Loading ...BPiA’s monthly report at end July 2010
The International Consortium’s Current and Future Activities;
In our last report, June, we advised how the Consortium would conduct the proposed “medals campaign”. Unfortunately the response received so far this past month has been underwhelming, only about 12 have given us photos etc. To those 12 we extend our very hearty thanks. The ICBP committee is working very hard to get your pensions indexed and if you want the ICBP to fight for your rights, please play your part too and, if you can, make a contribution to this medal campaign.
We request again that all members, especially veterans who served Britain in WW2, and in subsequent post war campaigns, like Palestine, Suez, Malaya, Korea, Kenya [Mau Mau], Cyprus etc and who possibly have some medals to show for their service, to have a photograph taken to show-off and list their medals as John Seager has done below. If you have no medals to show for your service, as some say is the case for various reasons, just send us a smart photo, with details of your service plus your comments about the British Government’s miserly approach to non-indexing of our pensions. We’ll decide if it’ll be used.
Using the example below as the type of presentation we are looking for, please refer further below for details of how and where the photos are to be sent.
Petty Officer John [Jim] Seager, OAM
Medals displayed
Order of Australia Medal, 1939-1945 Star, Battle of the Atlantic Star, Western Desert Star, Burma Star, Italy Campaign Star, End of 1939-45 War Star, Korean War Campaign Medal, UN Medal for Korean War, Malaya Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal. PO John Seager completed 26 years Royal Navy service in 1965 leaving as a Petty Officer Instructor, [Plotting and Radar].
____________________________________________________________________________________________
John Seager is saddened that the UK Government, for whom he fought and served around the world, should take the view that people like him, who migrate and retire abroad, in Commonwealth countries, are denied any increases in their British age pension. They have paid the necessary National Insurance contributions and are disadvantaged just because they have chosen to live overseas, especially those settling in Commonwealth nations, which generally come to the aid of Britain whenever requested to do so. John is now retired and lives in Australia, in a Sydney suburb close by his family.
Photographs preferably [4” x 6”] and supporting information, provided separately, if possible, are to be sent either;-
- electronically by email to smd@pagination.com.au: Pagination Design Services Pty Ltd is the company which will prepare an album of these photos.
- or by surface mail to Stephen Davey, MD, Pagination Design Services Pty Ltd, PO Box 7160, Geelong West, Victoria, 3218, Australia.
- or by mail to Jim Tilley, 3 Albatross Circuit Woronora Heights NSW 2233 or by email to jimtilley@bigpond.com.
These photographs and the associated information will be used to compile an album for a planned ceremonial hand-over, in London, before the media, to an HRH, who we hope our PR consultants will be able to arrange to attend. If our members show insufficient interest then we will possibly have to abandon this valuable element of our campaign, aimed to appeal to hearts and minds of the British general public.
The eventual success of our planned publicity campaign depends enormously on our members’ involvement and their enthusiasm for the “medals campaign”. So those of you with a history of service, especially if you have some medals to show for it, please make a contribution to this project. We believe the publicity we expect to achieve will be invaluable.
Other Consortium initiatives.
Many of you will have been approached recently from either CABP or our own association [BPiA] to provide some information to John Markham or Annie Bruzzone [Champollion PR consultants]. This information is required to assist them in organising some media interviews with people who are suffering from the frozen pension, or in some case have had to return to the UK. Also we are looking for anyone who you know has deferred or even abandoned their intention to retire abroad from the UK to join their family, but will not do so because they know their UK pensions will be frozen and they are fearful of imposing financially on their younger families abroad
Attempts of this kind, in which the Consortium is engaged, to bring the issue of the frozen pension to the knowledge of the British general public, take much time, to organise. John Markham has also made contact with other pensioner groups in the UK who are fighting like us for a better pension deal. These include;-
- The Lambeth Pensions Action Group, run by a South African lady who supports London minority groups. These include people from Caribbean nations who, for several years, we have been trying to involve in this issue. They knew nothing of us but are aware of us now, and they are very supportive.
- Moreover another long established organisation called the Runnymede Group has been charged with investigating and reporting to the new British Government’s Secretary of State for the DWP, Iain Duncan-Smith, on the impact of non indexing pensions. We have written to their researcher to advise him of our agenda too. Why not visit the Runnymede Trust website and read about the “Launch of a Black and Minority Ethnic [BME]-older-people study” project dated July 20th and the hidden costs to some who will be returning home with frozen pensions.
Furthermore John Markham has been busy organising the Consortium’s presence at the upcoming 3 party political conferences. He is also preparing the information to show at these conferences to support our claims of being unfairly treated and the lost opportunity of cost savings to the UK economy. Some of us have been asked to help prepare a video of various comments from our members to publicise stories to show at the stall that it is intended to man at the 3 conferences.
BPiA activities in July
Most of our time has been spent in helping the Consortium team in London develop the various initiatives it intends to use to appeal to the hearts and minds of UK politicians and the British general public. Especially important is the medal campaign, as I have said earlier. What has been very disappointing has been the general lack of enthusiasm for this part of the overall campaign and we hope now that members will see the need to become more active in this initiative and not leave all the efforts to the committee members and the very few who have fortunately provided us with some of their photos. If you wish us to win this pension case then you will have to help the organisers if you possibly can.
New members are currently hard to find; we only booked 21 this month but had to remove about 20. These have either died or have changed addresses and not advised us of their new details. To generate more members and to help build funds to finance our activities we need the help of existing members to encourage friends and social contacts to join us. Something that you all can do in this regard is to spread the message of the worthiness of our campaign. Do not let people pass us off as losers. We are determined to win this case and we believe that with 6 of Europe’s better judges supporting our case at the recent ECHR Appeal the smug attitude of the British Government is untenable in the long term. There is a lot of quality interest on which we are now building our growing support base in the UK.
Jim Tilley
Hon Chairman BPiA Hon Chairman, Woronora Heights, NSW August 5th 2010
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BPiA Chairman’s Monthly Report June 2010
The International Consortium’s Current and Future Activities;
In our last report we announced that we would soon distribute the means by which we would conduct the proposed “medals campaign”. It is our agreed intention to request veteran members, who have served Britain and have medals to show for their service, to have a photograph taken to show their medals and list their medals. We are also asking them to provide us with their comments as to the British Government’s miserly approach to not recognise their service and discriminate against our members by not indexing their UK age pensions. John Seager has provided us with an example below. We are now asking all those of you who can, to provide similar photographs, medal lists and comments. Using the example below please read on for details of where the photos are to be sent.
Petty Officer John [Jim] Seager, OAM
Medals displayed
Order of Australia Medal, 1939-1945 Star, Battle of the Atlantic Star, Western Desert Star, Burma Star, Italy Campaign Star, End of 1939-45 War Star, Korean War Campaign Medal, UN Medal for Korean War, Malaya Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal.
PO John Seager completed his Royal Navy service in 1965 after 26 years, leaving as a Petty Officer Instructor, [Plotting and Radar].
____________________________________________________________________________________________
John Seager is saddened that the UK Government, for whom he fought and served around the world, should take the view that people like him, who migrate and retire abroad, in Commonwealth countries, are denied any increases in their British age pension. They have paid the necessary National Insurance contributions and are disadvantaged just because they have chosen to live overseas, especially those settling in Commonwealth nations, which generally come to the aid of Britain whenever requested to do so. John is now retired and lives in Australia, in a Sydney suburb close by his family.
Photographs [4” x 6”] and supporting information, separately if possible, are to be sent to either;-
1. smd@pagination.com.au electronically: Pagination Design Services Pty Ltd is the company which will prepare an album of these photos.
2. By mail to Stephen Davey, MD, Pagination Design Services Pty Ltd, PO Box 7160, Geelong West, Victoria, 3218, Australia.
3. By mail to Jim Tilley, 3 Albatross Circuit Woronora Heights NSW 2233 or by email to jimtilley@bigpond.com.
These photographs and the associated information will be used to compile an album for a planned ceremonial hand-over, in London, before the media, to an HRH, who we hope our PR consultants will be able to arrange to attend.
The eventual success of our planned publicity campaign depends heavily on our members’ enthusiasm and their involvement in this medal campaign. So those of you with a history of service and medals to show for it, please make a contribution to this project.
The Consortium will attend each of the UK major Parties’ conferences again this year. It is planned at these events to promote our message that the non-indexing pension policy is unfair and fails to accept that there are benefits to be achieved in the UK by indexing the UK age pension. This change would encourage many retirees who still live in the UK to leave, generating savings of many £millions from National Health costs, bus passes, fuel allowances etc. The Consortium is to investigate engaging an “expert economic think tank” to develop our ideas on this matter.
We are now aware of a new British Government website and we request that every one of our members access the UK Coalition’s “freedom website” http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk and make a positive contribution.
Log in and register at this site; this requires the minimum of detail. Ignore the request for a post code.
Put “pension” into the search box, and read and comment on all of the several comments there about the frozen pension issue. “Star” to the maximum all of these favourable comments. We all need to demonstrate our support by backing and applying our own comments on this issue.
BPiA’s recent activities
As well as planning and organising the “medal campaign”, the idea of which originated from one of our new members, in recent months I am appealing again for help from members in the Sydney area who may be interested in assisting us administer the association. It has been very disappointing, that since previously publishing this request, not one offer to help has been forthcoming. I hope this apparent disinterest will change during the next week or so.
We also re-emphasise the desire to have all members do their absolute utmost to promote BPiA’s mission among friends at work, at social activities, in their churches and in many cases in the retirement villages in which many members live. BPiA has a poster which, on request, we will send to our members for display at work, church halls or retirement villages. So why not request us to send you some of these posters to attract more members, many of whom need not be pensioners yet? Please note BPiA will assist the many people who live here now and who have worked in the UK, to discover their UK age pension entitlements. This applies to anyone, irrespective of their nationality, especially those within 10 years of pension age.
We still have to investigate engaging some PR consultants of our own in Australia to help us with publicity to assist us boost membership.
Last week I wrote to Julia Gillard, when she became PM, requesting that she may demonstrate her claimed negotiating skills by winning over the UK Government to achieve our claim for a fair, dignified and equal UK age pension policy, such as the UK applies to the USA and several other Commonwealth countries, as required by the CHOGM Singapore declaration.
BPiA membership matters
We continue to grow our membership but in recent weeks much more slowly than previously. This week membership has reached 10,309. That is an increase of only 17 in 3 weeks. Admittedly we have also had to delete, from our data base, several members who no longer wish to support our campaign, plus some who have returned to the UK and others who have unfortunately passed away.
Our lower membership growth has reflected in lower subscriptions and donations income we received in both the months of May and June. We require to turn this negative trend around, hence our “call to arms”, for all members to do what they can to encourage more new members and to publicise what we can do to assist friends we know to ask BPiA for help in achieving the maximum pension they can get from the UK. Let us celebrate every extra £1 we can squeeze from the British Government.
Jim Tilley
Hon Chairman, British Pensions in Australia, Woronora Heights, NSW. July 6th 2010
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British service veterans, Medals campaign
It has been decided by the Consortium’s committee that a key strategic component of our on-going campaign, to attract the British public’s hearts and minds to our case, will be to organise a ceremonial hand-over of an album of photos of as many expatriate service veteran pensioners as possible. These it is envisaged will include those who served in the British services during the Second World War and in any subsequent theatres of action like Malaysia, Korea, Cyprus, Suez, or wherever the British have served and fought since.
An example is supplied; see Petty Officer Jim Seager, of the type of photograph to which John Markham and Tony Bockman have agreed. Some supporting information we believe to be appropriate is also shown.
The process now is to collect as many photos and as much supporting information at a specialist organisation in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, where the album will be developed and subsequently sent onto London. There, John Markham, together with our PR consultants Champollion, has agreed to endeavour to organise a ceremonial hand-over of the album, before the media, hopefully to an HRH.
It is proposed to print high quality brochures of the photos and the information in the album too. These will be distributed to the media organisations, which we expect to attend this ceremony. It is also intended to provide brochures to appropriate Ministers from the Governments of the UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand, as well as to senior influential members of the Parliaments involved.
Jim Tilley, the Hon Chairman of British Pensions in Australia, is nominated to be responsible for managing this project from his home in Sydney. We are hoping that the many veterans who live in Canada, Australia, South Africa etc will help in this project by providing us with suitable photos and their relevant information. These photos etc should be very similar to the demonstration example [PO Jim Seager]. The more photos and information we can accumulate to include in the album, the more successful this project will be.
Photographs [6” x 4”] and supporting information, separately if possible, to be sent to either:-
1. smd@pagination.com.au electronically; Pagination Design Services Pty Ltd is the company which will do the necessary work to prepare the album.
2. By mail to Stephen Davey, MD, Pagination Design Service Pty Ltd, PO Box, 7160, Geelong West, Victoria, 3218, Australia.
3. By mail to Jim Tilley, 3 Albatross Circuit Woronora Heights NSW 2233 Australia, or by email to jimtilley@bigpond.com
Finally the eventual success of this strategic option will depend on the enthusiasm and involvement we can generate among our own membership. Members number close on 40,000 around the world in the 5 Consortium associations. Many of us did not serve in an active war theatre, like the Normandy beaches, the Korean War, The Malaysian insurgency, bombing sorties over Europe, or the Arctic Convoys. However we now feel sure there are many elderly members with experiences in war theatres, like those above, who will be prepared to demonstrate, by way of their photos and medals, the efforts they expended, to ensure Britain remained a democracy. We hope with these examples the UK Government will eventually recognise and practice the Government’s supposed support of the values and principles, fairness and equality, with which we were indoctrinated, when educated back in the UK.
Jim Tilley, Hon Chairman BPiA July 6th 2010
Petty Officer John [Jim] Seager, RN, OAM
Medals displayed
Order of Australia Medal, 1939-1945 Star, Battle of the Atlantic Star, Western Desert Star, Burma Star, Italy Campaign Star, End of 1939-45 War Star, Korean War Campaign Medal, UN Medal for Korean War, Malaya Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal.
PO John Seager completed his Royal Navy service in 1965 after 26 years, leaving as a Petty Officer Instructor, [Plotting and Radar].
John Seager is saddened that the UK Government, for whom he fought and served around the world, should take the view that people like him, who migrate and retire abroad, in Commonwealth countries, are denied any increases in their British age pension. For they have usually paid the necessary National Insurance contributions and are disadvantaged just because they have chosen to live overseas, especially those settling in Commonwealth nations, which generally come to the aid of Britain whenever requested to do so. John is now retired and lives in a Sydney suburb, Australia, close by his family.
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BPiA Chairman’s Monthly Report May 2010
BPiA activities in April and May
My usual monthly report at end April was replaced by BPiA “Pension Scam”, Newsletter 12, following the disappointing outcome of the ECHR Strasbourg hearing in September 2009. In that Newsletter we outlined some of our activities undertaken during April, ahead of the UK General Election, which as most of you will probably know, brought to Government in Westminster a new coalition, which includes Conservatives and some Liberal Democrats. Fortunately some of the Government Ministers are known to the International Consortium committee, for we met many of them when visiting Westminster a couple of years ago to present our case for indexing our pensions. Some of these new UK Government Ministers are also known to have been sympathetic to our cause, but having regards to the UK’s present financial state we believe it is sensible and reasonable not to approach them just yet to ask them to debate and approve the indexing of our pensions.
This end May report has been delayed by my having spent a few weeks away from my computer, travelling in the USA. While there I visited Vancouver where I had the pleasure of a short meeting and some lunch with about 12 of the Canadians’ British Columbia branch, during which we discussed some future plans for activities to publicise our views on pension non-indexing and how the International Consortium, by way of a teleconference, held on the day before my arrival in Vancouver, had decided to tackle the issue on a political basis from here-on. This it has been agreed should be the approach to take, now that the legal approach is behind us and no longer blocks possible discussions and, hopefully, possible negotiations by our political supporters from Canada and Canberra. This possible future political help is to be negotiated with our own Governments so they might help us in future endeavours.
Late in March and early April I had the benefit of two, one hour long, discussions in Sydney with three senior representatives from the Australian Department of Family Affairs etc. During these meetings we discussed what the Consortium was planning to do from here and what might the Australian Government do to help us in our future campaign. From one of these meetings it was agreed that if nothing had been achieved by us by mid 2011 then with the next CHOGM to be held in Perth WA, perhaps the Australian Government could do more to assist us than they did at CHOGM in Trinidad in November 2009!
At end April, prior to the General Election, I met with Nic Scase the new British CEO of Choice Australia, who we had discovered had worked in the inner circles of Gordon Brown’s Government. Nic gave me an insight into how he felt we might best approach our issue. He also felt that if David Cameron and the Conservatives were successful in the UK’s forthcoming election then the Conservatives might feel more sympathetic to us expats, resident in Commonwealth countries, in our appeals for the indexing of pensions of UK pension recipients, Nic was also of the view that by the time the next CHOGM was being held, November 2011, the British Government’s financial situation could be less dire than now. Timing of our claim, he opined, could be very important.
In early May, before I flew to San Francisco, The BPiA committee held a quarterly meeting at which it was agreed
- we would investigate the engagement of our own PR consultants to help us communicate our cause in Australia with a view to attract more members. These we believe are required to help fund what we expect to be a long term battle to win our fight with the British Government.
- Meanwhile we agreed to appeal to all existing members to see what they might do to help us in this regard by introducing as many people as they can, including Australians, Kiwis, etc who have worked in the UK and who are either ;-
- approaching pension age and who we can generally assist with their understanding of the pension application process and how they may be able to increase their pension contributions , or
- already on the UK age pension and who we hope will see the potential benefit of some extra pension income from indexing when we eventually win this fight.
In anticipation of more work to cope with many additional members it was suggested that we need to encourage several more people to assist us with running the BPiA office and to help the Chairman to offload some of the considerable work load which he has voluntarily taken on. So we are hereby appealing to those many members who live in the Sydney area and who have some useful talents in marketing, selling, accounting and computer skills to contact us via bpia@people.net.au or phone us on 1300 308 353, to see what they may be able to offer us in the way of time and their skills.
The International Consortium’s Current and Future Activities
During mid May the Consortium committee met by way of a teleconference and although I was in the USA at the time of this conference Patrick Edwards from our committee represented us. I have since had an opportunity to read the minutes of the tele-conference and a strategy is being developed based on the decisions agreed to during the discussions held that day. The key decisions made at this tele-conference include:-
- The use for several more months of London based PR consultants Champollion to assist us with our continuing campaign to attract the hearts and minds of the British public.
- Attendance once again at the 3 political party conferences this northern autumn. At these party conferences we can re-emphasis to all MPs the information about our complaint that we had previously sent to all the successful MPs, following the UK’s General Election.
- Establish Facebook and Twitter sites with the help of Champollion to assist us communicate our cause, especially in the UK. This task was handed to a committee member of the Canadian Association to manage.
- Develop an acceptable method of communicating the views and achievements of those more elderly members who have campaign medals. The option of sending medals to the UK to be returned at a ceremony to a dignitary may probably have to be modified. We are of this opinion because several replies we have had since publicising this brave suggestion, of handing back WW2 Campaign medals, indicated there is some reluctance on the part of many relevant members to lose these sentimental items. The task of managing this strategic objective has fallen upon us in Australia, but we are aiming for contributions from all the countries represented in the Consortium. An announcement on how this is to be achieved is being prepared even now and will be distributed in good time.
The Consortium is also considering whether to introduce another petition, with the view to generating debate in the House of Commons possibly later this year. The petition and its timing have been delegated for preparation to Tony Bockman, the Consortium Chairman.
BPiA membership matters
BPiA continues to assist new members to comprehend the new pension rules which came into operation as of April 6th 2010. As a result membership continues to rise and in May it increased steadily and now numbers 10,292, an increase of 51 in 4 weeks. However, having regards to the 250,000 British age pensioners in Australia our membership numbers are still very poor and there has to be much potential for even more members to be encouraged to join us; hence mentioning above of our need to employ some PR expertise in Australia to help us in this task.
We are now asking existing members to make every effort to help us to at least double our membership as soon as possible, to help fund the considerable expense we anticipate we’ll incur with our forthcoming campaign to convince the British Government to amend its regulations in our favour.
To achieve this every existing and new member is now asked to encourage at least 2 new members to join BPiA. If successful this would help boost membership dramatically. An application form is available at our website www.bpia.org.au . This can be printed and given to potential new members for them to use to join us as soon as possible. Remember we will help people who join us as members with their pension queries. We do keep a stock of DWP Pension Forecast Request and Pension Application forms and we will happily guide those who join BPiA, in the completion and mailing instructions for both forms.
Jim Tilley,
Hon Chairman, British Pensions in Australia,
Woronora Heights NSW June 12th 2010
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Newsletter of the British Pensions in Australia Autumn 2010
UK Pension Scam: Newsletter of British Pensions in Australia No 12 Autumn 2010
This issue of the BPiA Newsletter features :-
- The ECHR, “Carson and Others V the UK Government”
- The Present Currency Issue
- Membership matters
Download your copy here Newsletter 12 Autumn 2010
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URGENT “A petition to help advertise our UK pension cause”
Dear BPiA supporters
The International Consortium of British Pensioners [ ICBP] of which BPIA is a founder member has now opened its new website
Would you please help us advertise our cause to all Potential Parliamentary Candidates [ PPCs] by opening this new website
[ i.e. by clicking on the address above, and then clicking on the "how-to-help" notice on this website. This will then ask you to provided your name and address in support of the petition.
Please pass-on this request to any one you know who is, like us, outraged at being treated differently to other UK pensioners retired overseas but in the 50+ pension indexed countries.
This is the opening salvo in our strategy to get our point of view into the eyes of all the political candidates for the UK general election.
More requests may be coming as we increase political pressure for our worthy cause.
The petition will be distributed to all "PPCs" with the assistance of our PR consultants Champollion who are located in London
Kind regards
Jim Tilley
Hon Chairman
British Pensions in Australia.
Phone; 02 9521 7964 or 1300 308 353; VOiP 02 8004 2147 email; jimtilley@bigpond.com
Please visit BPiA's web-site www.bpia.org.au
BPiA is a non-profit national association of 10,039 to date, UK pensioner volunteers incorporated in NSW partnered with over 25,000 expats from Canadian and South African pensioner associations.
Our aim and mission is to achieve an improved (indexed) UK pension income for all recipients of the UK State pension especially those expats who have worked in the UK and paid into the UK's National Insurance scheme before retiring in Australia. Our political fight is funded from our small annual subs.
"What angers me and inspires me to act is when people are treated unfairly" Gordon Brown PM, Sept 2008
"There's no justification for paying some [expat pensioners] less than others. Lord Carswell, May 2005.
A tale of two sisters – Telegraph
A tale of two sisters
Pat and Bunty Dixon are retired sisters, one living in Austria and one in South Africa, who epitomise the problem with expat pensions.
By Emma Clark
Published: 9:49AM BST 19 Apr 2010
1 of 2 Images
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Pat, far left, and Bunty, next to her in the hat, with members of their family on a beach in South Africa.
Pat, far left, and Bunty, next to her in the hat, with members of their family on a beach in South Africa.
They each left Lancashire to start new lives abroad and, not unreasonably, expected to receive equal support from the government in their retirement years.
Instead Pat and Bunty Dixon, who emigrated in their 20s after marrying foreign husbands, receive very different state pensions because of the countries in which they settled.
Bunty, aged 77, lives in Austria and receives £50 a week after a lifetime's National Insurance contributions, including an annual inflation increase.
But her older sister Pat, 80, who moved to South Africa, takes home a pension of £18.21, an amount that has not changed in 20 years, despite also having made a lifetime's worth of contributions.
Government policy means expats living in often Commonwealth countries have their basic British pension frozen when they retire, while those in the EU, and 15 other countries that, over the years have made “reciprocal social security agreements” with the UK, enjoy the same annual increase as pensioners in Britain.
Pat worked as a junior school teacher in Lancashire for six years before emigrating with her Dutch husband to Cape Town for work reasons.
Before the move she paid extra National Insurance to qualify for the minimum 16 years of British state pension.
“It’s illogical and very unfair,” she said. “My sister and I both worked in Britain and then both moved outside of Britain, yet her pension goes up every year and mine doesn't.
“The cost of living goes up in leaps and bounds but I get the same pension I did 20 years ago. It is treated as a privilege rather than a right.
“For a government to treat its own old people in such an unjust way is shameful.”
Bunty, who has two children by her Austrian husband, who died in 1987, agrees with her sister.
“I consider that it is a great injustice to people living in the Commonwealth countries who have paid in for a pension and who receive no increase in the rates of benefit.
“I know what a difference the extra money can make.”
Last month saw the culmination of eight years of legal challenges against the policy, when the European Court of Human Rights upheld it, disappointing the 550,000 or so British expats scattered across the world on frozen pensions.
The International Consortium of British Pensioners, who formed to assist the South African Alliance of British Pensioners, is refusing to drop the matter and this week launched an online petition.
Pat, who has three children and eight grandchildren added: “Of course an increase of pension would allow me and my husband to do all sorts of things we are not able to do now, but it is the injustice of it that rankles me.”
* Sign the online expat pensions petition here.
via A tale of two sisters – Telegraph.
‘We will fight until we achieve justice’ – Telegraph
'We will fight until we achieve justice'
The International Consortium of British Pensioners is dug in for a fight about expat pensions. Its spokesman, John Markham, explains why and asks you to join him.
By John Markham
Published: 9:08AM BST 12 Apr 2010
Comments 36 | Comment on this article
The European Court of Human Rights delivered a devastating blow last month to more than 540,000 British pensioners living in more than 150 countries around the world, when it upheld the British government’s ludicrous frozen pension policy.
This archaic and arbitrary decision to freeze British basic state pension payments to some entitled pensioners, based purely on where they reside, ignores the fact that these individuals have all worked in the UK and paid their mandatory NI contributions like everyone else. British pensioners living mainly in Commonwealth countries have their pensions frozen, whereas British pensioners living in the EU and fifteen other countries do not. This means that a pensioner living in Canada will have their pension frozen, whereas a pensioner living in the US will not. To most citizens of the UK, decisions of this nature are illogical, unjust and above all fly in the face of centuries of British morality and fairness.
The ICBP intend to expose this disgraceful state of affairs whenever and wherever possible during this critical general election campaign, countering the entirely specious argument that the country cannot afford to provide pension parity. The cost of uprating all 545,000 frozen pensions would be less than 1 per cent of the pension budget. But regardless of this negligible sum, the government’s position is based on a false economy. The Department for Work and Pensions’ own figures show that every UK resident over the age of 60 costs the UK taxpayer annually £7,000 in their share of NHS costs and benefits over and above basic and additional pensions. By providing pension parity to all, at an average annual cost per capita of £1,000, there are potential savings of billions by making emigration easier and more appealing.
The UK is the only OECD country that does not provide equal pension portability rights to all of its citizens regardless of where they decide to live in their retirement. This is not a question of cost. It is a question of modernity, logic, and above all justice. People around the world continue to wonder that British standards of morality and fair play have fallen so far. The ICBP are going to stand up and expose this and would ask the people of Britain to join in the fight.
To add your voice to the consortium why not sign the ICBP's online petition (started on Monday April 12 2010) and then join one of these member groups? Don't worry if you're in a country that doesn't appear to be covered here. Just pick the nearest. Or if you'd like to start your own in an area of the world that isn't presently represented please contact one of these groups for advice.
* For the British Australian Pensioner Association (BAPA) contact Peter Morris on petermorriscpa@gmail.com
* For British Pensions in Australia (BPiA) contact Jim Tilley on jimtilley@bigpond.com
* For the Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners (CABP) please contact Sheila Telford on sheilatelford@shaw.ca
* The contact for the British Pensioners' Association – Western Canada (BPAWC), is Deryck Jones altaplano@nucleus.com
* The South African Alliance of British Pensioners (SAABP) contact is Eric Byrom on ericb0@absamail.co.za
Sign an online petition demanding parity for British pensioners abroad by following this link. Please sign it and then send it to your friends. You don't have to be an expat or a pensioner to sign the petition.
via ‘We will fight until we achieve justice’ – Telegraph.
Sign the online expat pensions petition – Telegraph Blogs
Sign the online expat pensions petition
By Emma Hartley Last updated: April 12th, 2010
No Comments Comment on this article
With a small fanfare I can announce that the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP) has created an online petition demanding pensions parity for British abroad, regardless of where they retire.
Follow this link to sign it and then forward the petition on to two people or more whom you think might be interested in doing the same.
At the moment there are more than half a million elderly people, many in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, whose pension entitlement was frozen at the point when they left the UK. Literally frozen, so as inflation churns ahead their pensions are stuck at the same figure.
Others in the EU, US and elsewhere who have made the same National Insurance contributions have their pensions index-linked, although there is no rhyme or reason to which countries are which. It is simply a matter of ad hoc agreements made in decades past.
After the recent – and to the naked eye, wildly unjust – ruling at the European Court of Human Rights, the question was: what’s the next move? With all the legal options apparently at an end – and with the courts having failed to produce anything that looked like fair play – things looked temporarily bleak.
But there is an election coming up. So with that in mind the ICBP has decided to move expat pensions on to the electoral agenda. As well as signing the petition there are also two suggestions attached to the form about how you might bring the issue to wider attention.
You don’t have to be an expat pensioner to sign. You don’t even have to be an expat or a pensioner. You could just be someone interested in fairness.
One in ten British pensioners is an expat and about half of these – five per cent of all UK pensioners – has had a historic wrong done to them.
You can help to right it.
via Sign the online expat pensions petition – Telegraph Blogs.
Overseas pensioners take their battle to the General Election | Mature Times
Overseas pensioners take their battle to the General Election
By John Markham, The International Consortium of British Pensioners – 09/04/2010
As a result of the recent ruling in the European Court of Human Rights, more than half a million UK pensioners living overseas will continue to have their pensions frozen. But the campaigners say they will continue to battle for their rights – as well as those who leave these shores in the future to spend their retirement years abroad – and are looking to use the General Election to focus attention on the issue.
While pensioners who moved to (mostly Commonwealth) countries such as Australia and Canada have had their State pensions frozen at the original amount paid at retirement, those living in the European Economic Area or in 15 other countries continue to see their pensions rise in line with those in the UK.
We argue that, having paid into the pensions system for the years when they were working, we should be entitled to the same benefits as those who remained in the UK – and indeed, all those who have chosen to move to one of the countries in Europe and elsewhere – often to be close to their sons and daughters.
While the current basic state pension is £95.25 a week, the oldest overseas pensioners can be receiving as little as £6 a week. This, in many, many cases, is causing real hardship.
The International Consortium of British Pensioners and the 540,000 expatriate pensioners who have their pensions frozen by an ungrateful British government were very disappointed by the recent ruling in favour of the British government.
However, we have taken heart from the fact that six of the 17 judges found in our favour and we are determined to keep the fight going until we win and obtain Pension Parity.
We haven’t got the courts behind us, but we think we can win public opinion – and for this they are seeking the support of the UK population as well as from NGOs and Trade Unions. The issue is quite clear. All these pensioners at one stage lived, worked and paid mandatory NI contributions in the UK during their life; in this they are no different to pensioners resident in the UK, the EU or 15 other 'indexed' countries. The only difference is where they reside; mainly in Commonwealth countries. Although the Government agrees that there is no legal requirement to have a “Reciprocal Agreement' in place to uprate pensions, they continue to refuse to do so.
This totally unjust and unfair treatment of such a large group of vulnerable British citizens not only applies to existing expatriate citizens. It also seriously impacts on the lives of three distinct groups resident in the UK.
First, existing pensioners who would like to emigrate to spend their declining years in the bosom of their family but do not want to become a financial burden on them.
Second, the large number of immigrant workers from the Commonwealth countries, who intend to return to their country of origin upon retirement.
Third, the many workers in the UK who are contemplating emigrating upon retirement to any of the 151 non-indexed countries around the world. All these groups will have their pensions frozen the day they set foot outside these shores.
The ICBP intend to continue their battle on behalf of all these groups starting with the General Election.
We would welcome the support of all to put an end to this unfair and unjust practice by the British Government, which above all flies in the face of centuries of the much valued and praised sense of British Morality. Britain is the only member of the OECD that does not provide indexed global exported pensions. The world wonders at how the British Government can continue this discriminatory treatment of its citizens.
via Overseas pensioners take their battle to the General Election | Mature Times.