THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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How UK retirees can avoid the expat pension freeze 

How UK retirees can avoid the expat pension freeze 

Re: “UK election set to send expat pensions into deep freeze”, Have Your Say, May 21.

On April 20, the UK parliament passed the following motion:
“That this House notes the detrimental effect that the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Regulations 2017 will have on the lives of many expatriate UK citizens living overseas with frozen pensions, and insists that the government take the necessary steps to withdraw those regulations.”
The motion received cross-party support, but not the support of the government minister responsible for making the regulations.
The lack of up-rating (increase) for pensions paid to expatriates goes back many years to the 1960s. None of the more than half a million overseas UK citizens who receive the pension has any representative – MP or otherwise – whom they can lobby on issues that concern them. There is a need to create an overseas constituency, as other countries such as France have. Until then the option for those living in Thailand will be to relocate to the Philippines or other countries where the pensions are up-rated.
Ian Martin
Bangkok

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