432-00504 Foreign affairs
Petition to the Government of Canada
WHEREAS
Worldwide there are nearly half a million pensioners in receipt of a UK state pension which is "frozen" at the same amount as when the pension is first received - i.e. these pensioners never receive an annual cost of living increase to their UK state pension once payments begin. The UK is the only OECD country in the world to discriminate based on country of residence when it comes to providing annual inflationary increases to pension payments.
91% of these pensioners live in four Commonwealth countries - Australia with 228,000, Canada with 128,000, New Zealand with 65,000 and South Africa with 32,000.
The UK Government has estimated that to uprate these “frozen” pensions worldwide would cost $1bn a year. Canada's share of this is $269 million. This has a “spending power” in excess of half a billion dollars a year, which would boost the Canadian economy significantly.
UK Governments have consistently said that they will only uprate “frozen” pensions through bilateral agreements. However, in 2013, UK Freedom of Information request 2013/00595 confirmed bilateral agreements were not required in order to uprate “frozen” pensions.
Any increase to the UK state pension would be taxable income in the hands of the UK pensioners living in Canada. In addition, since pensioners tend to be spenders rather than savers, then the Canadian federal and provincial governments would also receive a boost via GST and, in most cases, PST.
Any increase received by these pensioners living in Canada could mean that they are no longer eligible for GIS and social assistance, and this would represent a saving to the Canadian governments.
According to Statistics Canada, as at 2016, there were 828,000 pensioners living in Canada aged 65 and over on "low income", and, according to the Government of Canada, 10.3% of men and 10.8% of women aged 65 and over were living below the poverty line.
We, the undersigned Canadian citizens/Permanent Residents of Canada call upon the Prime Minister to:
Raise the issue of Frozen British Pensions at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali, Rwanda - June 22-27, 2020;
Ensure that any future trade expansion discussions with the UK are dependent on the UK Government first unfreezing the UK state pension payments worldwide.
WHEREAS
Worldwide there are nearly half a million pensioners in receipt of a UK state pension which is "frozen" at the same amount as when the pension is first received - i.e. these pensioners never receive an annual cost of living increase to their UK state pension once payments begin. The UK is the only OECD country in the world to discriminate based on country of residence when it comes to providing annual inflationary increases to pension payments.
91% of these pensioners live in four Commonwealth countries - Australia with 228,000, Canada with 128,000, New Zealand with 65,000 and South Africa with 32,000.
The UK Government has estimated that to uprate these “frozen” pensions worldwide would cost $1bn a year. Canada's share of this is $269 million. This has a “spending power” in excess of half a billion dollars a year, which would boost the Canadian economy significantly.
UK Governments have consistently said that they will only uprate “frozen” pensions through bilateral agreements. However, in 2013, UK Freedom of Information request 2013/00595 confirmed bilateral agreements were not required in order to uprate “frozen” pensions.
Any increase to the UK state pension would be taxable income in the hands of the UK pensioners living in Canada. In addition, since pensioners tend to be spenders rather than savers, then the Canadian federal and provincial governments would also receive a boost via GST and, in most cases, PST.
Any increase received by these pensioners living in Canada could mean that they are no longer eligible for GIS and social assistance, and this would represent a saving to the Canadian governments.
According to Statistics Canada, as at 2016, there were 828,000 pensioners living in Canada aged 65 and over on "low income", and, according to the Government of Canada, 10.3% of men and 10.8% of women aged 65 and over were living below the poverty line.
We, the undersigned Canadian citizens/Permanent Residents of Canada call upon the Prime Minister to:
Raise the issue of Frozen British Pensions at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali, Rwanda - June 22-27, 2020;
Ensure that any future trade expansion discussions with the UK are dependent on the UK Government first unfreezing the UK state pension payments worldwide.