British expats stitched up by rising costs as UK refuses to top-up pensions ‘It’s immoral’

The End Frozen Pensions campaign warns that pensioners who have retired to a host of Commonwealth are being “hammered” by soaring inflation.

Britons who move abroad – often to be near family – are not given the annual increases to their pension they would receive if they had stayed in the UK unless they have moved to a country that has a reciprocal social security agreement.

Reg Hunn, an 89-year-old former chartered engineer who served as an air wireless mechanic with the RAF, now lives in South Africa and still receives the same £70 a week pension he was given when he first retired in 1993.

He is angry that his pension is “frozen” despite having made contributions throughout his working life.

He said: “To me, the principle of taking money, for the expressed purpose of providing a pension later, from people weekly for anything up to 45 years then reneging and penalising them by freezing their pension for all time is immoral and unethical.”

The campaign argues that people who have retired to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa are under particularly intense pressure because inflation last year increased in these countries at an even faster rate than in the UK.

It reports that food inflation rose by 6.1 percent in South Africa with the cost of fuel shooting up by 18.2 percent, and states that half of all affected pensioners receive just £65 a week or less.

A spokeswoman said: “These figures reinforce that the continuing refusal to pay pensioners the pensions they paid for and deserve is pushing many into a retirement of poverty rather than comfort. The cost-of-living crisis should serve as a wake up call that the frozen pensions policy is morally indefensible and the Government must act to end this callous, cruel and damaging policy.

“With the sky-high cost of living set to continue, keeping pensioners on pensions set over twenty years ago is simply indefensible and reinforces that not all UK pensioners are viewed or treated equally.”

A spokeswoman for the department for work and pensions said: “We understand that people move abroad for many reasons and that this can impact on their finances. There is information on GOV.UK about what the effect of going abroad will be on entitlement to the UK State Pension.

“The Government’s policy on the up-rating of the UK State Pension for recipients living overseas is a longstanding one of more than 70 years and we continue to up-rate state pensions overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so.”