State pension: Hundreds of thousands of pensioners face missing out on increase to payment

The government website states that the state pension will only increase each year if a person lives in:

• The European Economic Area (EEA)
• Gibraltar
• Switzerland
• Countries that have a social security agreement with the UK (but a person cannot get increases in Canada or New Zealand).

Should they return to live in the UK, then the state pension would increase to the current uprated rate.

“You will not get yearly increases if you live outside these countries,” the website states.

“Your pension will go up to the current rate if you return to live in the UK.”

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The campaign group End Frozen Pensions said that Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures from February 2018 show there are 516,333 UK pensioners receiving a pension that is “frozen” – meaning it is not uprated each year.

A spokesperson for the Campaign to End Frozen Pensions said: “The fact that over 500,000 UK pensioners, including decorated military veterans continue to have their pensions frozen should be a source of great shame to the Government.  

“The continuation of the scandalous frozen pensions policy, which causes some pensioners to live on as little as £40 a week must be a priority for the Government as we move to a post COVID-19 economy. It is high time that all pensioners are treated equally and receive the full pension they paid for.”

A DWP spokesperson 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 continues to uprate state pensions overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so – for example in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement that allows for uprating.”

Conservative Party MP Mel Stride asked the Prime Minister if he would honour the party’s manifesto commitments with a specific reference to the triple lock.

Mr Johnson replied: “We are going to meet all of our manifesto commitments, unless I specifically tell you otherwise.

“It’s an important point, and we won’t be blown off. Of course, we are on track to delivering these things.

“We will deliver 40 new hospitals, we are well on track to delivering 20,000 more police officers, and we will recruit 50,000 more nurses.

“Heaven knows the need for those have never been more apparent.

“We are going to get on with our programme, and we have a fantastic agenda for this country for uniting and levelling up.”