Injustice, inequality... we paid our contributions but our pensions are frozen

10/03/2008

Thank you for printing Jim Tilley's comments about the freezing of pensions for many British pensioners who live overseas. 

He draws attention to the scandalous situation whereby some pensioners overseas receive fully indexed pensions and others like those of us in Australia do not. We all paid in the same way and there is no just reason why our pensions are frozen. 

The cost of living goes up in Australia as in other countries.We watch our pension value becoming less and less and yet the British government which happily took our contributions when we were working in Britain, continues to refuse to acknowledge the injustice and inequality of this practice. We take nothing from the National Health System and the ancillary support services, which we might well be doing if we lived in UK. Many of us have to find funds for private health care and support services in Australia and would welcome the additional pension to which we should be entitled.

Margaret Eldridge, Australia