MPs call for end to freeze on State pension for expats

MORE than 40 MPs are calling on the Government to overturn an enduring injustice affecting State pension payments to half a million UK nationals living overseas.

The cross-party group is sending an open letter to Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, claiming it is time to ‘truly honour the people who made the UK’ whose pension payments have been frozen in time.

The plea comes after it was announced that pension payments to British expats living in Europe would rise in line with inflation for at least three years, irrespective of what happens with Brexit.

According to the letter, this has sparked ‘extreme anger and deep hurt’ among those overlooked – more than 500,000 pensioners living further afield.

They represent half of all pensioners living overseas, but their pensions do not benefit from an annual increase. Instead they are paid at what was the going rate on the day they emigrated.

The letter to Coffey refers to comments made last month by her predecessor in the post, Amber Rudd, that the move to protect UK pensioners in Europe was to honour people who ‘helped make our country the success it is’.

The MPs write: ‘The same must be said about the half million UK pensioners living outside the UK and EU whose pensions are frozen, who include military veterans, former nurses and teachers. Many have served the UK in its darkest hours and are now being plunged into poverty because their State pension continues to reduce in value yearon-year.’

The two-tier pension system that has existed for decades is based on geography, and depends on which countries have a reciprocal arrangement with the UK. It is an issue that many pensioners were unaware of when they moved.

The 666,000 who live in Europe and a handful of countries further afield, such as the US, Jamaica and the Philippines see their payments regularly uprated.

But 528,000 have their pensions frozen, the vast majority of them living in Commonwealth countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

Second World War veteran Anne Puckridge, 94, is a stark example of the iniquity of the system. The former intelligence officer in the

Women’s Royal Naval Service moved to Canada in 2001 to be closer to her daughter and so receives £72.50 a week, the going rate at that time. Had she moved to the US, she would now be receiving £129.20 a week.

There are 43 MPs from all major parties fighting for justice for overseas pensioners. Their letter adds: ‘We wholeheartedly agree that those who “helped make our country the success it is” must receive the full pension to which they are entitled. It is perverse, unjust and wrong that this pension is not universal to all UK pensioners.’