The state pension usually increases each year, and a 3.1 percent rise has been confirmed for April 2022. However, this is not guaranteed, and some will miss out based on where they choose to live. The state pension will only increase each year if a person lives in certain countries.
These are:
- The UK
- The European Economic Area (EEA)
- Gibraltar
- Switzerland
- Countries that have a social security agreement with the UK (but not Canada or New Zealand)
It is therefore estimated some 500,000 people will miss out on increases to their state pension.
This is the case for James Flynn, a 72-year-old man who currently lives in Sydney, Australia.
Mr Flynn was born in Poole and emigrated about 10 years ago, after living most of his life in London.
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Mr Flynn also described how he paid additional years of National Insurance after a shortfall.
He took this action, he said, in order to guarantee he would receive the full state pension sum in retirement.
In addition, Mr Flynn also paid what is commonly known as SERPS – a State Earnings Related Pension Scheme.
Also known as the Additional state pension, it operated between 1978 and 2002, allowing people to increase their state pension income.
It was possible to “contract out” of this scheme in order to enhance a workplace pension or private pension instead.
However, some chose to stay in SERPS, to boost their sum from the Government for retirement.
Mr Flynn discussed his feelings of frustration concerning his discovery his sum would be frozen.
He added: “I think the UK Government is behaving very unfairly. That’s my money! If you add that up over the years, that comes to about £1,500 a year.
“Over seven years, that’s £10,000 of my money, my paid for taxes and National Insurance, which I should get.
“If I moved back to somewhere in Europe, and there are several countries I could go, I would get that full amount.
“So it is ridiculous and very unfair that it isn’t paid to me here in Australia.”
A DWP spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “We understand that people move abroad for many reasons and that this can impact on their finances.
“There is information on GOV.UK about what the effect of going abroad will be on entitlement to the UK state pension.
“The Government’s policy on the up-rating of the UK state pension for recipients living overseas is a longstanding one of more than 70 years and we continue to uprate state pensions overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so.”
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