I'm an expat and mail service is slow - why does my pension provider need regular signed letters? STEVE WEBB replies

I'm a British male aged 73 and and live in the Philippines. I have lived here for over 15 years and I'm married.

Each month I receive a small private pension payment of £69.53 from Hannover Re based in the UK.

Occasionally, I receive a Proof of Life Certificate by post which I duly sign and send them a good scanned copy.

The incoming post into the Philippines is extremely slow and it's notriously labelled as snail mail. It can take months to arrive.

On a couple of occasions I have noticed my monthly payment hasn't come through.

Then I have to phone Hannover Re and it emails me a certificate to sign. The last time I told it to only contact me by email and not by post. Or it could alternatively call me.

Anyway, it's happened yet again and my payment for 1 May 2025, which I rely on, hasn't been paid into my bank account in the UK.

I've phoned and emailed and apparently they're going to contact me within 10 working days. That's not good enough.

My question is this: Surely it has a statutory duty to me as a customer to supply me with the correct documents on time and before it suspends my payments.

Why can't it simply email me the documents? Can it suspend payments without prior notice? It didn't inform me it was going to stop it.

I'd be extremely grateful if you could look into this matter, not just me but for the other millions of expats who live abroad and receive a pension.

Steve Webb replies: We regularly hear at This is Money from readers outside the UK who are having problems with payments being stopped, whether state pensions from the UK government or private pensions.

It is frustrating that your payments are repeatedly stopped without notice, and that you are dependent on the national postal system which sounds highly unreliable.

You have since told me that you have now got the latest payment reinstated and that you managed to do this by phoning up and passing security checks, and without having to provide a 'proof of life' certificate.

This of course raises the question as to why the provider couldn't simply email you and ask you to phone in once a year so it can check it is still paying a living person.

It would not necessarily need to do this for all overseas customers but could do it in countries where the postal service is known to be more unreliable.

Where you challenged your provider, it initially said it was: 'unable to send these forms to individual members via email due to technical limitations'.

It did accept 'the speed and reliability of overseas postal services varies by country', but the best it could do was suggest you phone proactively once a year at around the time that the letters go out.

It said if you called and completed the security questions to verify your identity 'we will accept this as confirmation instead of a paper form return'.

However, I'm pleased to say the company have now told me it has upheld your complaint and will look to make changes which should reduce the risk of this happening again.

Hannover Re said: 'Annual proof of existence information is contractually required to ensure that valid payments are being made.

'For overseas policyholders, this process is more complex as we are not able to use the screening services that are readily available in the UK.

'We therefore send initial requests for a Certificate of Existence at least four months in advance of the due date and follow this up with three more letters before taking any actions to suspend the policy.

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'Historically these requests have been sent out via post, and for the vast majority of policyholders this works well.

'We do however recognise that for some overseas policyholders this may not work, and we will be updating our processes going forward to include reminders via email.

'We are able to accept proof of existence information via email and had advised your reader of this last year'.

You have also since raised a second question relating to a different insurance company, namely Aviva, who you wanted to notify of a change of address.

You wanted to be able to send it a signed letter confirming the change but it would not accept this.

Instead, ot asked for an officially certified copy of your passport and a separate proof of address.

You pointed out doing this was costly, inconvenient... and couldn't understand why a letter would not do.

I put this point to Aviva and it said its approach was standard across the industry.

It said part of the problem was it was easier to verify information about UK customers electronically, but this was not possible where customers are outside the UK.

Aviva added: 'We always prioritise the security of our customers' funds and data.

'It is therefore important for us to conduct thorough due diligence to ensure our customers' protection.

'Documents from overseas may be more susceptible to forgery, which is why we require them to be certified by a trusted individual who can confirm their authenticity.

'We then verify the certifier's contact details to ensure the legitimacy of the certification, as stamps can also be forged.

'We are committed to safeguarding overseas customers from fraud in the same way as we do for our UK customers.'

Clearly from the point of view of providers it is more challenging when they are making payments outside the UK and they want to avoid the risks for fraud or of making payments so someone who has died.

But it is good that Hannover Re have undertaken to review their processes to improve matters for you and other customers going forward.