British expats on Australia visa fight for their pensions
September 08 2009 by Matt Jones
Jim Tilly: Australian immigration funds UK pensioners
Retired British expats who made the move the Australia had their pensions frozen so that they do not increase with interest rates. They are now fighting to have that changed.
The pensioners have had their pension frozen at a fixed rate per week. Pensioners living in the UK and various commonwealth countries have a pension that increases with the inflation rate and so the Australian immigrants are claiming that is discriminatory. They are preparing to fight their case in an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg next week.
The result of the pension being frozen is that it becomes worth less and less every time inflation increases. One lady who lived till she was 97 was deprived of £60,000. Her pension was frozen at a meagre £4.50 per week for years and it would have risen to £78 per week had it risen with the inflation rate.
Australia currently provides the funds for the the British expats so it is in the interests of Australian immigration to fight on the pensioner’s side.
The chairman of British Pensions in Australia Jim Tilley said: "When you speak to people about this particular issue the first thing that comes up is: 'that's not fair, that's discrimination, that's immoral.’”
He went on to say: "We believe it's discriminatory because many British people who live abroad, over half a million now live in places like America, the Philippines, Israel, Switzerland, Spain; some of the Commonwealth countries even: Jamaica and Barbados, Mauritius, Bermuda. They get the pensions indexed. But us in Australia, Canada and South Africa, which make up the lion's share of the frozen pensions, don't."
It is estimated that raising the pensions to the level that includes the inflation rate will cost £520 million for the first year alone and more each year after that. Tilly said that amount is “chicken feed” as the balance for national insurance contributions is sitting at roughly £50 billion.
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