Expat pensioners lose court battle
The UK government is this evening breathing a sigh of relief after winning a European Court of Human Rights battle which could have resulted in a £500 million a year additional bill for the UK state pension. The case revolves around a number of expats who have moved overseas to places such as Australia and Canada and are currently only receiving the pension payable upon their retirement in the UK without any increases to take in annual inflation.
If the court action had been successful this would have brought up to 500,000 UK pensioners a significant increase in their state pension and cost the government hundreds of millions of pounds. At the moment there are a number of countries in which UK expats are receiving inflation proofed state pensions but there are also many other countries in the world where this is not the situation. It is difficult to understand how you can pay into the UK pension system, move overseas and depending upon where you are living receive either a basic state pension, which is fixed at the day you retired, or an inflation proofed pension, which can significantly boost pension payments.
While we may see further legal challenges in the short to medium term the fact is that the case looks to be dead and buried and many expat pensioners will be very disappointed this evening.
Share this..
Related stories
When would you like to retire?
The subject of the UK retirement age has been in the headlines this week with the UK government loosening the regulations regarding statutory retirement thereby allowing people in the UK to work beyond their 65th birthday. But how long would you like to work before you are able to retire? While the headlines would appear to be in favour of employees in the UK the truth is that the UK government...
Read MoreUK pension fund gap reaches £318 billion a year
A report by Aviva and Deloitte has today cast a very dark shadow on the UK pension fund industry with the revelation of a £318 billion a year shortfall in pension funding in the UK. Each and every adult retiring over the next 50 years will need to put away over £10,000 a year to close the pension fund gap which is defined as the difference between income required for a comfortable living and tha...
Read MoreBrits "world's youngest" pension planners
British people are the world's youngest pension planners by starting to plan for retirement at an average age of 28, according to a new survey.Financial protection firm AXA reports that the average British person starts planning for their retirement before taking a first step on the property ladder with the current average age of a first-time buyer standing at 29 years old.The Canadians and Americ...
Read MoreScottish Widows to be named in £1bn pension advice case
Insurance giant Scottish Widows could be facing legal action over claims it misadvised pension schemes. In a dossier compiled by the Actuarial Review Company (Arc), which has been sent to the Financial Services Authority, it is alleged that as a result of the company's advice 100 pension schemes lost £300 million. The advice alleged to have been given by the insurer was to switch from guaranteed...
Read MoreBBC looks to future with new pension arrangement
The BBC is a tackling its £2 billion pension deficit with a new proposal to employees which would see their pensionable income based upon an average of their earnings over a career rather than their final salary figure. If pension fund trustees and pension fund members agree to the change in pension base calculation the BBC will also eliminate the 1% annual cap on the growth of pensionable salari...
Read More