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Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦

@andrewsftoon

Scottish Canadian. Advocating that the British Government abandon its policy of arbitrarily "freezing" UK state pensions for recipients in Canada.

Joined December 2011
Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

I just realized that in your scenario, where a UK pensioner emigrates to an unfrozen country, there is no cost to the UK, only savings. Their pension is unfrozen in the UK and unfrozen in target country. They leave and save the UK £2616 a year.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

Rich from a government which refuses to give increases to 450,000 UK state pensioners abroad, while simultaneously giving increases to the other 650,000 abroad. @Keir_Starmer what is the rational justification for this please? #EndFrozenPensions


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

I've never claimed that ending frozen pensions will result in a net saving to the UK. But you raised the point of people emigrating because pensions were newly unfrozen, and if enough of them do, then here will be an ultimate net saving to the UK.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

Nobody is saying the cost isn't real. But it is tiny compared to the amount the UK spends annually on pensions. And it is way less than what the UK saves when pensioners live abroad.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

That's the cost to bring everyone to the level they'd be on if they'd never been frozen. The UK has never done this when it has unfrozen countries (e.g. when Romania joined the EU). DWP recently confirmed £55 million to start giving increases to all frozen pensioners in 2025.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

The UK government is not honoring those that have contributed with their lives work to the country. What a shame.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

I’ve been researching on the official Canada website. There are 2 Canadian pensions: CPP (which is deducted from salaries or self-employment and the amount you get is based on the amount you pay in) - this is unaffected wherever you live.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

I don’t think that’s true. My understanding is that the U.K. is the only developed country that freezes pensions. But I will do some research to be sure.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

Sorry, you are not correct.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

I don’t think that is true. The U.K. is the only developed country that freezes pensions depending on where you retire. The calculation (how many years lived in Canada etc) is the same whether you retire in Canada or abroad. canada.ca/en/services/be…


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

That’s why it’s so unfair what the UK is doing. It’s a one way street. The other countries are honouring their pensions even without a reciprocal agreement.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

Agree. Some statistics (admittedly old) to prove the point 🔰 It'd be interesting to see some up-to-date figures 🤔 I'm thinking the percentages - to stay in the UK - would be higher. Thoughts?

Ninepenneth's tweet image. Agree. Some statistics (admittedly old) to prove the point 🔰 It'd be interesting to see some up-to-date figures 🤔 I'm thinking the percentages - to stay in the UK - would be higher. Thoughts?

Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

@Keir_Starmer knows this, and that is why he hadn’t the guts to meet @AnnePuckridge He couldn’t make excuses for the unfair policy of freezing her pension and the pensions of all those discriminated for living in the care of their families living in frozen countries.

DWP confirms that agreements are not needed. UK has full control on if/when it starts giving annual increases to frozen pensioners. It is completely arbitrary that the UK gives increases to USA but not Canada, when it could decide to change that with the stroke of a pen.



Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

60% of UK state pensioners abroad get annual increases.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

For every 10 UK State Pensioners overseas… •6 receive an annual increase •4 will not All 10 contributed to the NIC in the same way. Make that make sense. #EndFrozenPensions


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

Really tiring to continually hear "this has been the case for decades". You're essentially saying that, by some magical process, an unfair and discriminatory policy gradually becomes fair and just over time. Nonsense.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

Yes, all frozen pensioners would demand the same. The balance of diplomatic affairs point is very questionable. Governments of all frozen countries would welcome a UK decision to unfreeze pensioners there. There is no agreement between UK and Canada covering pensions, but Canada…


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

Starting position itsself is arbitrary - Canada has for years asked the UK for a new agreement but is continually snubbed. This is arbitrary, given the UK has happily entered into many such agreements with other countries. But in any event they're not needed, as stated elsewhere


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

Sorry, you're not really listening. UK has no social security agreement with Canada covering payment of pensions. But regardless of that, the UK could start paying pension increases to recipients there tomorrow. The existence or not of an agreement isn't relevant.


Andrew Stephen 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇨🇦 Reposted

DWP confirms that agreements are not needed. UK has full control on if/when it starts giving annual increases to frozen pensioners. It is completely arbitrary that the UK gives increases to USA but not Canada, when it could decide to change that with the stroke of a pen.


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