The state pension, once sufficient contributions have been made to qualify, belongs to the pensioner and not to the government. To deny the minority 560,000 pensioners living abroad any annual uprating is theft, pure and simple.
This minority represents just 4% of the total pensioner population and this is blatant discrimination. It has been established that the countries they have retired to are not involved in choosing in which countries resident pensioners' benefit increases are frozen but they use the excuse of a reciprocal agreement in clause 20 of the Pensions Act to impose this freezing policy.
This is contrary to not just the Charter of the Commonwealth but the code of conduct of members of parliament with respect to discrimination.
These pensioners are treated worse than a criminal in jail who will get their indexation.
George Morley 16 April
