Pension boosts for expats in Europe

THERESA May’s ‘fair and serious’ offer would include annual boosts for pensioners living on the continent.

The Prime Minister guaranteed the state pension would continue to be uprated, or increased, on a yearly basis for Britons living abroad and for EU citizens who have worked in the UK public sector.

Under existing rules, anyone who retires to a country within the EU has their pension uprated by the ‘triplelock’, meaning it rises by the highest of three measures – earnings, prices or 2.5 per cent – each year. It means a Briton living in an EU country would get the annual increase to their UK state pension.

But an EU national who has worked in the UK public sector, then settled elsewhere in Europe, is also entitled to a chunk of pension paid by the British government.

The Home Office’s policy paper said: ‘The UK intends to continue to export and uprate the UK state pension within the EU, subject to reciprocity.’