State Second Pension, either privately through a personal pension provider, or collectively as part of their company scheme.

And also bear in mind that even the SSP will still only be a small amount of money, designed to enable sufficient catfood for survival and a single bar on the electric fire once a week. It's NOT going to be a lot, truly.

First thing to do, though, is ring up the pension service in the UK. They're super nice, and will discuss things in general over the phone without the need to apply for a forecast (for example, I wanted to know how many qualifying years I had so far, and they told me that on the spot).

And while I'm posting, and in a helpful mood, I'll also add that no, setting up a business or some such doesn't give a 'stamp' for a qualifying year. For that, a person should be making voluntary contributions, based on a flat rate, or a percentage of profits, or something. These are Class 2 or 3 or something contributions - sorry, way out of my knowledge area here! But you do get a credit if you're not working but in receipt of Child Benefit (personally in receipt, not if it goes to a husband, say), and also - I think - if you're receiving a Carers benefit. It used to be called Home Responsibilities Protection, but I'm sure they'll have changed the name from that, just to keep everyone on their toes.

kodokan

This is because people retiring at present are still doing so under the old rules, where by they get partial pensions from different EU countries where they have made contributions e.g. Ittigen who replied to your query.

There is no indication on the descriptions given on the websites as to when and how the new rules are being applied and more importantly how voluntary contributions will be handled... for instance if you make a voluntary contribution to the UK or Ireland during a period when you are also contributing to one of the other countries will it in fact count for anything?

That is why I'm interested in hearing about someone who has received a pension under the new rules...

Good luck with that,

Jim.