450,000 state pensioners will 'miss out' on £460 Triple Lock increase
A state pension warning has been issued to 450,000 people who could miss out on an extra £460 Triple Lock hike next April. Some 453,000 expats are in receipt of a frozen UK state pension, the latest data has revealed this week.
A recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that at the end of May 2023, some 453,000 expats are in receipt of a frozen state pension. This means they will miss out on the entire triple lock boost which is projected to be £460.
The hike does not apply to pensioners living overseas unless they are living in a country which has a reciprocal agreement with the UK. This means pensioners living in countries including Canada, Australia and Thailand are affected.
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Labour MP Kevin Bonavia has urged the UK Government to “widen Bilateral Social Security Agreements including index-linked State Pensions for UK nationals abroad with Commonwealth countries”. In a written response to Bonavia, Emma Reynolds, the pensions minister said: “The policy on the uprating of UK State Pensions paid overseas is a longstanding one.
“UK State Pensions are payable worldwide, without regard to nationality, and are only uprated abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so - for example in countries with which we have a reciprocal agreement that provides for uprating.
“There are no plans to widen Bilateral Social Security Agreements to include the uprating of State Pensions paid to recipients abroad.” The End Frozen Pensions campaign - which aims to 'end the injustice' - explained: “They moved, often to be near family, to live in one of the countries without a reciprocal agreement to inflation link their State Pension, so their pension is ‘frozen’ at the level it was at when they left the UK.
“Those in countries with reciprocal agreements are unaffected so if you were a pensioner in the USA you would continue to get an uprating, but if you lived just across the border in Canada you would not. We believe this is deeply unfair and arbitrary and penalises hard working Britons.”