From my MP

[Neil Hillman]

Sent to my MP, Tahir Ali, Labour

Subject: Overseas Frozen State Pension – An Issue of Equality and Fairness for British Citizens

Dear Tahir Ali,

As one of your constituents and a registered overseas voter, I am writing to bring to your attention a matter of profound injustice and financial discrimination: the policy of "freezing" the UK State Pension for British citizens residing in countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand, (and many more). It is officially estimated by the Electoral Commission that there are now 204,000 overseas UK registered overseas voters - not an insignificant number. I have recently read horror stories of UK pensioners living in extreme poverty overseas having had their UK state pension frozen in the 1990s at levels of less than sixty pounds per week!  

I began working full-time at the age of 16 and have meticulously paid my National Insurance (NI) contributions throughout my entire working life (in my case up to the age of 66). These contributions were paid into the exact same fund, under the exact same rules, as those who chose to remain in the United Kingdom or move to countries with reciprocal agreements (such as the USA, Switzerland, the Philippines or EEA nations). Yet, simply because I have chosen to reside in Australia, the real value of my pension is being eroded by inflation every year. This policy arbitrarily divides British pensioners into two classes based solely on geographical location.

Furthermore, it is important to highlight that by residing outside of the UK, expats like myself represent a significant net financial saving to the UK Treasury. By living abroad, I draw absolutely nothing from the following state-funded services and benefits:
The National Health Service (NHS): I place zero operational or financial burden on an already overstretched healthcare system.
Housing Benefit and Pension Credit: I receive no income-related supplements or state-subsidised housing support.
Council Tax Support and Social Care: I do not utilise local authority resources or adult social care provisions.
Universal Pension Perks: I draw no benefits from taxpayer-funded schemes such as the Winter Fuel Payment, free bus passes, or the over-75 free TV licence.
When these factors are quantified, British pensioners living abroad actually save the UK taxpayer billions of pounds collectively. For the government to pocket these savings while simultaneously penalising my rightful state pension—earned through decades of hard work—is morally indefensible.

This is a fundamental matter of equality, fairness, and contract.

My British citizenship and my voting rights remain intact; my financial contributions to the state were made in full. It is entirely unjust that the state should fail to honor its side of that social contract based on my postcode.

As my representative in Parliament, I urge you to break the cross-party silence on this issue. I ask that you raise this matter with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and advocate for a policy shift—or international reciprocal agreements —to end the scandal of the current frozen pension policy.

I look forward to hearing your views on this matter and learning what actions you intend to take on behalf of your overseas constituents.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Hillman.


Last Registered UK Voting Address: XX XXXXXX XXX, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 XXX.
 

Reply from Tahir Ali, Labour...

Dear Neil,

Thank you for contacting me about Overseas Frozen State Pensions.

The issue of State Pension uprating for recipients living abroad is an important one. I sympathise with your concerns and welcome the fact that Ministers have met with representatives of the End Frozen Pensions campaign.

The State Pension is payable worldwide to those who qualify for it, regardless of nationality. However, as you know, it is only uprated for people living outside the United Kingdom where there is a legal requirement to do so. This is the case, for example, in countries with which the UK has a reciprocal agreement that provides for uprating.

The Government has been asked about this issue in Parliament on many occasions. In a recent Debate held in February, Ministers repeated that there are no current intentions to widen bilateral social security agreements to provide for State Pension uprating where this is not already the case. This approach has been in place for over 70 years and has been followed by successive governments. For many years, the Department for Work and Pensions has provided clear information for people moving to and living overseas, explaining the rules governing State Pension uprating. It is essential that people have access to this information when deciding whether to move abroad.

I note that many countries have means-tested provisions that are similar to Pension Credit and, where the real-terms value of a pension has fallen, this may be compensated for by higher means-tested payments. It is also the case that the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office tries to negotiate reciprocal arrangements with other countries. As you may know, an agreement previously existed with Australia, but the Australian government chose to terminate it.

At present, the state of public finances, inherited from the previous Government, means tough choices are inevitable. The longstanding policy on pensions uprating involves real costs and trade-offs. Given these circumstances, the responsible thing to do is to fix the foundations of our economy and bring back economic stability.

Please be assured that I will continue to follow any developments in this area with interest. Thank you once again for contacting me.

Yours sincerely,

Tahir Ali MP,
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hall Green & Moseley.

Neil Hillman

This is me: www.linkedin.com/in
eilhillman

[JO ODDIE]

Excellent letter from you Neil, sadly responded to by more of the usual blah, blah, blah, completely ignoring your points on fairness, equality & contracts. 

Thank you for making the effort for justice. 

Kind regards

Jo

Jo Oddie

Sent from my iPhone

On 4 Aug 2026, at 21:03, Neil Hillman <neil.h...@theaudiosuite.com> wrote:

Sent to my MP, Tahir Ali, Labour

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[LINDSEY WICKHAM]

Totally agree with Jo.  Yours was an excellent letter Neil and such a pity that all our MPs have no backbone.  

Kind regards

Lindsey Wickham

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On 5 Aug 2026, at 5:06 am, 'JO ODDIE' via BAPA <bapa...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Excellent letter from you Neil, sadly responded to by more of the usual blah, blah, blah, completely ignoring your points on fairness, equality & contracts. 

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[vivienne bentley walker]

Excellent 

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[Laura Brown]

Hi Neil, greetings from South Africa.  A truly great letter, would it be possible for me to use some of it in a similar letter to my MP? You really have the mastery of text that I lack

 

Let me know if I am not being rude

 

Cheers Laura Brown

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[Karen Whyte]

Well you couldn't have asked for a more accurate & succinct letter than yours, Neil, so well written. What a pity, yet again, these MPs who are all on very comfortable salaries and all the perks, don't have the decency to consider us pensioners, while we suffer due to no fault of our own, with our frozen unrealistic pensions. 

We all know that the British pension is the lowest throughout Europe, so we suffer on two counts, without any of the benefits. Should we consider starting a "Go fund me" to enable us to take the British government to court for non-payment of what we've paid our contributions for, through our working lives, but are being denied? I believe for the govt to bring us into line, would cost just 1% of the total pension bill. It's a total disgrace. 

So we stick together and keep battling on. Keep well, keep safe. 

Karen Whyte

Colombo,  Sri Lanka. 

Karen N R Whyte

Mob: +94 (0) 773414746

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[Bruce]

Excellent letter Neil, well done. One fact that irritates me is that when I was paying into National Insurance scheme I was NEVER told that if I decided to emigrate to certain countries my pension would be frozen. Nor was I told when I emigrated to Australia in 2001.

In his answer Tahir Ali states As you may know, an agreement previously existed with Australia, but the Australian government chose to terminate it.  It seems to me that rather than lobbying the UK  government we should be lobbying the Australian government to reinstate the arrangement. Does anyone know when or why the Australian government ended the arrangement?  I have repeatedly tried to explain to ministers that if all us expats were receiving an updated British pension the extra money would be an extra income source for Australia. Just for my wife and me the extra would be approx $20,000 per year to contribute to our adopted country because that’s what we lose through having our pensions frozen.

Regards

Bruce Englefield.

Sent from Proton Mail for iOS.

-------- Original Message --------

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[Steve Symmons]

The Australian government terminated the reciprocal social security agreement because the UK government refused to unfreeze UK pensions.

Going back to the way things were goes nowhere 

Sorry 

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[Steve Symmons]

Incidentally, the way things worked before 2001 had the effect of limiting a person to the amount of an Australian pension - even though this would be from two sources: UK pension and AUS pension top up to AUS rate. The AUS government claimed the freezing of the UK rate cost them AUD100 million pa then as the eroded amounts forced ever increasing AUS top-ups.

Now you can qualify for two independent pensions, as I do - depending on residence years and/or NI contribution years.
The UK pension is treated as income under the AUS means test, reducing the AUS rate 50c/$ above the income allowance. (rather than dollar-for-dollar as before).

However, the effect is somewhat similar: as inflation erodes the UK pension, the AUS pension increases 50c/$ until it hits the level of allowable income.

The ideal time to have leant on the UK government would have been while he Johnson government was desperately trying to negotiate post -Brexit trade deals to at least appear to be delivering "Brexit Dividends".

For some reason the Morrison government failed to use the opportunity.

[Paul Moore]

Are australian state pensions frozen when there recipients dwell in UK then?

Paul Moore

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[vivienne bentley walker]

I agree Bruce, surely it would save the the Australian government money, we are in the same situation as you emigrated here 2006. Only claimed mine 4 years ago and already 60 pounds a week down 🙄

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[Steve Symmons]

Not in theory

However, AUS pensions have acquired multiple components over the years. All bar the pension disappear after 12 weeks (up from the current six in the last budget)

The amount of AUS pension paid overseas is proportional to the number of full years (“working life years” - 16 to pension age) a person has been in Australia. 

So while only 10 such years will qualify you for a full pension if you reside in Australia. It will only provide 10/35 of the pension figure outside the country (while the other components/supplements etc disappear all together).

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[Bridget Barber]

You could suggest to your MP that just because something has been in place for 70 years it does not make it right, just or fair.  Moreover, many things can change for instance British citizens abroad now have the right to vote for life not just for 15 years since they left the UK.

The reason it is brought up in Parliament and is ignored is because it is governed by a statutory instrument and paired with other benefits only one of these things will be considered in any one year so when it comes up for review MPs choose to review benefits that affect people in the UK not pensioners abroad.  The two issues need to be separated.

BPiA is lobbying the Australian government as well as the UK and we need to work on both sides and with frozen pensioners in other countries if we want to be effective.

Also, if the government has the desire to change things it can easily do so with a bit of creative accounting as the Burnham government has just done by calling overseas aid a loan.  So it can also if it wishes do something similar to facilitate ending frozen pensions.

The challenge we face is to make them see a need to end frozen pensions that will benefit the present government.

We can only do this together.

Cheers

Bridget Barber

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[Graeme King]

Hi Bridget,

You are of course correct to say..............You could suggest to your MP that just because something has been in place for 70 years it does not make it right, just or fair. 

In the UK, witches were hanged or burnt at the stake for almost 200 years and that did not make it right either.

Thanks & Regards

Graeme King
Mobile: +62 813 813 78200

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