To be closer to her son, 79 year old Rita Young decided to relocate from Peterborough to Australia. But she soon discovered that upon leaving the UK her state pension had been frozen, and would remain so throughout her time there. Unable to finance the move and with no one left to call upon, she explains the harsh injustice of this government policy.
Rita Young
My battle with a frozen pension
Posted on: Thu 12-Feb-15 17:32:53
(153 comments )
When my son Colin moved to Australia in 1981 to start a family of his own, I missed him dearly. The thought of not seeing him and my future grandchildren (my granddaughter married in December) grow up deeply troubled me – a feeling I’m sure many of you can relate to.
So, after retiring in 2002 my late husband and I made plans to relocate to Australia to be closer to our family. But when we looked into what this would mean financially, we were completely shocked to find that if we moved our state pensions would be frozen at the rate as when we left – and for the rest of our time there. We knew that year on year we would become progressively worse off and wouldn’t be able to afford to live without being a burden to our son and daughter-in-law – something we weren’t prepared to do, so we decided to stay in the UK.
I now find myself alone, with no family around me after my husband died in 2004, having to make do with a weekly Skype call to Australia. Whilst I’m still perfectly capable and independent now, I worry about the future and what will happen to me when my health deteriorates and I’m left with nobody close by to call upon.
Like all of us affected, I believed while I was working and paying national insurance contributions until the age of 67 that I was safeguarding my future financial security wherever I chose to live.
In some ways I consider myself lucky that I found out about frozen pensions when I did. Given the fact that the policy isn’t widely publicised, thousands of British pensioners move overseas only to find their pensions frozen. As a result, some 560,000 British pensioners living in more than 120 countries worldwide (ironically largely Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand) are affected, whilst those living in places such as Europe and the US receive annual increases to their state payments as if they lived in the UK. The policy really is illogical as it sounds; a result of half-finished bilateral agreements with overseas governments.
But it’s the complete injustice of the whole situation that still gets to me. Had my son moved to a different country, I would be able to live near him but because he chose Australia, I can’t. Like all of us affected, I believed while I was working and paying national insurance contributions until the age of 67 that I was safeguarding my future financial security wherever I chose to live. Now I sacrifice a social life so that I can save money for trips to Australia once every few years.
Through this archaic frozen pension policy, the government continues to force people like me to make a choice between being close to family and making ends meet. If you are considering moving to be closer to your loved ones that have moved away or perhaps just want to retire abroad, you need to be aware of what this might mean for your pension and for your future well-being.
All we ask the government is to be treated as equals.
The International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP) are campaigning for the half a million British pensioners affected by this cruel government policy. For more information including a full list of affected countries visit the website.
