Pension groups representing pensioners living abroad have again called for cost of living increases in the state pension to be given to expat pensioners. The International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP), has made a fresh call for the Government to allow pensioners abroad a cost of living increase by lodging a petition on the Government’s e-petition website.

The petition, titled “End the unfair frozen overseas pension policy”, could force parliament to debate the issue if it receives more than 100,000 signatures, the threshold currently set for petitions to reach to trigger a parliamentary debate. The petition currently has just under 15,000 signatures.

Petition

The petition is part of the ICBP’s ongoing campaign to get the Government to rectify what it calls an unfair freeze on the state pensions of British pensioners living abroad. In June, the ICBP attempted the get parliament to review the issue through an Early Day Motion, which attracted the support of a number of cross-party MP’s; however the motion was not selected to be debated.

A spokesman for the ICBP said that many MP’s at the time expressed support for the group’s aims, but as a matter of principle would not sign an Early Day Motion. It is a good option to save more for retirement by investing in a personal pension so that you can control the funds in your pension pot. The stakeholder pension offered by providers such as Virgin Money, allows tax relief on contributions of up to 100 per cent of your earnings each year.

Rules

Under the current rules, half a million British pensioners living abroad are denied cost-of-living increases in their state pension.

Those pensioners living in Europe, the USA and several other countries receive the same annual rise as those in the UK. However, those in most countries worldwide, including popular retirement countries such as Australia, Canada and South Africa have seen their pensions frozen at the rate they were when they first started drawing it abroad.

Amended as of 06/02/2012

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Comments

1. 

   George Morley

   posted on 04 February 2012

   Your article about the state pension freezing says -This is due to a lack of a pension treaty with such countries that takes these things into account.-
   Not true. No treaty is needed. It is purely a British government issue and given the will of the MP’s, parliament couls change this tomorrow.

2. 

   Jeff Chipps

   posted on 04 February 2012

   The last sentence in your article is incorrect and totally misleading.
   You say “This is due to a lack of a pension treaty with such countries that takes these things into account.”
   This has NEVER been the case, and is a total falsehood put out by the UK Department of Works and Pensions (which they have lately been told they can’t use any longer) and rammed down people’s throats until they’ve been forced to swallow it!
   The part of the UK pension policy that controls if an increase is paid or not to ANY pensioner is decided in the UK Parliament – and nowhere else.
   The UK can unilaterally decide to pay expats rightful increases any time they want to.
   UK Cabinet Ministers have admitted that “All it would take is a simple change in UK law to pay the increases – provided the political will was there”
   Your story ends with the impression that all doors are firmly closed against any such change. Believe me, half a million discriminated-against pensioners can open a lot of doors!!

3. 

   Samir El-Alami

   posted on 06 February 2012

   Amended as of 6/02/2012

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