Expat Frozen UK State Pension Petition
Published / Last Updated on 17/01/2022
A petition that was launched on the UK Parliament’s petitions website on the 29th December 2021 regarding frozen state pensions has so far attracted just 3,138 signatures (as at today).
Many of you may know that if you are an expat and you are entitled to a UK state pension, this may not increase each year in payment as it does if you are UK resident.
As an expat, your UK State Pension will only get payment increases if you live in a country that has a reciprocal social security treaty such as the EU and USA. UK State Pensions do not increase in many high profile ‘expat’ countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. In fact, Australia tore up the social security treaty in 2015 because the UK refuses to increase UK state pensions for Australian residents.
This is a matter for social security treaties in that the UK requires reciprocity across all social security benefits including state pensions and if countries will not offer British Expats reciprocal benefits in that country then it is the policy of the British Government not to increase state pensions if you continue to live in that country. If you return to the UK, your state pension will be increased or returned up to current levels.
In addition, many people may not be aware but new rules affect whether a expats will be eligible for state pension payments post-retirement and will come into effect on January 1, 2022. As part of the changes, UK citizens living in Australia, Canada or New Zealand prior to March 1, 2001 will no longer be able to count any time they have spent abroad as a qualification period towards the UK state pension.
Comment
The always appears to be set against the British Government but we ask all to look at what their country of residence is actually doing when it reciprocates or not on all benefits available to their nationals and resident nationals when compared to British Nationals in that country and what their resident country does when their Nationals are in the UK. Not just on state pensions but all other UK benefits e.g. housing, health care etc.
Even going back to 2010, the European Courts rejected a case that the UK government's refusal to increase expat pensions was a breach of human rights.