Unfreezing UK Overseas State Pensions
COULD YOU LIVE ON £19 A WEEK?
That is how much a 104-year-old British pensioner in Canada receives, despite having paid her National Insurance contributions in full. She is not alone. She is just one of 450,000 British pensioners who retired abroad to countries that have no reciprocal agreements with the UK.
Sir Ed Davey MP
“It’s scandalous that when people leave the UK their state pensions are frozen. Liberal Democrats are deeply sympathetic to the plight of the thousands of pensioners worldwide who have been left without their proper state pension due to these antiquated rules. This has been a political football for far too long. The Government must do far more to put reciprocal agreements in place, to ensure that pensioners who have lived and worked in Britain receive what they are fairly owed. “
Unfreezing Overseas State Pensions
Liberal Democrats believe that British citizens who have paid their contributions are entitled to state pensions and ought to receive them in full, including annual uprating regardless of where they choose to live.
- In 2014, it was estimated that there were 1.24 million people in receipt of a UK state pension outside the UK. Just under half of these (c. 550,000, around 4% of all state pension claimants) were in countries where uprating is not currently enabled.
- In countries where no reciprocal legal agreement is in place, the pension is paid but without any uprating. Effectively, the pension’s value is forever frozen at the point it was initially claimed (if already overseas) or when the claimant moved overseas.
Read More about Overseas Pensions
Presentation to the AGM of "British Pensions in Australia" (BPiA)
Lord Chris Rennard gave a presentation at the AGM of "British Pensions in Australia". The following is the link including access to the video of the presentation.
https://bpia.org.au/lord-rennard-presentaion-to-2022-bpia-agm/
December, 2022
