[BITList] Frozen UK Pensions

[John Feltham]

G’day folks,

If you live in the UK, or have family living in the UK, please print out Clive’s letter [see below] and make an appointment [by phone] to see your local MP. 

Don’t tell them what you want to discuss - even if you are pressed - otherwise you’ll be palmed off.

Remind him/her that your vote and that of your whole family, depends on his/her answer

Then ask him/her if he/she agrees with the contents of the letter.

If he/she says yes then ask for that answer to be put in writing and sent to your address.

If the answer is no, then advise him/her that you will still be holding a family meeting and your advice to your family will be to vote for another party.

You can then hold a family meeting to decide whether you and your family will vote for your local MP.

If/when you get the letter send it on your to whoever sent you this email.

Thankyou.


ooroo



Begin forwarded message:

To: "bapaemail at yahoogroups.com" <bapaemail at yahoogroups.com>
From: "clive walford clida2000 at yahoo.com [bapaemail]" <bapaemail at yahoogroups.com>
Date: 15 October 2014 4:01:02 pm AEST
Subject: Re: [CM] [bapanews] Re: Last night:
Reply-To: bapaemail at yahoogroups.com





I have put our twopenny-worth in to the Con. Party via Mr Cohen. (sent as follows). We need more 2p's worth by all.  well done to all of you.

clive walford (chairman PPiI)


Dear Mr Cohen,

I, like many thousands of “frozen” UK State Pensioners, have read your reply sent to another frozen pensioner in Australia. Those many thousands of expat pensioners live in one of 120 countries where the Government continue this immoral, unjust discrimination against them.

Your words have been repeated to many thousands of those pensioners and to their supporters. I am sure you are aware that there are a growing number of supporters, as well as pensioners, that are now saying they will only vote for the party that agrees to stop the discrimination.

It is not just frozen pensioners that are saying that. Expats that have their pension currently uprated are also against the other proposals that the Treasury, (hand in glove with the DWP), are putting forward that will affect them in a number of ways in the future.

Often we hear people condemning this government for what appears to be a “hit” programme against pensioners. (not just existing pensioners but future pensioners. (i.e. think tanks ideas of increasing NI Contributions for workers aged 40+).
 
Workers, (taking the median average wage in the UK) on a £24,000 salary already pay £4,000 income tax that’s roughly 17%. They also pay 12% for NI Contributions.

So before they even get their hands on their money, the government have already taken 27%!

Then they pay VAT, high petrol tax, and road tax! council tax and  probably a few more besides.

You don’t leave them much do you?
 
Your chairman, to which many of those frozen pensioners have written, says thank you for their emails or letters. But then churns out the same excuses for denying that uprating of all frozen pensions.

You say “you appreciate us making you aware of our thoughts”. You and previous governments have been made aware of our thoughts for, (in the words of Mr Webb, as said to the Committee on the new pension Act relating to how long FPs have been operating), for decades and decades and decades).

Perhaps you should point out to Mr Webb that the way of life and travel has not stayed the same for decades and decades and decades. Even Mr Cameron has agreed living has changed considerably.
 
The DWP, Mr Webb, government spokespersons and party spokesman have always said that expats are not entitled to pension up-rating, unless a relevant treaty or agreement exists.

In a reply to an MP Mr Webb confirmed that I was correct in saying that Reciprocal Agreements, (RA) are not, (and never have been), necessary to uprate expat pensions. That was confirmed later by the freedom of information office and is as clearly stated in the House of Commons Library notes.

All agree that uprating is by Domestic Legislation and RAs are not necessary. 
 
So perhaps you can explain why those people still mislead the public, or any one questioning why pensions are frozen in those 120 countries, by still insisting pensions are only uprated where there is a RA. Let me remind you that frozen pensions only apply to approximately half of the 1.1 million expat pensioners.

Lord Freud in his letter to me dated 31 January 2014tried to get out of that by saying that uprating does in normal circumstances does require an RA. This is in contrary to what the HoC library says, Mr Webb says and the freedom of Information office says. Domestic legislation, such as a regulation, (3 or clause a 20 Regulation) does not need an RA.
 
Why was the list of countries where there is no RA used to freeze pensions? It may be strongly suggested that at that time those government officials dealing with pensions THOUGHT an RA was necessary.  As the Minister and his department have been forced to admit RAs are not, and never were necessary, then surely he must correct the situation.

He agreed with the committee that it was an anomaly and even added it was an oddity. So surely it is only right that “anomalies and oddities” should never appear in legal documents such as the Pension Act.

You state “that this issue has been examined extensively by the domestic courts, culminating in a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in 2010. In all these cases the courts have found in favour of the Government”.

Again in government evidence the RAs  were used to argue their case but as far as I can see it was never clearly pointed out that uprating does not in fact require one. That as I see it is misleading to the courts.

 The government, (mostly Conservatives) and the Conservative party have been made well aware of the strength of the anti-frozen pension campaign and the growing number of MPs or candidates that are becoming more supportive of the campaign.

This has become a much bigger issue spreading amongst friends, family and contacts of frozen pensioners. As I mentioned earlier not just frozen pensioners but all pensioners.
 
You have seen the response to the “we cant afford £600 million to uprate Frozen Pensions. but we can afford £11.4 billion for overseas aid”. 

Of course you try to hide the £ billions that expats Frozen Pensioners save the NHS, which is falling apart.
 
This government elected “by the people for the people” should try listening to “the people” a lot more than they do.

Yours faithfully
Clive Walford
Chairman of PPiI (Pension Parity in Indonesia)(and Asia Pacific )






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