Getting a UK state pension in Poland

Have you lived and worked in the UK for at least three years? You could get a UK state pension for a very reasonable amount even though you live in Poland.

You need 35 years of payments to get the full amount. That amount is £221.20 / 1,111zl per week, so 57.772zl per year. To get that you can pay only Class 2 voluntary contributions and those £179 / 895zl per year. Yes, those numbers are correct. For paying thirty-five times 895zl, you get 1,111zl per week for life from your 67th birthday. So it takes 28 weeks to get back what you paid in, after that you're in the money. Live to 80 and you get back 751,036zl for the 31,325zl you paid in!

More information here: gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/rates

This is a very good deal for Poles who worked in the UK. 3 years is a low threshold.

Looks like Delph or Harry is in the money :)

It's the deal of the century! I wouldn't like to try to live off 5,555zl but as one pillar of a pension here it would be OK. I reckon 5.5 from UK state pension, the same again from ZUS, and contributions from dipping into 20 years of maxed out IKZE, PPK and PPO, plus either income from selling off the portfolio or an annuity, one could live pretty well in Poland in one's golden years.

If I pay Class 3 I assume I will get higher pension? Is there a calculator where I can check these numbers?

No. The amount you receive doesn't depend on the class of contributions for very obvious reasons.

There used to be an optional extra payment available to higher earners however that supplementary contribution ended donkeys' years ago.

The contribution class you pay depends on your individual circumstances, however in the interest of fairness, the amount of pension is unaffected.


All info, including calculators is on the Government Gateway website. There are also a few others online, findable on Google.

Thanks Jon375

That's the most generous pension scheme I've ever heard of.

Polish ZUS, contrary to what most people think, actually offers a rather decent pension scheme; for example, last year the obligatory valorisation of the main account was 14% (subaccount 9%) - good luck getting that in a private scheme (most of them don't have inflation indexed valorisation at all). Of course, counting on ZUS only is rather unreasonable but if you supplement it with PPK (basic + voluntary contribution) and IKE (tax free at payout) or IKZE (max. 20k tax free contribution a year), you should be quite all right.

Some people don't like PPK because PiS introduced it, but it's a very good scheme (your employer doubles your basic contribution and the state add a bonus as well).

I'd say ZUS+PPK is the minimum of what everybody should contribute to, if you add IKE/IKZE you should be fine in retirement, and if you can afford it invest in index funds or get a safe insurance investment fund (many to choose from) on top of it. The time will fly by, so nobody should procrastinate when it comes to retirement investments.

for some reason my p45 doesn't have NI# filled out, i do have a NI# on my pay-slips though. Weird.

You mean NI number? They didn't fill it in because P45 forms don't always include the NI number. They're about income tax codes rather than NI contributions. They only include them sometimes.
However that's for the convenience of future employers and not mandatory.

It shouldn't be a problem, and your NI number is always on your P60 since that records Income Tax and NI paid in the previous 12 months.

i worked for a uk based company remotely for several years. i do have a ni number on my p60's but when i try to login to the gateway app it says that it doesn't recognize it. my ni starts with two letters with my birthdate and ends with one letter. someone told me that i may have a "temporary" ni since i didn't live in uk.

it's absolutely bananas! i keep thinking that the uk government will change it, but so far so good. i suppose they could massively increase the amount of the voluntary contributions needed to qualify, but that would mean more people in the future claiming benefits, so it's not a great idea from that perspective.


i'm thinking uk state pension plus zus pension plus pkk, ike and ikze plus an indexed annuity (bought by liquidating my shares and trackers) and i'll be ok. could always throw in an equity release as well. i'd absolutely hate to be poor when i'm told. must absolutely suck to be like jimmy poorhouse, stuck in a property that's falling down due to lack of maintenance and no money to do anything other than post fantasies online all day every day 365 days a year!

sounds like you're on the 'emergency code'. you shouldn't worry about that; we've all been on it. same with a temporary code; it's still tied to your paymets and because of the three letters, they won't forget you. (26x26x26 is 17,576 and i doubt there's that many people in the world with the exact same name and birth date as you who happened to be working in the uk on those dates).

an ni number is always in the format xx 123456 x

you can get one here: ni-number.org.uk/uk-national-insurance/

it takes several days.

citizenship, place of residence, right to work etc aren't relevant to this; it's just a number to record ni payments under. worth doing since it will help keep track of any payments made. keep your p60 though. payslips help too, however the p60 is a sort of annual payslip and is useful.


worth sorting out while we can. it really is a good deal.

thanks jon. unable to fill out the form for ni as it requires uk phone number & address..

a former address where you can have something sent or a friend's address is fine. it's just for them to mail it to you.

It would be worth using a mail forwarding service if necessary, although I think HMC are also fine with posting things outside the UK. Basically one needs to do whatever it takes to be able to access this superb deal. 751,036zl paid out for the 31,325zl you paid in is the kind of return that not even Jimmy Poorhouse would dream about getting!

How quickly you forget that when you posted a picture of the nine Franc boasting, that you had in your wallet, that Jimmy posted a picture of rows of Franklins that were worth ten times that from his wallet so stop your jealous diminishing remarks.
This makes me believe that my two pensions, social security, interests and dividends on my portfolio, real estate ownership makes yours look like Chump Change.
You should learn not to diminish members here that can buy and sell you easily ten times or more over.
You couldn't begin to live in the U.S. on your pittance of a pension, Lazarus.
If I were to become an ex-pat like you are to Poland I could live well on my Social Security alone
So take your insecure diminishments elsewhere because you have been had here.

You don't need a UK address in order to get confirmation of what your NI number is. Just send them a letter (give them your email address as well as your Polish postal address):

PT Operations North East England
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1AN
United Kingdom

The important thing is to get this done. It must be absolutely terrible to be old and poor. Just imagine being so old and poor that you can't even go out for a cup of tea at a cafe and so have no idea what a cup of tea costs. Got to really burn to not even be able to pay for your internet connection and to have to rely on charity from your church to pay your internet bill every month. Just look at Jimmy Poorhouse: he thinks that 30 cups of tea at a cafe cost less than a month's internet connection, because he's too poor to pay for either of those things! Don't be like Jimmy Poorhouse, claim your 751,036zl paid out for the 31,325zl you paid in!

Keep thinking as fantasy thinking costs nothing.
We can't all be wealthy like you, Dead Man Walking, and boast while wearing that yellow faded white wrinkled shirt and trousers with nicotine-stained fingers like you do.

Golden Hairy, what are you going to do with such a small amount of cash?
Live the high life in Poland ? Hoot !

I received an e-mail that I must have a UK address and phone number. They won;t send anything outside UK.

A quick look says that you can go in person to get one.

Don't worry though; any contributions you have made are recorded against your name.

That's simply not true. Apart from anything else, discriminating against EU nationals who were resident in the UK on the basis that they no longer have a UK address would be a breach of the Withdrawal Agreement. I also know from personal experience that they are perfectly happy to call non-UK numbers and also to send things outside the UK.

I'd give them a call, the number is +44 191 203 7010. You can expect to wait on hold for up to an hour but when you eventually do get through the staff are friendly and helpful. If you call via Skype, a one hour call from PL to UK costs 6.60zl. And that's possibly the best 6.60zl you'll ever spend: it buys you the opportunity to pay in 31,325zl and then get 751,036zl paid out.

Don't be so poor in your old age that you can't even afford to whitewash your shack's well! See below for how sad that looks. Don't be like Jimmy Poorhouse, get a proper retirement income sorted out, then you'll have enough money to know what a cup of tea costs!

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It says on the website that you have to have an address for them to send it to, however it's a fraud prevention thing and you can pick one up in person by appointment.


If Jailhouse Jim's well is like that, his outhouse and earth closet must be much worse. Mind you, he probably doesn't want people looking too closely at the well due to all the missing children left at the childminding business that fell down it.

And HMRC webstie says:

"Contact HMRC to get a letter confirming your National Insurance number - this can take up to 10 working days to arrive"

They have a separate phone line for callers from overseas:

Outside UK:
+ 44 191 203 7010

But that's to get an NI number. This bloke has worked for several years in the UK system, so he certainly has a number, he just needs to find out what the number is. I'd definitely spend half the price of a cup of coffee on a long call the HMRC, the huge return makes the time spent very much worth it.

That said, even a trip to the UK specifically to go to HMRC in Newcastle would be worth the time, effort and money. This is such a good deal. And it's so important to not be poor in one's old age. Look at poor Jimmy Poorhouse, reduced to standing around docks complementing fishermen on their catches and trying to beg whatever fish they can't be bothered to take home!

I did call the above number. Same story, I need a UK address where the NI will be sent.

He's on the emergency code.


Do you know someone there wh9 can forward it to you?

Are you sure? I thought the use of those was capped at no longer than 11 months.


Any mail forwarding service would do the trick.

The important thing is that he jumps through whatever hoops HMRC want him to. The UK pension in exchange for only class two contributions is the deal of a lifetime! It's not a vast amount of money every month, but it can make the difference between a comfortable-ish retirement and not even knowing how much a cup of tea costs because you're too poor to ever go out anywhere. Ask Jimmy Poorhouse how that feels!