Royal Canadian Legion,

21 Charles St., L9T 2G5.

Public parking available.

Sir,

Does this Government have no moral values left? The announcement that they will be willing to pay council tenants £20,000 to emigrate on their retirement to be with their children or friends beggars belief. One can only suppose that the majority of these individuals are likely to want to emigrate to countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, the Caribbean. Nowhere does the Government point out that under current legislation UK pensioners emigrating to these countries plus many others, will have their Basic State Pension frozen at the level that they start drawing it in their new country of residence. Many of your readers may query how the Government can afford this ” bribe ” at a time when the UK economy is in such a parlous state. Make no mistake the Government wins; each and every emigrating pensioner saves the UK taxpayer up to £7000 per annum since they do not use the NHS, do not draw benefits and do not incur social costs. It does not take long for the Government to start achieving a healthy return on the GBP £20,000 invested! Put the other way round, if all the 565000 currently “frozen ” pensioners around the world were to return to the UK it would cost the UK economy, or rather the taxpayer, an estimated GBP 5.6 Billion per annum!! Cheaper all round to provide pension parity for all.

When is the Government going to do the honourable and just thing and put an end to the practice of freezing pensions. The vast majority of MPs consider the practice immoral, unfair and unjust. The present Prime Minister and his Lib Dem partner in crime supported the demand for Pension Parity when in Opposition as did the current Minister sitting in DWP. The fact that they have done nothing demonstrates their moral dishonesty as does the £20,000 “bribe”.

John Markham

Director UK Parliamentary Affairs

International Consortium of British Pensioners

Information session for Quebec Members

Saturday, May 4th

Dorval Strathmore United Church, 310, Brookhaven, Dorval, Quebec, starting at 10:00 am.

The Rt. Hon. David Cameron MP,

10 Downing Street

London, SW1A 2AA

22^nd March 2013

Dear Prime Minister,

As chair of the International Consortium of British Pensioners, I represent almost 600,000 very, very angry British Pensioners living overseas.

As I’m sure you are aware, 10% of the 12 million plus British Pensioners live overseas; half of them have their pensions uprated every year as if they still live in the UK; the other half, who live mainly in the Commonwealth, do not.  Over the years, Pensions Ministers of all stripes have admitted that this is illogical.

What is even more illogical is that in opposition politicians of all stripes say this policy must be changed, yet this inequitable, immoral and unfair situation still continues when those very same people are in Government!

I would draw your attention to two important statements that were made on Monday 11^th March, one by the H.M. the Queen (as head of the Commonwealth), the other by Professor Steve Webb as Pensions Minister.  Both statements were very relevant to the situation of retired British citizens resident in “frozen” countries around the globe.

On Monday morning, the Minister, a witness before Dame Anne Begg as chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, stated categorically that the Government has no plans to rescind this policy of pension freezing in (mainly) Commonwealth countries.  The main reason given was that of cost, which would be approximately £650 million (0.7% of the N.I. budget of £90 billion) in the current year, when the Government is seeking to cut £12 billion from benefit expenditure.

To argue, as the Pensions Minister did, against a 0.7% increase in the National Insurance budget because the Government is attempting to save 6% of state funded benefits is disingenuous at best:  the pensioners concerned, in addition to saving the Government all pension increases, already save them 100% of all social and health benefits by virtue of their residence abroad.

There is nothing about this ongoing frozen pension policy that is just, as you yourself stated when you were leader of HM Opposition. It is an expedient and callous way of saving money by discriminating against the 4% of UK pensioners whose pensions are frozen. A frozen pension is just another name for age discrimination, as the older you get, the smaller your pension becomes – “death by a thousand cuts” to quote Lord Goodhart – to the extent that a 95 year-old pensioner in a “frozen” country receives less than one-third of the pension of a 65 year-old in exactly the same circumstances.

On Monday evening the Queen signed the Commonwealth Charter on equal rights calling for an end to discrimination for any reason. She said “Our shared values of peace, democracy, development, justice and human rights…mean that we can place special emphasis on including everyone in this goal, especially those who are vulnerable”.

We call upon the British Government to heed this Charter and be bound by the values it espouses.

The Commonwealth Charter, the 2010 Equality Bill, and the Convention on Human Rights all condemn age discrimination. And, significantly, the UK Supreme Court reiterated only a month ago:   “A discriminatory rule or practice can only be justified by reference to a legitimate aim other than the simple saving of cost.”

Apart from cost, the only other reasons the Minister gave for freezing pensions were that the “rules have never changed” under the current or previous Governments, and that pensioners were aware of the frozen pensions policy when they decided to emigrate. In our view, advising a person that they will be discriminated against will not stand as a defense for putting the discrimination into practice.

An estimated 5.5 million people of British heritage live overseas, and 1.1 million of these are UK pensioners.  These people, for the most part, are proud of their British heritage and retain strong links with their mother country. Many of them, and indeed individuals currently resident in the UK, will be adversely affected by this discrimination as they reach pensionable age. They should be regarded as an asset in spreading their British values around the globe, especially to Commonwealth countries.  It becomes difficult to promote these values when the UK, one of the richest countries on the planet, seeks to balance its budget on the backs of some of its oldest citizens by this ‘long-standing policy’ of freezing pensions.

Just because the frozen pensions policy is ‘long-standing’ doesn’t mean it is right, nor does it mean it is immutable.  In fact ‘long standing’ in the context of frozen pensions means it is overdue for a change.  UK state pensions are being drastically overhauled to make them fit for the 21^st century, and it is appropriate to do the same for the policy that freezes the pensions of just half of UK pensioners overseas. Pretending that the discrimination doesn’t exist will not make it disappear.

Yours sincerely

ABW (Tony) Bockman

Chairman

International Consortium of British Pensioners

 MEETING POSTER

Oshawa

Sunday, May 5th at 2pm

Royal Canadian Legion

471 Simcoe St. S.

(North of Highway 401)

For more information call:

National office: 416 253 6402

B.C. Annual General Meeting

SURREY PUBLIC LIBRARY 10350 University Drive, Surrey BC. V3T 4B8     (City Centre Library, 3rd floor)

Next door to Surrey Skytrain station and 3 hour free parking opposite.     Buses pass by.

Sunday, 16^th June 2013  2:00 pm

Monterey Centre

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Oak Bay

BC

V8S 4W1

Info:- 250-995-9356 or 800-760-6633

These years of National Insurance contributions are referred to as “qualifying years”. As the legislation stands today, if you have not yet reached pensionable age, then you only need 1 qualifying year to be eligible for a partial state pension. You also only need 30 qualifying years to receive the maximum pension. A partial pension is simply prorated based on the number of qualifying years you have. For example, if you have 10 qualifying years, then you would be eligible for a pension equal to 1/3 of the full pension amount. For 2012, the full UK state pension is £5,078 per annum.

These qualifying years provide what is known as a Category A Pension. In addition, the spouse or civil partner of someone receiving a Category A pension may be entitled to receive a Category B pension, even if they have never worked in the UK, lived in the UK, or even visited the UK themselves. The Category B pension is based on a percentage of the Category A pension being received by the main pensioner, (approximately 60%).

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For most Canadians the UK pension will not affect the amount of CPP and OAS received. However it will affect the amount of any GIS you receive, and if you have net taxable income over $71,000 there could be some clawback from your OAS.

Become a CABP member, support our fight and we will show you how!