Pension Problem Affects 500,000 Expats

More than half a million British people who live abroad have had their state pension frozen. That means that the amount of cash they receive stays the same as it was on the day they left the country. And they are being hit by a “double whammy” of rising inflation and the falling value of the pound against other currencies (currently Sterling is worth about 15% less than it was a year ago).

Lovemoney reports

“If you emigrate to the EU, US or several other countries including Samoa, Macedonia and Puerto Rico, your State Pension payment increases each year in line with inflation… However, if you move to a country that doesn’t have a reciprocal pension agreement with the UK – such as Canada, Australia, South Africa and Japan – your pension amount is frozen when you leave the UK. This can mean, as you enjoy years of retirement abroad, the purchasing power of your pension falls. There are currently 560,000 expat pensioners living on frozen State Pensions… Sir Roger Gale MP is now campaigning for an end to freezing the pensions of expats… “The post-Brexit fall in sterling is extremely worrying for any pensioner living abroad. Overnight their income has crashed,” he says in The Guardian. “We’re talking about a lot of very elderly, very frail people.”


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