🚀 go-pugleaf

Expats angry at lack of Tory support over pensions
By Ava Hubble in Sydney

Daily Telegraph
(Filed: 09/03/2005)

British expatriates fighting for an end to the Governmant's refusal to
unfreeze state pensions are angry that a parliamentary move to scrap the
policy has failed to win the support of the shadow welfare minister, Paul
Goodman.

Mr Goodman, Conservative MP for Wycombe and former shadow minister for work
and pensions, has refused to support an Early Day Motion (EDM) calling for
the end of the frozen pensions policy, which penalises expats who retire to
48 mainly Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations.

Their pensions are frozen at the UK rate in force on the date they begin to
draw them overseas. Those who retire to EU nations, the USA and most other
non-Commonwealth nations receive the same regular cost-of-living rises as
pensioners resident in the UK.

An EDM is used to draw attention to an issue and elicit the support of other
MPs. Nick Harvey, Liberal Democrat MP for North Devon, recently initiated
EDM 529, advocating parity for the 480,000 expatriates currently affected.
It has been signed by 74 MPs but has not yet been tabled.

Photo 1:
http://tinyurl.com/5p6k3
Caption
Annette Carson: took her test case to the House of Lords
     
Photo 2:
http://tinyurl.com/5wgas
Caption:
Paul Goodman: 'no support'

Mr Goodman was asked to support the motion by a member of the British
Australian Pensioners' Association, Peter Morris, who has challenged
Government claims that Britain cannot afford to grant parity to the
penalised expats.

Mr Morris argued that since the National Insurance Fund has a surplus of �20
billion in excess of forecast claims, it can afford the estimated annual
�400 million cost of unfreezing affected pensions.

In response Mr Goodman said that while he believes the frozen pensioners
have a good case, he will not be supporting EDM 529: it was not Conservative
Party policy to do so. He also noted that the National Insurance Fund's
surplus might be required for the relief of British workers who have lost
their expected occupational pensions.

Mr Goodman said that some of his own constituents "have effectively been
robbed of their (occupational) pensions" because of the purchase and later
controversial closure of the Glory Paper Mill near High Wycombe by the
German firm, Felix Schoeller.

Mr Goodman's response has outraged the Adelaide-based British Australian
Pensioners' Association (BAPA). "So now we are told the National Insurance
Fund could be raided to prop up private pension funds left short by
employers," James Nelson, BAPA committee member, complained last week.

He pointed out that hundreds of thousands of expatriate retirees, including
Second World War veterans, who contributed to the NI fund throughout long
post-war working lives, are now living in straitened circumstances because
of the frozen pensions policy.

"We've been fighting for years for parity," he protested. "Now we're told
people who contracted out may be deemed to have a superior claim to its
resources."

He also referred to a trip to Pakistan taken by Mr Goodman, after which he
said that he wanted to get to know the place where 10 per cent of his
constituents came from. Mr Nelson pointed out that Pakistan is one country
affected by the frozen pensions policy.

"In other words, if after spending their working lives in the UK, some of Mr
Goodman's constituents decide to retire to their homeland, they too will be
penalised by the policy," he said. "Yet Mr Goodman says he won't sign EDM
529."

Last week, five Law Lords in London reserved judgment on an appeal against
the Government's frozen pensions policy by Annette Carson, a Briton living
in South Africa. She lost her case in the High Court and in the Appeal Court
but won the right to a Lords appeal.

The Adelaide-based BAPA, as well as the Sydney-based British Pensioners in
Australia organisation, are among the expat pensioner groups which have been
urging their eligible members to register to vote in the forthcoming UK
General Election. Eligible expats and supporters have also been encouraged
to contact their MPs to ask them to support the Early Day Motion.


http://expat.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2005/03/09/hub3.x
ml