HOW TO PLUG A $0.5 BILLION HOLE IN OUR ECONOMY
- Today, there are over 126,000 UK seniors living in Canada who receive a pension from the UK Government.
- This pension, which is equivalent to CPP, is not indexed.
- Canadian seniors receive their CPP pension annual increase regardless of where they choose to live.
- The UK government only increases the pension for seniors living in the UK, the EU and a number of disparate countries.
- UK seniors who chose to retire to Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa never have their pension increased.
- For UK seniors living in Canada, this amounts to $0.5 billion a year.
- Historically, seniors are spenders and not savers, so this money would flow into the Canadian economy.
- In addition, spending this money would attract GST and, in some provinces PST.
- In addition, there would be Canadian government savings since, in some cases it would take UK seniors out of the poverty trap and they would no longer be eligible for GIS.
- Earlier this year, Canadian politicians unanimously supported the indexing of these pensions.
- The Canadian government has consistently petitioned their counterparts in the UK, the last time being in December 2020.
- By refusing to have talks, the UK government has slammed the door in the face of the Canadian government.
- The UK will be looking for enhancing their trading arrangements within the next 18 months through the Trade Continuity Agreement (TCA)
- As a last resort, Canada should make it a condition that they will only consider new and extended trading arrangements with the UK, once the UK has agreed to index the pension for all UK seniors regardless of where they chose to retire.
- The UK is the only OECD country (out of 35) that discriminates against their seniors based on country of residence.
- Why should the Canadian taxpayer continue to subsidise the UK?
- Over 22,000 of UK seniors living in Canada receive less than $30 per week.
- What is now needed is a direct intervention by Prime Minister Trudeau when he next talks to the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson making it clear that no new trading arrangements with Canada can be negotiated whilst UK seniors living in Canada are living in poverty because their UK pension is not indexed.
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