Pensioners lose £8,000 of state pension as expats see sums frozen | Personal Finance | Finance
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The state pension has recently risen by 3.1 percent, boosting the full new state pension by £5.55 a week. However, some pensioners are excluded from the increase.
Some pensioners receive a ‘frozen’ state pension if they have moved abroad in retirement.
This means their state pension stays the same every year. As the cost of living rises, this means they lose money in real terms each year.
Following the uprating of UK state pensions last week, some overseas pensioners will be losing up to £8,000 this year as a result of the UK’s frozen pensions policy, according to new figures from the End Frozen Pensions campaign.
Pensioners living in popular retirement destinations such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand do not get a yearly state pension increase.
READ MORE: Attendance Allowance recipients get up to £145.60 more – how to claim
For those who retired in 1992, it would be £6,812.
This rises to £7,919.60 if they retired in 1982.
Campaigners from the End Frozen Pensions campaign have dubbed the policy a cruel “postcode lottery”.
A startling 492,000 UK pensioners are believed to be impacted by frozen pensions.
Some 90 percent of these pensioners reside in Commonwealth countries, and many live in overseas British Territories such as the Falkland Islands.
John Duffy, Chair of the International Consortium of British Pensioners, said: “Although we welcome the rise in UK pensions, we are hugely disappointed that the UK Government is continuing to treat British citizens living in an arbitrary list of countries unfairly.
“This outrageously cruel policy is excluding pensioners, many of whom spent their working lives in the UK, and leaving them to face poverty and financial hardship.
“The UK Government could choose to end this policy now but instead continues to treat British pensioners across the world unequally, despite the contributions they have made to the UK.
“We hope the Government will engage in future discussions to end this policy and give all UK pensioners the support they are entitled to, no matter where they live.”
Patricia Coulthard, a 100-year-old British pensioner in Australia, said: “Since I moved to Australia to be closer to my children in my retirement, my pension has been frozen at just £46 per week.
“I am now nearly 101-years old and, having been born in Britain and served as a nurse in World War Two, it saddens me to think the UK Government does not believe I am entitled to the same support as other British pensioners living overseas.
“Had I moved to a country such as the US, my pension would have increased throughout the years, but as I moved to Australia, I am excluded from these much-needed increases. I hope the Government will finally put an end to this injustice.”
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