Hundreds of thousands to miss out on state pension increase for one key reason
Hundreds of thousands of Britons miss out on the yearly increase because of where they live.
High levels of inflation mean state pensioners will likely get a sizeable increase again next year but some 500,000 people will not see their payments rise.
This is because they live in countries where the state pension increase is not passed on to them, meaning their payments are frozen, with some losing out on many thousands of pounds each year.
People have to live in one of these countries to get the increase:
- The UK
- European Economic Area (EEA)
- Gibraltar
- Switzerland
- Countries with a social security agreement with the UK (but not Canada or New Zealand).
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The state pension increased by a record 10.1 percent this year thanks to high levels of inflation over the past year.
The latest figures for inflation, for the year to June, showed it dropped to 7.9 percent. The inflation figure for the triple lock policy is taken in September.
If inflation is at seven percent in September, the full new state pension would increase by £742 a year to £11,342 when it goes up next April.
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Experts have also predicted the state pension could rise to £14,000 a year by the end of the decade, so people whose pensions are frozen could miss out on even more in payments.
A person can get their state pension uplifted to the current amount by moving back to the UK.
World War II veteran Patricia Coulthard moved to Australia in the early 1990s to be closer to her two children.
She now gets just £46 a week for her state pension which is less than a third of what it would be at the full rate.
She said: “Similar to the UK, the cost of living in Australia has been increasing, yet my British state pension is frozen in time, forced to stretch further and further to cover the cost.
“I have been deserted by the UK Government in my retirement, left to depend on the kindness of Australia.”
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