Italian pensions and social security
A person who has worked in both countries has, at retirement, two pensions and two administrations, and the rules which join them did not end with the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The Withdrawal Agreement keeps the European coordination for those who were already in a position between the two countries at the end of 2020, and the Protocol on social security of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, applied since 1 January 2021, keeps for everyone else the aggregation of the periods of insurance and the payment of the pensions across the border, with the annual increases. What follows is the practice of the two administrations as it stands for a resident of the United Kingdom with Italian contributions, and for a resident of Italy with British ones.
The two pensions
The British State Pension requires ten qualifying years of national insurance, and the years of contribution in Italy count towards the ten, although the amount is calculated on the British years alone. The claim is made within four months of reaching the pension age, from abroad through the International Pension Centre, and the pension is paid into a British or an Italian account every four or thirteen weeks, in the currency of the country, with the increases paid to residents of the United Kingdom, since Italy is among the countries where the pension is uprated. The Italian pension of the INPS is claimed by a resident of the United Kingdom through the Department for Work and Pensions, which acts as the liaison body, or directly from the INPS, and in practice through one of the patronati, the assistance bodies of the Italian trade unions which have offices in London and act without charge: ACLI, INAS, INCA and ITAL. The periods of insurance in the United Kingdom are added to the Italian ones to reach the minimum which Italian law requires, and each administration pays the share which corresponds to its own periods.
The Italian pension paid abroad
The INPS pays the pensions abroad through Citibank, by transfer to the account of the pensioner, and verifies every year that the pensioner is alive. For the residents of Europe the verification of 2026 begins in September: the bank sends the request from 18 September 2026, the form, signed before an acceptable witness, must be returned by 18 January 2027 to the post office box of the bank in Worthing, and a pensioner who has not replied by 19 February 2027 collects the instalment of February in cash at an agency of Western Union, which counts as proof of life, failing which the payment is suspended from the instalment of March 2027 until the certificate arrives. The witness is the consulate, which in London receives pensioners for the purpose on weekday mornings between ten and twelve, an honorary consulate, a patronato, whose operators certify on the portal of the bank, or a local authority empowered to witness signatures, and a pensioner who cannot attend for reasons of health sends the form by post to the consulate, which telephones him and transmits the certificate to the bank. The same cycle returns each year with the same dates, to within a few days.
The taxation of pensions
The Convention between Italy and the United Kingdom for the avoidance of double taxation, signed at Pallanza on 21 October 1988 and in force since 31 December 1990, assigns pensions for past employment, and annuities, to the State of residence of the recipient alone, under article 18. An Italian pension of the INPS paid to a resident of the United Kingdom is therefore taxed in the United Kingdom and not in Italy, and the exemption at source is obtained from the INPS with its own form, on which HM Revenue and Customs certifies the residence of the pensioner for tax purposes, after which the pension is paid gross and declared in the British return. The pensions paid by the Italian State and by its public bodies for services rendered to them follow article 19 and remain taxable in Italy alone, unless the recipient is both a resident and a national of the United Kingdom, and a person who holds both nationalities should take advice on the point before claiming the exemption. In the opposite direction the British State Pension of a resident of Italy is taxed in Italy, and a British public-service pension stays taxable in the United Kingdom unless its recipient is an Italian national resident in Italy.
Healthcare
A pensioner of the British system who settles in Italy obtains from the National Health Service the form S1, which registers him with the Italian health service at the cost of the United Kingdom, an arrangement which the agreements of 2020 preserved. A resident of the United Kingdom registered in the AIRE has in Italy only the treatment which the European and Global Health Insurance Cards guarantee to a visitor, and recovers the full right on the return and the registration of the residence.
A man born in Naples in 1959 worked in Italy from 1978 to 1990 and in London from 1991, where he is registered in the AIRE. In 2025 he claims the British State Pension through the International Pension Centre, with the Italian years counted towards the qualifying years, and in 2026, at sixty-seven, lodges through a patronato in London the claim for the Italian share, calculated on the twelve Italian years with the British periods added to reach the minimum. The Italian pension is paid by Citibank into his London account, gross once the INPS has received the form certified by HM Revenue and Customs, and each autumn he signs the proof of life before the patronato, which transmits it on the portal.
If you have contributions in both countries, or an Italian pension which is paid abroad, send us your records and your address. We tell you which administration pays what and which forms the INPS and the Revenue require, and we prepare the certificates and the translations each office asks for.