Yahoo News Frozen state pensions: MPs call for vote on ‘cruel’ policy
When Dela Willmott, a former office manager from Sussex, retired in 1979 – having paid national insurance all her life – her pension was £17 a week. Today, the 98-year-old is still drawing her state pension. It is still £17 a week.
Willmott retired to Australia, one of the 150 countries where the UK state pensions of British retirees are frozen – they do not increase in line with inflation. Had she retired to anywhere in the European Union, the United States or other countries including the Philippines, Liechtenstein or Jamaica, her £17 would now be £122 a week.
This is not a new problem. Britons retiring to most Commonwealth countries and many others have had their pensions frozen for 70 years. There are 510,000 UK pensioners who have had their retirement income all but destroyed as a result.
But the government has now been accused of “manipulating” MPs through a “cynical abuse of procedure”.
The government has lodged a statutory instrument (SI) tying the passing of vital increases in carers’ allowance to the freezing of some overseas pensions. This, rebel MPs say, makes it very difficult for those supportive of ending the “frozen pensions” policy to vote against it as they would have to block the SI as a whole, preventing rises to other benefits.
Related: Women's retirement age rising faster than men's in UK
The government is facing a challenge from the veteran Conservative and former minister Sir Peter Bottomley. Bottomley has laid an early day motion protesting against the SI.
“The government has cynically tied together the unjust freezing of the pensions of 510,000 UK pensioners who paid into the system, many of whom served this country, with increases in important social security benefits,” he said. “This blocks many MPs from joining me in standing against this injustice.
“This is grossly unfair and against democracy. I firmly believe that MPs deserve a vote on the frozen pension policy and that is why I am praying against this statutory instrument to force the government to allow debate on the issue.”
The SI is open to objections from parliamentarians until 17 May. Other MPs have also written to the Speaker calling for a vote on the issue of frozen pensions.
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said it was “a trick designed to prevent MPs from even having a say on this cruel policy”. He said: “MPs deserve a debate and a vote.”
The Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron said the government was “manipulating” MPs through a “cynical abuse of procedure”.
He said: “There’s an important democratic issue at stake here. I understand that some MPs are raising this matter with the Speaker and I support them in that.”
