Freezing overseas pensions: WW2 veteran left ‘heartbroken’ after meeting with minister

A World War II veteran has said he was “angry” and “heartbroken” after meeting with a minister to stop believing the government was planning to freeze the state pensions of some Britons living abroad. Will not consider changing its policy.

Ann Pickridge, who will be 100 this month, traveled from her home in Canada to lobby the government.

He is one of 453,000 British pensioners living abroad who do not receive an annual increase in their state pension.

Pensions minister Emma Reynolds agreed to a meeting after Sir Keir Starmer was ruled out due to “pressure on his diary”.

After the meeting in Parliament, Ms Pickridge said she felt “very disappointed” and “disgusted”.

He said he got the impression that Reynolds was “polite and kind enough to come and spend his time with us but I think he had his mind made up before we even started meeting”.

He said he and his fellow campaigners would have to “think very carefully about what we can actually do from now on” although he added that they would do something.

In a statement ahead of the meeting, the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We understand that people move abroad for a range of reasons, and we provide clear information about what this means in retirement. What could affect their finances – with the UK’s operating policy. The state pension for overseas recipients is a long-standing one.”

Previous governments have rejected calls to extend the frozen pension, citing cost as a barrier.

A source with knowledge of the previous government’s approach suggested unfreezing pensions would not be as easy as it might appear and risk opening the door to legal challenges.

Ms Pickridge earns £72.50 a week since moving to Canada in 2001, aged 76, to be near her daughter.

His state pension is now less than the £169.50 still paid to UK-based pensioners.

He told the BBC that the pension freeze affects every aspect of life.

“You have to be careful about entertainment,” he said.

“You have to remember that you can’t be as kind to your grandchildren as you want to be.

“You feel like you’ve lost all sense of dignity, the government has thrown you away, you know, you’ve been out of sight.”

Ms Pickridge said that when she told the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) she was going to Canada “they never said a word about it.” [my] Pensions are being frozen.”

“The first I knew about it was when I was about to get my first raise,” she said.

“I didn’t get it. So I wrote and asked about it, and I was told no… from the day you left the UK, you don’t get any more, no more pension increases.”

He added: “It is the injustice of it that is so unfair, the fact that we were never warned.”

Under an arrangement called the triple lock, the UK state pension rises by 2.5 per cent each year, in line with inflation or income growth – whichever is greater.

Not all pensioners who go abroad have their pension frozen.

The UK has agreements with EU countries and the United States, among others, to continue increasing pensions in line with what UK residents receive.

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India are among the countries that do not have agreements.

Campaigners say this is unfair.

Patrick Edwards, who lives in Australia and is also part of the End Frozen Pensions campaign, said he had paid like everyone else but was now “being treated differently just because of his address”.

He said that if he lived in many other countries in the world, he would get the same as people in Britain, but he was unfairly singled out because his pension was frozen.

There is also diplomatic pressure for a change in policy.

The Canadian government is understood to have already raised the issue with the new government.

The Australian government made repeated representations from the previous government and a spokesman said it would continue to raise it on “appropriate occasions”.

There appears to be little disagreement that it is politically difficult to justify different treatment of overseas pensioners between countries.

The Institute for Economic Affairs think tank, which has often questioned the sustainability of state pensions, said: “Government should always try to save money, but this doesn’t seem like a particularly principled way to do it.”

However, previous governments have argued that individual pensioners are unlikely to benefit overall, as many also receive financial support from governments such as Canada and Australia, which would result in shortfalls.

He has also cited the cost of fully restoring frozen pensions as an obstacle.

In 2019, the Conservative government estimated that it would cost £600 million to fully restore pensions to the level they would have been had they not been frozen.

The End Frozen Pensions Campaign says it is only calling for pensions to be raised from their current level.

This is estimated to cost £55m in 2025/26.