In 2019, the UK government produced their own estimates of how much it would cost to uprate all of our Frozen Pensions. Given this, and the declining number of Frozen Pensioners, this works out to be £1,240 per frozen pensioner, per annum. This represents around 0.6% of the pensions budget. This chart shows the receipts and payments for the National Insurance Fund (NIF) over the years 2013/14 – 2024/25, with the latter years being forecasts provided by the Government Actuary Department (GAD).
The UK Government has to maintain a balance in the NIF that is equal to 16.67% of annual expenditure from the Fund. If the balance falls below this number then the Government provides a Grant to top it up. Any further excess sitting in the NIF represents monies that could be distributed, say, to Frozen Pensioners. This chart shows that the UK government could have been paying Frozen Pensioners since 2016.
