How the UK is short‑changing its own pensioners abroad
If you’re reading this, you dont need to imagine working your whole life in the UK, paying your obligatory National Insurance and retiring with the promise of a state pension that’s meant to support you in retirement.
Now consider that pension shrinking year by year because you chose to live somewhere sunny, peaceful, or affordable.
A state pension that doesn’t increase annually, as it does in the UK, EU, and USA, means you’ve lost what you were promised, even when obligated to pay National Insurance all your working life.
That’s exactly what’s happening to around 450,000 British retirees living overseas, most of them in Commonwealth countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
Choosing to retire in a country that doesn’t benefit whatever UK political party holds power.
These “frozen pensioners” receive no annual increases to their UK state pension.
Unlike pensioners in Britain, the EU, the Philippines or the US, where annual rises are guaranteed by “reciprocal agreements”. However those living in Thailand and most other popular expat destinations are stuck with the same amount they were first paid, even up to 20 years later.
The Cost of Loyalty
Let’s put a figure on it.
- If you retired abroad in 2010, you’ve likely lost £25,832 over the past 15 years compared to someone who stayed in the UK.
- If you left in 2015, you’re down £13,162.
- If you’re thinking of retiring abroad today, you could miss out on nearly £70,000 over the next 20 years.
Seventy thousand pounds worse off than the same retiree in Spain.
This impact is serious and isn’t just abstract math but food, medicine and security.
This is because our government refuses to update its outdated policy for most countries, while continuing to do exactly that for pensioners in the United States, Germany, and the Philippines.
It seems clear that our UK State Pensions are being used as leverage in geopolitics by the UK Government – with both sides making no visible effort to help British pensioners abroad.
No Excuse Left
Governments of all stripes – Labour and Tory – have dodged responsibility for years. They say uprating overseas pensions is too expensive. But cost is never the real issue, is it? They have money to spend on private jets and luxury apartments, but none for their own citizens.
When 99‑year‑old war veteran Anne Puckridge flew 4,400 miles from Canada to ask Keir Starmer to meet meet with her to discuss her frozen pension? The answer was no.
She’s been ignored as of publishing, even after a petition with 60,000 signatures – https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/prime-minister-keir-starmer-veteran-pmqs-joanna-lumley-b1198406.html
Anne was an officer in the British Army, decoding messages in the Women’s Royal Indian Naval Service during the war, dedicating her life to the UK until the age of 76.
She estimates she’s lost over £60,000 since moving abroad. Her reward for serving her country? Disrespect and neglect.
A DWP spokesperson replied with a shrug: “People move abroad for many reasons and we provide clear information on the consequences of doing so…”
Telling people they’ll be ripped off doesn’t make it right.
Standing Up for Ourselves
You are not alone. You’ve earned your pension. People who built Britain and are now left behind by it.
You’re not asking for special treatment. We’re asking to be treated like every other British citizen who paid in.
I believe that Britain’s strength lies not in borders, but in the values we grew up with: fairness, duty, and, apparently, looking after our ‘big society‘.
If you’d like to learn more about how to fight back, protect your pension rights, or join us in building something better, reach out.
We’re not staying silent or waiting for permission anymore either.
You’ve done your job. Now it’s time they did theirs. #EndFrozenPensions