Radio advertisement - XtraPension

I heard an advert on RTE Radio One today about boosting your UK state pension. Thought it was a public service announcement but turns out it's for a company that will fill in and send off your form for you... for a fee of €1,000! Quite shocking.

Absolutely no need to pay anyone.

If the charging of a set fee by a service provider in return for delivery of a service shocks you, you're easily shocked.

€1,000 for a service DannyBoyD has provided on this forum for hundreds of people for free, is indeed shocking.

"We also chase HMRC if there are any non-standard delays or issues or with your application.

Guidance on HMRC Reply: 34% of people entitled to increase their UK pension very cheaply via this process choose not to because they’re unclear / unsure of the final very valuable steps. We explain and guide you clearly through this important process."

Unless they're actually lying here, I don't see a problem.

Their logo is terrible though.

Most people could apply using Danny's great guide.

But a lot of people are just not comfortable with form filling and pursuing such applications.

For them, €1,000 may be money well spent if they would otherwise be put off from applying.

T McGibney said:

Their logo is terrible though.

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I wonder do they give out free videos with every application?

In my working days throughout the public/civil service it was not unusual for many people to fail to fill out simple forms. In fact, many feared filling out forms. But, some geek charging €1000.00 for doing such simple work - Come Onnnnnnnn!

Leper said:

In my working days throughout the public/civil service it was not unusual for many people to fail to fill out simple forms. In fact, many feared filling out forms. But, some geek charging €100.00 for doing such simple work

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Some people also get their figures completely wrong.

The money back guarantee seems like a good safety net.

I know quite a few people who are reluctant to engage in the process and maybe paying a fee to someone else would get them over the hump.

But tracking down details of NI number is a hurdle for some and I’m not sure anyone can help with that. Patience and a bit of tracking down old addresses etc is what’s needed there.

Annieindublin said:

I know quite a few people who are reluctant to engage in the process

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Tempted to set up a rival site, but they have to make donation to nominated charity.

I, myself, did pay a guy to do it for me a few yrs ago but it was only a 2 or 3 hundred as i recall

I also nearly paid a company but while I was waiting for my NI number to be posted to me I read right through this site and then realised I could do it myself. It can be daunting for some people. In saying that €1000 is too much to charge.

I did my own online and found DWP site and help systems simple and effective to use.

Good Start Point IME

A grand? Not a snowball's!!

Hi, I heard the add and checked the website. They are saying you could be entitled if you worked for one year?
My partner worked in the UK for 2 years. Left in 2002. Can she claim a pension? Pay going forward or back pay?
I've done it for myself but I presumed it was 3 years.

I also worked for two years in the UK but when I checked my NI record it says I have 3 years full contributions paid as my two years spanned 3 tax years. I only worked one tax year in full and part of the the other two years but paid enough NI during that time to have those years fully credited. It is definitely worthwhile applying, but you can easily do so yourself without needing to pay an agent.

In fairness, they are providing something of a public service by investing a not inconsiderable amount in advertising on RTE radio about the opportunity, so on that grounds one could regard the €1000 fee as a sort of crowd funding (by the more gullible!) of a public service announcement. And yep some people are just to apathetic or incompotent or intimidated or bamboozled by officialdom and form filling to undertake it themselves, so I guess if they are prepared to pay €1000 to someone else to do it for them then that's their business and fair play to Xtra Pension for exploiting that opportunity. Still though DannyBoyD (along with others) have provided a great public service on here and are well worth a donation to their nominated charity once the process achieves fruitful completion.

When I heard the ad first I thought it was misleading advertising as it mentions those who had spent one year working in the UK and I had understood that you needed 3 years working there to qualify. However, it is worth investigated your pension situation even if you only worked in the UK for a year. For example if you worked for a year, this year may have spanned two tax years. If you check your record you may have 5 NI credited years if you qualify for the 3 juvenile years automatically credited to those who got an NI number before 2010. In that case, regardless of the current "deal" you would be entitled to buy back 6 years, although probably at the higher class 3 rate and could qualify for a payment of 11/35th of the UK state pension. This would certainly be worth doing particularly if you were to live a decade or two into retirement. I may be wrong on this so please correct me if I am! I agree there would be no need to pay a private company to do this for you, but they may have done some members of the public a favour by highlighting this on national radio. Thanks also to those who set up the informative threads on this site. Really appreciate the useful information they contain.

Interestingly I got a text message today from Xtrapension saying that they'd call me in one hour. I've already successfully applied for the UK pension myself thanks to the help from this forum so I don't need any help.

What I am more curious about is how they got my details. I'm guessing some recruitment agency who had my data has sold it off and they are using that to contact people who have worked in the UK. However that does feel like a violation of GDPR.

As of yet they haven't called me.

done4now said:

What I am more curious about is how they got my details. I'm guessing some recruitment agency who had my data has sold it off

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This would be shocking if this happened.

Are you sure that you didn't make a general enquiry from them back at the time?

Why would they be ringing you now that the deadline is passed?

That phone number is odd. Any chance it's a scam. Play them along and see what happens.