GOVERNMENT RETIREMENT RULES HAVE DENIED MANY RETIREES A FULL STATE PENSION
More than half a million UK pensioners living overseas do not receive their full UK state pension due to government policy. The pension of any UK pensioner living abroad in certain countries is frozen at the level it was when they retired or left the UK. Currently, most pensioners living in the UK have their state pension increased according to the triple-lock principle by a minimum of 2.5 per cent, the rate of inflation, or average earnings growth, whichever is the highest. This policy affects UK pensioners in all Caribbean countries, except Barbados and Jamaica, and many other current or former Commonwealth countries. Retirees living in the USA, the European Economic Area, the Philippines, Barbados, Bermuda and Israel get the same increases as those in the UK.
Pensioners living in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa have had their state pension frozen at the value that it was when they left the UK.
According to the all-party parliamentary group on frozen British pensions, 550,000 British pensioners, equating to 4 per cent of all state pension recipients and half the pensioners living overseas, are adversely affected by the Government’s frozen pension policy.
Thousands of British pensioners from the Windrush generation have been denied their full state pension and continue to miss out on tens of thousands of pounds. Over 510,000 retirees worldwide have state pensions that will never rise in value. Retirees in Britain and particular countries with a reciprocal agreement, including the EU and America, receive annual increases under the “triple lock”. This has led to unusual rules in the Caribbean, where British pensioners living in Jamaica or Barbados see their pensions increase yearly.
Similarly, any British pensioner living on a French island that is considered a department of France has their pension uprated similarly. But residents of other islands lose out.
John Duffy of the International Consortium of British Pensioners, a campaign group, said: “Frozen pensioners in the Caribbean live with the absurd postcode lottery that sees pensioners living on the British Virgin Islands having their pension frozen, while those in the American Virgin Islands, less than 40 miles away, are paid the full pension we should all be entitled to receive.”
Mother and daughter Nancy Hunte, 90, and Gretel, 66, both Windrush émigrés, have struggled to make ends meet on a frozen pension since returning to Antigua.
Since moving back to her homeland in 1993, Nancy has missed out on between £60,000 and £70,000. Her pension was frozen by the British Government at £39.33 a week, less than a third of the current basic state pension she would be entitled to if she lived in the UK, which is £134.25 a week.
Nancy took advantage of the Government’s invitation to British citizens living in the Caribbean and emigrated in 1958 to find work. She moved to Leicester and was joined by her husband and three children a few years later, including Gretel. However, she has not received the pension she expected after working in the UK for 33 years.
Gretel left the UK two years later to be close to her mother after working in British factories for over two decades. Gretel reached the state pension age last September and faced the same fate as her mother. Her payments will be stuck at the same level for the rest of her retirement. Gretel said: “My mum has dementia and needs looking after, but I can’t afford it on her pension.”
Reverend Max Hughes, 82, who also lives in Antigua, has been receiving a capped British state pension for 12 years since he moved from Jamaica, where his pension was rising yearly. Mr Hughes’s wife, Eunice Celestine, also had her pension frozen. A married couple living in Britain will receive £220.05 on the basic state pension as of April. However, Mr and Mrs Hughes have been stuck on the same retirement since 2009, when it was £152.50, meaning they are over £50 out of pocket weekly.
The pensioner emigrated to Britain in 1955, where he worked for 30 years, first on the railways and as a signalman in Leicester, then becoming a social worker. He said: “It’s unfair after I worked in the country for 30 years. I’m still the same person who was getting increments when I reached pension age. It’s difficult to pay the bills because prices are rising every day.”
“This longstanding policy disproportionately impacts members of the Windrush Generation, many of whom didn’t leave the UK voluntarily and were not informed their pension would be frozen. Savers who are still working past the pension age can defer their state pension until they stop working. But many people in this age group fail to do so, paying taxes unnecessarily on income they may not need.
“If you’ve made National Insurance contributions your whole working life, there’s no reason you shouldn’t receive your full and up-rated pension in retirement, wherever you choose to live.”
