Thousands of people have demanded an end to the scandal of frozen pensions for hundreds of thousands of British expats. Nearly 60,000 have signed a petition calling for changes to the policy which sees UK pensioners living abroad denied yearly increases in their state pension.
Petition creator Dennis Reed, director of over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, said: “The support for this petition from senior citizens in this country, for their compatriots abroad, is truly heartening.
“If people have paid national insurance all their working lives, then they deserve to receive a full and uprated state pension wherever they choose to live.”
A pensioner who moves abroad has their pension frozen at the level it was when they left the UK, unless the country concerned has a reciprocal uprating agreement with the UK Government.
For example, UK pensioners in the US receive annual increases but those in Canada do not.
Half of UK pensioners abroad in 2020 had a weekly state pension of £65 or less, and 90 percent were unaware of the frozen pensions policy before moving.
The Government said: “We understand people move abroad for many reasons and we provide clear information about how this can impact on their finances.
“We continue to uprate state pensions overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so.”
● Sign the petition at www.change.org – search “end frozen pensions”.
