EDM 283: Frozen pensions for UK citizens overseas

That this House notes the so-called frozen pensions policy; further notes this sees British overseas state pensioners living in certain countries denied access to index-linked uprating of the UK state pension; believes the level of the UK state pension paid should not be dependent on the pensioner’s country of residence in later life; acknowledges the scale of the injustice which sees 453,000 British state pensioners impacted by the policy, many of whom reside in Commonwealth countries such as Canada and Australia; notes that the cost of indexing all overseas state pensions without a retrospective uprating is estimated at approximately £50 million in the first year; calls on the Government to index all overseas state pensions equally on a going-forward basis; and further calls on the Prime Minister to meet with affected pensioner and World War Two veteran Anne Puckridge, who is planning to travel from Canada to the UK this December, requesting a meeting on behalf of all those impacted by the policy.