We ’ ve been frozen out
EXPATS CAMPAIGN FOR PENSION RISE
NEARLY half a million elderly Brits living overseas have launched a campaign to get their frozen pensions uprated before they fall into poverty.
Those who emigrate do not get an annual increase unless Britain has a deal with the country they now live in.
And successive governments have been reluctant to strike such agreements because of the extra £640million cost to the £110billion a year pensions bill.
That means Anne Puckridge, 98, lives on £72.50 a week after moving to Calgary, Canada, aged 76 to be near her family.
Had she remained in the UK she would be due more than double that from April when pensions go up to £156.20.
She was with Indian armed forces during the Second World War and is one of 60,000 military veterans now settled abroad hit by pension freezes, some living on as little as £40 a week.
She said: “I served my country and paid National Insurance contributions every week just like everyone else. I consider this theft.
“I am now discarded in old age, abandoned and denied the much-needed increases I thought I’d receive
“I’ll fight until the day I die for pension rights. We earned our pensions and we paid for them in full.”
There are 106 countries in which retired Brits are paid their pensions at the amount they would have received on the date they left the UK. The 385,000 in the EU – 103,000 in Spain – are protected under the Brexit withdrawal agreement. There is also a deal with the US for the 128,000 Brits there.
But many of the 224,000 in Australia, 126,000 in Canada, 64,000 in New Zealand and 31,000 in South Africa are struggling to get by.
The former chair of the International Consortium of British Pensioners, Nigel Nelson, 70, of Kelowna, British Columbia, said: “If my wife and I had emigrated 100km south to the US we would have received indexed state pensions. Instead we have lost £13,000.”
Dennis Reed, of Silver Voices, said: “It is scandalous UK citizens who paid their dues are now on the poverty line.
“It is time to right this historic wrong.”
Ex-pensions minister Ros Altmann added: “This has been tested in the courts and the UK Government was found to have the right to withhold uprating if there is no reciprocal arrangement. But it does seem rather harsh to me.”
According to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Frozen Pensions, only one in 10 were informed of what they faced before leaving Britain.
The Government said: “We continue to uprate state pensions overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so.
“We understand that people move abroad for many reasons and we provide clear information about how this can impact on their finances.”
To sign the petition go to change.org/p/tell-the-politicalparties-to-end-frozen-pensions