UK rejects pensions agreement with Canada

April 10, 2021 Frozen British Pensions 2 Comments

The UK Government has rejected representations from Canada to negotiate a reciprocal arrangement for state pension uprating.

In November 2020, the Canadian Government formally requested to form a deal with the UK to end ‘frozen’ pensions for 150,000 UK pensioners living in Canada. After four months of waiting, the Department for Work and Pensions has revealed that it will not be accepting this offer. We are deeply concerned by this development and will continue to seek clarification from the UK Government on what this means in practice for half a million pensioners overseas trapped on a ‘frozen’ state pension.

Late last year, it was revealed in our APPG inquiry that both the Canadian and Australian governments are opposed to the frozen pensions policy.

The Canadian Government state that:

Canada’s longstanding position is that British pensioners who live in Canada have contributed to the British pension scheme, and have therefore earned the right to be treated the same way as other British pensioners.”

For more than 40 years, the Government of Canada has sought to address this issue with the UK and has proposed that the two countries negotiate a more comprehensive social security agreement that would make pensions more equitable by providing for the indexation of UK pensions for recipients in Canada.

“Most recently, in late 2020 Canadian government officials wrote to the UK, seeking their interest in concluding a comprehensive agreement that provides for the indexation of UK pensions. UK officials declined this request, but noted that they will continue to consider this matter carefully.”

Sir Roger Gale MP, Chair of the APPG on Frozen British Pensions, has said:

I regard this as an act of bad faith on the part of our own Government – and one which could have adverse implications for our trade negotiations with Canada.”

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Comments

  1. Joseph Stanley Garland
    May 23, 2022 - 11:56 pm

    I paid into the State pension Fund for 42 years and when I immigrated to Canada in 2021 my Pension was frozen , had i moved to the U.S.A it would have been paid in f all. I bbeleiv it is only the U.K. that punishes its Pensioners in this way.

  2. Gerard Gribbin
    August 14, 2022 - 6:31 pm

    Very typical of a conservative government with treasury values.They do not realise how their cheapskate values play out globally

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