Frozen pensions criticised again

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Pension

The much maligned frozen pension that leaves some expats with pensions that aren’t adjusted for inflation has again been targeted for criticism.

This time, one of the UK’s leading think tanks has published a report severely lambasting the policy, both for its unfairness and its economic ineffectiveness.

Think tank the Runnymeade Trust, has stated in the report that the frozen pensions do not benefit anyone, as obviously expats suffer but it seems that the UK government may also be shooting itself in the foot.

The report mentions a 2011 Oxford Economics paper that showed uprating pensions would hurt tax revenues and increase government spending only in the short term. Eventually this would be cancelled out by increasing numbers of retirees moving abroad, thus actually saving the government money by reducing social services costs.

One of the authors of the Runnymeade Trust, Phil Mawhinney, said: “The current system of overseas pensions uprating is arbitrary, with no logic behind a pension being uprated in Jamaica but not Trinidad. We therefore call on the Government to uphold fairness and uprate all overseas UK pensions.”

If you are worried about a frozen UK pension, speak to an IFA to discuss possible alternatives.