Archive – 2017


8-Dec-17: The Foreign Subject: No Reprieve for 500,000 Expats with ‘Frozen’ Pensions

8-Dec-17: Expatriate Healthcare: No Reprieve for 500,000 Expats with ‘Frozen’ Pensions

7-Dec-17: Gold Seek: UK Pension Risk-Time to Rebalance and Allocate to Cash and Gold

5-Dec-17: The Telegraph: UK state pensions ranked the worst in the developed world

5-Dec-17: The Guardian: OECD – UK has lowest state pension of any developed country

1-Dec-17: Brief Report: Ex-pats living outside Europe hit with with FROZEN state pensions

30-Nov-17: Daily Express: State pension SHOCK: Fury as ex-pats living outside Europe have money pots FROZEN

29-Nov-17: The Telegraph: Slump in pound sparks renewed protests by 500,000 expats with ‘frozen’ state pensions

20-Nov-17: APPG: Minutes from 1st November 2017 meeting

9-Nov-17: Emigrate.co.uk: Frozen pensions protest group appeals to UK lawmakers yet again 

9-Nov-17: St. Kitts & Nevis Observer: SKN Hard Hit by UK Pension Freeze

7-Nov-17: The (London) Times: Pension apartheid is keeping expats trapped in the past

6-Nov-17: Emigrate.co.uk: Essential considerations before retiring overseas

5-Nov-17: Sunday Times: Britons fear hard Brexit will doom Dordogneshire idyll

4-Nov-17: The National (Scotland): Mhairi Black: It is time for ‘Global Britain’ to offer ALL its pensioners a fairer deal

31-Oct-17: Daily Telegraph: New state pension rules mean workers pay through their 40s and 50s ‘for nothing’  

23-Oct-17: Daily Mail: How UK pays millions to ‘British’ pensioners in YEMEN who might not even exist

12-Oct-17: Emigrate.co.uk: Brit expats in Europe freed from threat of post Brexit frozen pensions

11-Oct-17: Iexpats.com: Brexit Talks Green Light Expat State Pension Cost Of Living Rises

11-Oct-17: Letter in International Express: Brexit and UK Pensions

28-Sep-17: The Local (France): Anxious Brits in France blast UK ambassador over Brexit ‘progress’ claims

23-Sep-17: Money Week: A lifestyle problem for retirement savers

19-Sep-17: Love Money: State Pension: expats living in the EU will still get annual increases after Brexit

13-Sep-17: International Investment – Expats pensioners living in EU set to avoid the ‘frozen’ zone

13-Sep-17: Telegraph Money – Britain and EU reach agreement over expats’ state pension after Brexit

6-Sep-17: FT Adviser – Expat pensioners aren’t rushing back to UK

6-Sep-17: This is Money – Relief for older British expats in the EU! Early Brexit deal looks set to avert threat of frozen state pensions and losing healthcare rights

5-Sep-17: Office for National Statistics: Pensioners in the EU and UK

31-Aug-17: The Senior (Australia): Pension win a feather in group’s cap, but more to do

28-Aug-17: Mail Online: Who has the biggest pension in the civil service? The head of the pensions department! Bureaucrat to retire with pot worth £1.8 million

24-Aug-17: National Seniors (Australia): AU$100,000 pension windfall for former UK resident

23-Aug-17: Labour Policy Forum: Labour launches national State Pension tour

23-Aug-17: Iexpats.com: What Does The Future Hold For British Expats In Europe?

18-Aug-17: House of Commons Library: Brexit and state pensions 

15-Aug-17: Olive Press: Pre-Brexit surge in interest from British pensioners wanting to move to Spain

13-Aug-17: The Guardian: Brexit: UK retirees rushing to settle in Europe, say financial advisers

9-Aug-17: FT Adviser: Financial traps lurk for the unwary who retire abroad

8-Aug-17: The Guardian: Pensioners living in golden era as income rise outstrips workers’

1-Aug-17: iExpats: Votes For Expats Bill Sails Through First Reading

26-Jul-17: AOL: Hotspots for retiring overseas

25-Jul-17: International Investment: Frozen expat pension issue raised in Isle of Man

20-Jul-17: APPG: Labour Table EDM159 as a Motion to Revoke the Up-rating Regulations

19-Jul-17: APPG: APPG officially re-forms after General Election and hears from Australia based Frozen Pension campaigner

15-Jul-17: Money International: What To Do About a Pension If You’re Moving Overseas

11-Jul-17: The Conversation: What’s now at stake for UK citizens living in the rest of the EU

2-Jul-17: The Guardian: May’s Brexit plan could hit rights of Britons abroad, campaigners tell EU

1-Jul-17: Money International: May Promises To Keep Triple Lock For EU Expats

27-Jun-17: International Investment: UK to its expats in EU – We’ll uprate state pension

“Pension up-rating

44) UK law already provides that UK state pensions are payable to anyone eligible, wherever they reside in the world. But annual increases to the UK state pension (known as ‘uprating’) to anyone living in the EU are payable because of EU law. The UK intends to continue to export and uprate the UK State Pension within the EU, subject to reciprocity.”

– GOV UK: Policy paper: The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union: safeguarding the position of EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU – Published 26 June 2017

27-Jun-17: The Guardian: British citizens living in EU fear they will become May’s ‘sacrificial lambs’

26-Jun-17: The Local (France): UK makes pension and health pledges for British expats post Brexit

23-Jun-17: This is Money: Should the Triple Lock be saved?

23-Jun-17: The Guardian: EU expats condemn Theresa May’s ‘pathetic’ offer on Brexit rights

31-May-17: The BBC: Brexit expat pensioners ‘may cost NHS millions’

01-May-17: The Pennant: A Random and Arbitrary Injustice

“This arrangement of ‘frozen’ pensions causes significant hardship, loss of independence, and distress”

24-Apr-17: Eastern Eye: The government’s frozen pension scheme is “discriminatory” says MP

“The frozen pension policy has a particularly significant impact on the life choices of those in British black, Asian and minority ethnic communities”

– Margaret Ferrier (SNP) –  Frozen Pensions Debate on 20th April

22-Apr-17: Mail Online: This is Money: MPs press for end to frozen state pension injustice

It is a matter of moral responsibility and duty that has been shirked by successive Governments of differing political persuasions disgracefully”

– Sir Roger Gale (Con), Chairman, All Party Parliamentary Group on Frozen British Pensions (APPG)

21-Apr-17: Mail Online – This Is Money: MPs rail against frozen state pension ‘injustice’ in Commons, and Labour pledges to support 550,000 elderly expats in pending manifesto

21-Apr-17: EuroWeekly News: British Ambassador talks Brexit in Spain

21-Apr-17: Euroweekly News: Delegation of expatriates meets at British Embassy in Madrid 

21-Apr-17: The Connexion: MPs say Government should abolish frozen pensions

20-Apr-17: Parliament Hansard:  State Pensions: UK Expatriates

“We are denying pensioners income that rightfully ought to be theirs. Many will have to receive support from relatives, or perhaps they will have to return to the UK”

– Ian Blackford (SNP) – Vice Chair, APPG 

“We need to do this properly and ensure that people living all around the world all get the proper state pension; that is the only real form of justice on this”

– Greg Mulholland (LD) – Member of the APPG

20-Apr-17: Parliament TV: Debate on a Motion relating to State Pensions payable to recipients outside the UK

“Without uprating, recipients reliant on their state pension income could find themselves increasingly impoverished, leaving them unable to afford a basic standard of living and increasingly dependent on relatives”

– Alex Cunningham (Lab) – Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions) (Pensions)

20-Apr-17: The Connexion: MPs to debate end to freezing of state pensions of British pensions abroad

19-Apr-17: Daily Express: ‘Where are my contributions?!’ Pensioner TAKES DOWN Government over £42,000 shortfall

17-Apr-17: BT Money – Retiring Abroad – Expats suffering with frozen State Pensions and weak pound after Brexit

“If you emigrate to the EU, US or several other countries including Samoa, Macedonia and Puerto Rico, your State Pension payment increases each year in line with inflation”

– BT Money

12-Apr-17: CityWire: Waspi, triple lock and free bus passes: Labour’s pension promises

12-Apr-17: The Guardian: The older expats facing poverty – thanks to Brexit and frozen pensions 

11-Apr-17: Money International: Corbyn Arrives Late For Expat State Pension Battle 

3-Apr-17: SBS (Australia): ‘Use Brexit to pressure UK over frozen pensions’: Lobbyists 

3-Apr-17: Olive Press: United in Fear-Brits in Spain and Spanish in the UK

30-Mar-17: DWP (FOI request): Frozen British Pensions – EU/Brexit

30-Mar-17: The Australian: British expats worried Brexit will force them to leave Spain 

30-Mar-17: The Connexion: Sir Roger Gale pushes for reassurance on uprating pensions for Britons in EU 

29-Mar-17: Yahoo! News: Gloom on Spain’s Costa del Sol as Brexit talks loom 

28-Mar-17: Debby Gill: Model letter to an MP

25-Mar-17: International Investment: Corbyn backs fight against state pension freeze of some expat pensions

This is a chance to make an historic change to our pension system and end the arbitrary discrimination against some British pensioners living overseas.
It is contrary to natural justice for some pensioners living abroad to be left behind while others have their pensions increased in line with inflation.”

– Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Opposition

25-Mar-17: The Telegraph: Cabinet ministers warned social care crisis could exacerbate if UK Pensioners return home from abroad over Brexit

24-Mar-17: North West Evening Mail: Labour backs fight against state pension freezes 

24-Mar-17: Daily Mail: Jeremy Corbyn backs vote to unfreeze expat state pensions 

23-Mar-17: Citywire: Labour draws battle lines over ‘Triple Lock’

22-Mar-17: Eurocitizen2020blogspot.ca: UK Nationals Will Lose All Citizenship Rights on Britain’s Departure From The EU

21-Mar-17: House of Lords: Hansard: Debate on Brexit: Gibraltar

21-Mar-17: Euroweekly News: The Gibraltar delegation meet with Dr. Fox

17-Mar-17:Parliament: State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad: Written question 

17-Mar-17: Parliament TV: Baroness Benjamin speaks out against the ‘frozen’ pension policy….

17-Mar-17: Euroweekly News: Pensioner campaigners protest Britain’s position on Brexit

16-Mar-17: Financial Times: Spain’s UK expats face Brexit Citizenship Dilemma

11-Mar-17: The Guardian: The Falklands war hero fighting for his state pension 

7-Mar-17: The Times: Experts at the centre of a tangled web

5-Mar-17: Daily Star Online: Spain – Impact Post Brexit

2-Mar-17: Euroweekly News: Foreign Office visitors met with invited guests for Brexit discussion

28-Feb-17: Citywire: Keeping Triple Lock will push state pension age above 70 

28-Feb-17: The Independent – Letter to the editor: Pension Justice

27-Feb-17: Citywire: ‘Flexible’ retirement ‘a mirage’ 

27-Feb-17: Citywire: Don’t bank on a flexible retirement says Royal London (Ex Pensions Minister: Steve Webb)

25-Feb-17: Euroweekly News – Foreign Office discusses Brexit with invited guests 

25-Feb-17: Olive Press: British expats are ‘out of sight, out of mind’ to UK MPs – Brexpats In Spain campaigner

23-Feb-17: The Telegraph: Brexit -What does leaving the EU mean for expats 

22-Feb-17: University of Cambridge: Database protecting UK Ex-pats from Brexit ‘misinformation’ to be built by Cambridge Researchers

22-Feb-17: The Independent: British Pensioners living in EU ‘face healthcare limbo after Brexit’ 

21-Feb-17: House of Lords: European Union Committee – Brexit-Gibraltar – full report 

21-Feb-17: Euroweekly News: Helping the British Overseas

17-Feb-17: The Courier (Spain): Brits Living in Spain will not be affected by Brexit after UK Exit

16-Feb-17: BBC News: Brexit – All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU 

13-Feb-17: The Guardian: Britons living in the EU face Brexit backlash, leaked paper warns

4-Feb-17: Daily Express: Merkel cancels talks on securing rights for UK Expats 

2-Feb-17: Olive Press: British Expat Group Publishes White Paper on Government Brexit negotiations 

2-Feb-17: The Guardian: Alternative White Paper by Britons in EU 

27-Jan-17: The Guardian: Fewer Britons living in EU than previously thought

26-Jan-17: Daily Express: EU looks on bewildered as South Africa vows to agree trade deal with Britain 

19-Jan-17: Pensions Today: Frozen Pensions – ICBP’s Campaign

19-Jan-17: Costa News: Frozen Pensions Fear – Part1 and Part 2

17-Jan-17: Lisbon Treaty.org: Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty

17-Jan-17: BBC News: Brexit – UK to leave single market says Theresa May

12-Jan-17: The Olive Press: Brexit: What it may mean to your State Pension

11-Jan-17: BBC News: Retired British expats ‘outstrip European pensioners using NHS’

4-Jan-17: ABC News (Australia): Jim Tilley hopes Brexit could see his frozen pensions increase in value.

4-Jan-17: ABC News (Australia): British retiree’s ‘frozen’ pensions not keeping up with inflation

4-Jan-17: ABC News (Australia): British retirees watch ‘frozen’ pensions disappear 

1-Jan-17: Paul Lewis: Pensions and Benefits Uprating 2017

1-Jan-17: House of Lords – European Union Committee: Brexit – Acquired Rights