DWP’s Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

DWP Statement:

The Truth:

The provision (for freezing pensions) follows a long standing policy that has remained the same for around 70 years

The reason(s) for the long-standing policy have never been defined and are almost certainly out of date

The fact that a policy is long-standing is no excuse for failing to change, especially since Parliament has questioned its logic and the anomalous position that has resulted. If time-reinforcement was a pre-requisite for actions we would still be hanging murderers!

The crux of the issue is individual choice. Those who have contributed to the UK pensions scheme are free to draw their entitlement from wherever they choose to live. It is for the individual to weight the benefits of afforded by their country of choice (The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Shailesh Vara)

Choice cuts both ways, does it not? Choice also applies to Government. The Government absolutely has the choice to honour their promises to retired people who have made an enormous contribution to this country. Right now, the Government is choosing not to honour those commitments. (Hansard; Charles Walker MP; 11 May 2016)

Pensions are uprated where there is a reciprocal agreement in place

A Parliamentary question and a Freedom of Information request have ascertained that a reciprocal agreement is not a legal necessity for pension parity to be paid

The government has refused to agree new reciprocal agreements, and therefore presents an obstacle while removing the means of overcoming that obstacle

The EU has suggested reciprocal agreements to overcome the immigrant crisis; the UK could adopt such measures despite refusing them to British frozen pensioners

UK State Pensions are uprated abroad where the UK has a legal requirement to do so

The United Nations Social Protocol and the Commonwealth Charter (both of which the government has signed) prohibit discrimination for any reason, and specifically prohibit different payment rules applying to pensioners who paid according to the same contribution rules

The UK is in contravention of the international laws to which it has signed

For a number of years, advice has always been available that informs people that their UK State Pension will not be uprated if they emigrate to certain countries

Despite numerous requests, DWP has been unable to provide solid evidence (against many pensioner claims of advice not being available) of proper advice before year 2000. During the 1900s it is almost certain that advice was not available. Most of those who retired prior to 1999 almost certainly went overseas not knowing that their pensions would be frozen

The Social Security Benefits Uprating Regulations  are consequential on the Uprating Order – Regulation 3 restricts the application of increases where the beneficiary is not ordinarily resident in Great Britain

The State Pension is not a social security benefit. It is a pension paid for by mandatory deductions from earnings, paid into the National Insurance Fund. At 2016 the surplus above immediate requirements in the NI Fund was reported as being           £29 billion

Uprating is based on levels of earnings growth and price inflation in the UK which have no direct relevance where the pensioner is resident overseas

If this was a rule then it would also apply to pensioners resident in Turkey and Israel and USA and a handful of other countries where annual up-ratings are paid. If that limitation applies to one overseas country it should apply it to all

Successive post-war governments have taken the view that priority should be given to those living in Great Britain

The UK is listed as having the lowest pension payments among its developed EU neighbours. UK pensioners do not benefit at all from the sacrifice of frozen ex-pat pensioners

The cost of up-rating state pensions would increase immediately by over £0.5 billion per year (sic) if all pensions in payment were increased to current levels and would increase in future years

The Treasury has said that up-rating would cost £580 million a year.

There is £29 billion in reserve in the NI Fund to which all pensioners contributed all their working lives, so the money to fund up-rating is there

The government spends over £2 billion a year on spurious projects in questionable countries, yet refuses to pay its own pensioners the pensions they contributed to all their working lives. At the same time, the frozen pensions policy means that £580 million a year is denied to mostly Commonwealth countries which would benefit from the pension uprating spent in their economies

Every pensioner residing overseas saves the Treasury around £4,000 a year in loss of NHS access and other pensioner benefits. 500,000 frozen pensioners save the Treasury £2 billion a year; that amount will increases year-on-year

All legal processes have found in favour of the government

The European Court of Human Rights said that frozen pensions was not a legal issue, but a political issue requiring only the will of the political party in power to correct

One of the biggest issues with fraud and error in the payment of overseas pensions is unreported deaths

Freedom of Information Request VTR766 revealed that DWP: does not collect any information on how much money is illegally claimed or retained following the deaths of pensioners abroad in any country. There is no proof whatsoever of any fraud from ex-pat pensioners.

Life Certificates are an integral part of protecting the public purse and the DWP estimates that it would save £20 million in 2014/15 and £25 million in 2015/16 from the increased use of Life Certificates

Freedom of Information Request VTR766 revealed that DWP: does not collect any information on how much money is illegally claimed or retained following the deaths of pensioners abroad in any country. There is no proof whatsoever of any fraud from ex-pat pensioners.

In the UK, the DWP are (sic) notified automatically of a death and therefore the equivalent of a life certificate is not needed. Life Certificates are used in countries where data-matching and other facilities for sharing information are not available or are not sufficiently robust to help ensure continued entitlement

In the UK, on DWP’s doorstep, there have been a number of cases where relatives have been able to continue to receive pensions after the death of the pensioner.

Freedom of Information Request VTR766 revealed that DWP: does not collect any information on how much money is illegally claimed or retained following the deaths of pensioners abroad in any country. There is no proof whatsoever of any fraud from ex-pat pensioners.