A 100-year-old World War II veteran, Anne Puckridge, living in Canada, is campaigning against the UK government’s policy of freezing the state pensions of British citizens living overseas. This policy affects over 453,000 pensioners, denying them annual increases applied to those in the UK.
Despite a meeting with the Pensions Minister, Ms Puckridge remains disheartened, believing the government is unwilling to change its stance. The government defends the policy citing cost and potential legal challenges, while campaigners argue for fairness and point to similar agreements with other countries. International diplomatic pressure from countries like Canada and Australia further highlights the policy’s controversial nature.
What countries have pension uprating agreements with the UK?
The UK has pension uprating agreements with EU countries and the United States, among others. These agreements ensure that British pensioners living in these countries continue to receive annual increases to their state pensions, in line with the amount received by UK residents.
However, several countries, including Thailand, Australia, Canada, and Vietnam, do not have such agreements with the UK. As a result, British pensioners living in these countries have their pensions frozen at the level they were receiving when they left the UK. This means they do not benefit from the annual increases provided by the triple lock system, which ensures that UK state pensions rise each year by the highest of 2.5%, inflation, or earnings growth.