Frozen state pensions is the practice of the British government of "freezing" UK State Pensions,, for pensioners who live in the majority of other countries, apart from the European Community countries and other countries with reciprocal agreements with the UK.
Description
All British state pensioners receive their pension based on the level of their compulsory and voluntary contributions to the National Insurance Fund. Pensioners resident in Britain, receive an annual uprating known as the "triple lock" - the higher of the increase in CPI, average earnings growth, or 2.5%.. However, if the pensioner moves abroad, the annual uprating depends on where they live, with residents of most countries receiving no annual uprating.. The only other countries in which the UK state pension rises in the same way as UK state pensioners are: European Union countries, Switzerland, Barbados; Bermuda; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Guernsey; Isle of Man; Israel; Jamaica; Jersey; Mauritius; Montenegro; North Macedonia; the Philippines; Serbia; Turkey; and the United States of America. Most British Commonwealth countries are included in the frozen list.
Challenges
In April 2002, Annette Carson, a UK pensioner resident in South Africa, challenged the policy in the High Court under the Human Rights Act 1998 in April 2002 in the High Court, but the judge ruled against her, stating in the judgement that the upratings issue was a political one, not a judicial one. An appeal to the Court of Appeal failed, as did an appeal to the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights. A subsequent referral to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in 2009–2010 said that it did not consider that the applicants resident outside the UK in countries not party to reciprocal agreements, were in a relevantly similar position to residents of the UK or of countries which did have such agreements. It therefore held that there had been no discrimination. During and since that time, various groups and individuals have been lobbying politicians both in the UK and in the countries in which the pensioners are resident, and petitions have been raised. There is an international consortium of lobby groups, funded by the member organisations, British Pensions in Australia and the Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners. Funds are raised by the memberships and donations of individual members. BPIA and CABP jointly own the International Consortium of British Pensioners, and they liaise with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Frozen Pensions in the UK Parliament. Anne Puckridge, a 94-year-old political activist who lives in Canada is the current ambassador of the ICBP and she has been campaigning since 2001 for pension parity.
