Frozen state pension

Frozen state pensions is the practice of the British government of "freezing" UK State Pensions, (that is, not uprating the amount in line with "Triple Lock"[1] on an annual basis, as is done for residents in the UK), for pensioners who live in the majority of other countries, apart from the European Community countries and other countries with reciprocal agreements with the UK.

Description

All British state pensioners receive their pension based on the level of their compulsory and voluntary contributions to the National Insurance Fund. Pensioners resident in Britain, receive an annual uprating known as the "triple lock" - the higher of the increase in CPI (price inflation), average earnings growth, or 2.5%.[2] However, if the pensioner moves abroad, the annual uprating depends on where they live, with residents of most countries receiving no annual uprating.[3]

The only other countries in which the UK state pension rises in the same way as UK state pensioners are: European Union countries, Switzerland, Barbados; Bermuda; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Guernsey; Isle of Man; Israel; Jamaica; Jersey; Mauritius; Montenegro; North Macedonia; the Philippines; Serbia; Turkey; and the United States of America.[4]

Most British Commonwealth countries are included in the frozen list.[5]

Challenges
Main article: R (Carson) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

In April 2002, Annette Carson, a UK pensioner resident in South Africa, challenged the policy in the High Court under the Human Rights Act 1998 in April 2002 in the High Court, but the judge ruled against her, stating in the judgement that the upratings issue was a political one, not a judicial one. An appeal to the Court of Appeal (2003) failed, as did an appeal to the House of Lords (2005) and the European Court of Human Rights (2008). A subsequent referral to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in 2009–2010 said that it did not consider that the applicants resident outside the UK in countries not party to reciprocal agreements, were in a relevantly similar position to residents of the UK or of countries which did have such agreements. It therefore held (by eleven votes to six) that there had been no discrimination.[4]

During and since that time, various groups and individuals have been lobbying politicians both in the UK and in the countries in which the pensioners are resident, and petitions have been raised.[6]

There is an international consortium of lobby groups, funded by the member organisations, British Pensions in Australia (BPIA) and the Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners (CABP). Funds are raised by the memberships and donations of individual members. BPIA and CABP jointly own the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP), and they liaise with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Frozen Pensions (APPG) in the UK Parliament. Anne Puckridge, a 94-year-old political activist who lives in Canada is the current ambassador of the ICBP and she has been campaigning since 2001 for pension parity.

References
  1. Thurley, Djuna; Keen, Richard (29 June 2017). "State Pension Triple Lock" (PDF). House of Commons Library.
  2. Sewraz, Reena (17 October 2018). "State pension to rise by up to £221 a year in 2019". Which?. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  3. The Pension Service (July 2002), CF-N-701 7/02, Department for Work and Pensions
  4. "Frozen overseas pensions". UK Parliament. UK Parliament Briefing Paper. House of Commons Library. 11 April 2019.CS1 maint: others (link) − links to PDF of Briefing Paper Number CBP-01457, Frozen overseas pensions by Djuna Thurley and Rod McInnes
  5. Leaflet NP46, DWP "DWP Internal Standards and Guidance FOI". Archived from the original on 23 June 2007. Retrieved 17 September 2007. Note: no longer available - see "[2015 response to someone enquiring after NNP46" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2019. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. Jones, Rupert (13 October 2018). "Frozen state pensions: thousands sign protest petition". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2019.

Further reading
  • "Frozen overseas pensions". UK Parliament. UK Parliament Briefing Paper. House of Commons Library. 11 April 2019.CS1 maint: others (link) − links to PDF of Briefing Paper Number CBP-01457, Frozen overseas pensions by Djuna Thurley and Rod McInnes
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.