It dawned on him earlier this year that a number of payments had been missed, having not thought it was something he needed to check.
“Is it unreasonable to presume they would make an effort to warn you?” he said.
When he queried it, the DWP’s International Pensions Centre told him the problem was that they had not received a life certificate from him – yet he says he has never received one, despite drawing his pension since prior to his move to France in 2018-19.
They emailed a blank life certificate, which he completed and sent back by recorded delivery mail in February.
'Year of payments missed'
Mr Roots, 73, then sent several follow-up emails asking for clarifications and reinstatement, before the money finally arrived in his account in full around three months after he began his enquiries.
“It’ll have been a year of payments missed in June,” he said. “I have three different pensions and they don’t all appear on the same bank statements and I don’t always double check. It never entered my head that the pension would be stopped by the state.”
He received no explanation from the DWP but a brief email arrived stating that the official had checked his details and that his most recent payment was to cover the period June 2025 to May 2026.
"It was a relief to get it though, and there wasn't any question of them saying I had lost my rights due to not filling in the form," he said.
Contractors for the DWP post out life certificates to pensioners living abroad at unspecified intervals (often once a year), which they are meant to complete and have signed by a witness, to prove they are still alive. Pensioners do not have to take the initiative to send them.
Mr Roots said an additional complication may be that the DWP still has a UK correspondence address for him as well as his French address.
However, that is unlikely to be the reason, as life certificates are only sent to pensioners who live abroad and he said he had previously clearly stated the fact he now lived in France. He has asked them where the original certificate was sent.
“Fortunately, I'm not in desperate poverty as a result, but I will be if this carries on," he told us, shortly before the money arrived in his account.
He added that for some people who rely wholly on it, going without it even for a month or two "could be awful".
He said the system is “inefficient and causes great inconvenience”, which was compounded by the follow-up difficulties.
One of his other pensions, from working in public transport for a county council, requires him to complete life certificates online, attaching a selfie photograph.
A DWP spokesperson said: "DWP continues to keep the operation of the life certificate process under review, which includes exploring electronic solutions to modernise and improve the process.”
The DWP considers that life certificates are an important part of its strategy to ensure that all overseas state pensions are being paid correctly.
