Are you still alive letters!

I seem to get one every year ( Malc tells me it is every two years) from the Pension service asking for someone to sign that they should still be paying me. I call it  the "are you still alive letter" There has been some discussion on a local social media site about this. We have for 9 years asked a friend who is a retired probation officer to sign, before that we asked a retired bank manager. Malc who is a retired Tax Inspector often signs for friends.
Looking at the form I have just received is now a box asking for an official stamp of the person signing as a witness.
Does this mean retired professionals can no longer sign as of course they no longer have official stamps? We are going to carry on as normal and write " retired" in the official stamp section, to see what happens. It is such a "piddlin" amount if it is held up a month it is not the end of the world.

Dear Val

As a physiotherapist who has not practiced for nearly 30 years I too can and have signed official 
forms. When I saw the demand for an official stamp I wondered what i would do now but realised 
that I could use my chartered membership number. This number is unique to me and can be traced 
back through the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy register. Continuing along that line of thinking, 
I would suggest that teachers and others without a professional registration just put in their last 
employment address and the dates.

While I recognise the importance of stopping relatives etc continuing to claim pensions after someone 
had died and it really does happen, it does strike me as a little stupid that non English speakers can 
sign. Here our mayor can sign. He has the stamp but he speaks no English and so would have no 
idea at all of what he was signing. Better perhaps a Brit using their passeport number and pension 
number of proof of their life

Ginny   

Val says I totally agree Ginny, our Mayor would not have a clue and if you have to start demanding 

translations, well the mind boogles

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