Promises, promises ... the politicians who don't deliver on our overseas pensions

By Brian Havard - 22/04/2008

Over half a million ex-pat British pensioners have had their pensions frozen - some by more than £55 a week – because they are now living overseas in Commonwealth countries rather than the EU. But if UK Government Ministers were to implement the promises they have made, our pensions would not be frozen. Here are just some of them.

Ian McCartney wrote to me from Opposition 23 June 1993 “Labour’s policy is to ensure equality of treatment to all British pensioners who live abroad in countries outside the European Community”. He became Pensions Minister and later Labour Party Chairman. He had the power to implement his undertaking. What did he do? Nothing.

Alistair Darling in a letter to me, also from Opposition, on 8 September 1994 wrote: “There are also a range of bilateral agreements with other countries which protect the position of pensioners there. I believe the Government should give priority to extending such arrangements wherever possible”. He became Social Security Secretary and is now Chancellor of the Exchequer. And what has he done? Nothing.

Peter Hain had already signed five EDMs in our support before he became Work & Pensions Secretary. During his brief tenure in office he said of the state pension: “It is the duty of every Government to keep the contract between the state and the individual under constant review to ensure that the balance between rights and responsibilities is properly maintained”. What did he do to review our rights to the full pension we had paid for? Nothing.

Mike O’Brien, the present Pensions Minister had as a backbencher also signed five EDMs supporting our cause. In the recent pensions debate he said “Our shared aim should be to ensure that pension promises are kept and pensioners are secure in retirement...” But he has now adopted a purely legalistic posture, insisting "the state pensions of people living abroad will be uprated where there is a legal requirement, as is the case where pensioners are living within the European Economic Area, or where there is a reciprocal agreement in place which allows for uprating".

This is despite the Ombudsman’s observation that ‘Our exchanges with government departments on some recent cases suggests to me that there is a growing obsession these days with legal liability, when they might more usefully be concerned about the reliability of the service being provided to the citizen and the quality of the administration that underpins it’. So what is Mike O’Brien doing to implement his beliefs? Nothing.

Jack Straw when as Home Secretary he was launching the Human Rights Act gave the most important assurance of them all when he said “…. under the Human Rights Act, everyone gets the same set of basic guarantees from our public services, whoever we are and wherever we live.’ Of course it has not happened for us frozen pensioners. Jack Straw is now Minister for Justice and has responsibility for how HRA is being implemented, but his officials are failing to carry out his predecessor’s promise, that his Ministry would drive through mainstreaming of HRA in all departments, including Work & Pensions.

I and one or two others have repeatedly called on these ministers to practise what they preach or risk New Labour acquiring the reputation of promising much but performing little.

Brian Havard, 82 year-old WWII Veteran, Frozen Pensioner                             
Currently deprived of 48% of his pension entitlement