Then you already know what the problem is. If you live in Canada, your UK State pension is frozen from the day you first collect it here. You will never receive another increase as long as you stay in Canada. Are you OK with that?
You know that this is blatantly unfair, illogical and discriminatory. You probably also know that if you lived in the United States of America, you would get the annual increase to your UK state pension.
How can it be fair that two people who have paid their National Insurance contributions all of their working lives in the UK, yet receive a different UK state pension?
You could just say nothing, do nothing. You could just say it is just too much and you can’t change it.
We, at the CABP believe we can change it.
Our mission is to help people discover and apply for the UK State pension they are entitled to.
Our mission is to campaign against the UK Government until they bring this discriminatory practice of freezing pensions based solely on country of residence.
The UK is the only country in the OECD (out of 37) that discriminates based on country of residence.
We have helped many people understand their UK state pension rights and obtain a UK Pension that they did not even know they were entitled to.
Our membership fee is only $25 a year. You can see how your hard earned dollars would be spent. We can help you understand and apply for a UK pension that could be worth up to $15,000 annually.
See how the CABP helped Alistair and Gail increase their UK state pension income…..
Watch this video showing our then 93 year-old poster girl Anne Puckridge in action. She handed over a petition with over 267,000 signatures on it and taken on the UK government right in their own back yard.
Find out how the CABP helped Fiona and her siblings become aware of their UK state pension rights and what our Members think….
Twenty years ago Fiona had the very good fortune of stumbling across the CABP. She seems to remember an information booth in a shopping mall with a banner saying something like, ‘Have you ever worked in the UK and do you want to be given money by the UK Government?’
Well, perhaps the banner did not say exactly that, but that’s the message she took home with her that day.
Fiona is a 65-year-old Scot living in Victoria, BC. She left the UK in 1978 and hopes to continue living in Canada for the rest of her life. Bumping into the CABP has helped her make that possible.
Very quickly, she received valuable advice from the CABP, and she re- engaged with her retirement plan. She recognised that there were gaps in her National Insurance record and she decided to close those gaps by making back payments for as many years as she could. The net result is that she will now be eligible for a full UK state pension when turns reaches her 66th birthday.
For Fiona, this was a huge bonus – she has been self-employed here in Canada and the only other retirement pension that she will receive will be a reduced CPP (this works in a similar way to the UK state pension except that you need 40 years CPP contributions to receive the full CPP amount) as well as OAS. Fiona views the UK state pension as a fantastic assistance to her when she gets older.
That day in 2002 when Fiona bumped into the CABP was a very lucky day indeed, all the more so because not one person before or in the years since has ever mentioned that a UK expat could still receive a UK state pension even though they were no longer living in the UK. The chances are that, without the CABP, she would never have known, and she would have lost out on her pension rights forever and here retirement years would have been sorely affected.
In addition, this was also very fortunate not only for Fiona, but her three siblings who have also emigrated from the UK and are living in other parts of the world – one in Australia and two in the United States of America – they too will qualify to receive the UK state pension when they reach retirement. For the two living in the US, it was especially a lucky day because, unlike Fiona, they will also receive the annual ‘cost of living’ increase to their UK state pension. All expat UK citizens living in Canada may be entitled to the UK state pension but this pension is frozen at the level first received.
Her turn to give back
Fiona is very thankful to the CABP organizers and volunteers for their remarkable dedication. She was so impressed with the organisation, that she has now committed some of her valuable spare time by joining their Board of Directors and to help them in their campaign against the British Government for ‘state pension parity for all‘ – this is her way of giving back to an organisation that has helped her so much. Her role on the Board is to increase membership – the majority of membership fees raised go toward funding the CABP’s UK political action through their sister organisation, the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP). It is only by raising the awareness of the frozen UK state pension issue to other UK expats living here in Canada that they too may be entitled to a UK state pension and that this pension is frozen at the level first received.
Another way that Fiona is helping to raise this issue is by acquiring a bumper sticker that she has put on her car promoting the CABP – these bumper stickers are free, so, if you would like bumper stickers for you and your friends please contact us. In addition, she tells every British expat that she runs across about their potential eligibility for a UK state pension – and for those that are still approaching retirement she tells them that the CABP can often help them increase the amount they receive in retirement. From Fiona’s experience people are interested and indeed are frequently very grateful to have possibly life-changing information fall into their lap. They will then go on to tell all of their UK expat friends about the CABP, and that is how membership is increased.
Her message to fellow CABP members is this: Take whatever action you can, small or large to help the CABP achieve its mission of pension parity for all especially when they ask for specific assistance such as letter writing to Members of Parliament here in Canada as well as the UK.
But that’s not enough…..now we need your help. Other organisations have succeeded in ending bad UK government policy. We will be fighting on your behalf to get the UK state pension fully indexed to the same level as your peers in the UK.
The PR firm that the CABP uses, along with Joanna Lumley’s help succeeded by waging a campaign to shame the Government into recognising the Gurkhas claim in 2009. There is strength in numbers.
With your help, it is possible to convince the UK Government to change their unjust frozen pensions policy, if we can bring enough pressure to bear.
CABP is one of the founding members of the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP). They are waging an unrelenting campaign in the UK to correct this injustice.
We are not alone in this. Members of Parliament from all political stripes in the UK are supporting our campaign and are working on a political solution through the All Party Parliamentary Group for Frozen Pensions (APPG).
“It is cruel and unjust to deny to half a million UK pensioners overseas the full UK state pension that they paid into during their working lives. Canada has offered a potential route to ending this injustice. The UK should welcome this opportunity to right a historic wrong and ensure every pensioner receives the full state pension they are morally entitled to regardless of where they live”
– Sir Roger Gale, Chair of the APPG