No, UK won’t pay your pension after Scexit (despite what SNP say)
SENIOR SNP figures have been accused of spreading ‘disinformation’ by claiming state pensions will be paid to Scots by the UK Government after independence.
The party’s Commons leader Ian Blackford and Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said the pensions would not be affected by the break-up of Britain.
Mr Blackford compared the situation to expat Scots who continue to receive pension payments after moving abroad, insisting that ‘absolutely nothing’ would change. But critics pointed out state pensions are paid out of current taxation and the cost of pensions would have to be covered by Scottish taxpayers after Scotland left the UK.
Last night, Scottish Tory constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘For such senior SNP figures to be suggesting pension rights will be unaffected in an independent Scotland is astonishing and blatantly inaccurate.
‘It is clear that the SNP are all too happy to spread misinformation as they ramp up their plans for another divisive referendum.’
Speaking to the Scotland’s
Choice podcast, Mr Blackford was asked what would happen to the state pension and replied: ‘Absolutely nothing. The important point is that those who have contributed to the UK have an entitlement for a pension and indeed that was made clear by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury at the time of the independence referendum in 2014.
‘So that commitment to continue to pay pensions rests with the UK Government. That’s no different to a UK citizen that chooses – for example – to live in Canada, or Spain, or France, or anywhere else.’
On the same podcast, Miss Forbes was asked if she agreed with Mr Blackford and said: ‘I wouldn’t dare disagree with Ian Blackford – the expert on all things pension – so I would agree with him.’ However, former fund manager Sam Taylor, who runs These Islands, a pro-Union thinktank, said that Mr Blackford was wrong as ‘current taxation funds current state pensions’.
He said: ‘There is no pension pot into which National Insurance contributions are saved, to later be paid out in retirement. Independence removes a Scotlandsized chunk of the UK tax base. That chunk – taxpayers in an independent Scotland – will have to fund the state pension.’
Mr Taylor said that when Ireland became independent, the UK Government ‘did not continue to pay the state pension in Ireland’, as the Irish Government took on that liability. He also rubbished the suggestion the UK Treasury had given assurances about pensions being funded by the UK.
An SNP spokesman said: ‘The UK Government confirmed in 2014 that, after independence, people would be entitled to the pension contributions they had made to the UK system. However, independence will also give us the opportunity to provide significantly better pensions.’