Overseas pensions campaigner slams Government promises

07/03/2008

With so many more retirees migrating abroad, it is appalling that Minister Mike O'Brien fails in his article ("Government Minister sets out "historic changes in pensions" to Mature Times readers") to mention the penalty with which some pensioners are slugged because their UK age pensions will be frozen if they choose the wrong countries in which to retire. The UK Government's policy does not suggest there will be any attempt to fix this long standing issue, which angers over 500,000 expats living in frozen countries, mainly Commonwealth countries overseas
 
The British Government's claim that it cannot afford to index all pensions is palpably dishonest, for the receipts from NI collections exceed the payments by £billions and have done so in almost every year since 1975 . Over the next 5 years this excess is greater than £60 Billion. Many retirees who would love to leave the country to join their younger families abroad feel the financial burden of a frozen non-indexed  pension will be too much of a risk, so they stay back in the UK, costing and pressuring the NH service more than it would otherwise cost. Moreover they apply more pressure on the urban footprint that would otherwise be reduced should they leave for overseas.
 
The Labour Government has shown its miserly approach to what should an easy issue to resolve, and as Lord Carswell said in the Lords decision on the Annette Carson case in 2005 , "If the UK government can pay pensions to some expats abroad then they should pay indexed pensions to them all".

 

The British government's approach is called immoral by some overseas politicians and is in breach of the Europe Convention on human rights. The ECHR will hear this case soon and we feel confident that the British Government will be found wanting in that European institution yet again.

Jim Tilley, Hon Chairman  
British Pensions in Australia