Annual UK Basic State pension increases coming?

[banders]

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/unfair-postco ... riple lock

Moves are afoot to increase the UK Basic State pension...

[Tkydon]

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: “We understand that people move abroad for many reasons and that this can impact on their finances. There is information on gov.uk about what the effect of going abroad will be on entitlement to the UK state pension.

“The government’s policy on the uprating of the UK state pension for recipients living overseas is a longstanding one of more than 70 years and we continue to uprate state pensions overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so.”


Legal Requirement only? No Moral obligation to its own Citizen (and other) paid-up Pensioners...

Up until now they have stated they have no plan to change this policy as the 'cost to the nation' would be very large.

[kuma]

This Feb 2021 House of Commons Library Research Briefing gives an in depth look at the frozen pension issue: current status, history, prognosis, (unsuccessful) legal challenge, etc:

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/re ... s/sn01457/

This link is contained within: https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/United_Kingd ... _Resources

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

The issue about the lack of inflation related increases is well known for the British state pension for Britons residing abroad, but I would like to know about Brits who have retired abroad who are receiving public sector pensions and I would like to know if they get inflation related increases.

Given the large number of English teachers who follow this forum it would be interested to know if any were signed up to the British teacher's pension and what increases they get, if any?

[Roger Van Zant]

I think it is a bad idea to keep pressing the issue.
A very possible outcome is that the UK government looks more closely into the issue and realizes many of us are getting an amazing deal by only paying Class 2 NI contributions instead of Class 3.

At worst, they set up a new class even more expensive than Class 3, only for UK citizens living abroad.

Considering inflation in Japan is almost non-existent, I don't think it is such a huge deal that the UK pension is frozen from the time you start receiving it. It would be much worse if we lived in a country with real inflation issues.

In the future, as the Japanese economy continues to deteriorate further, and Japan goes back to its pre-bubble poor-country status, I think it will be even less of an issue.

[RetireJapan]

At worst, they set up a new class even more expensive than Class 3, only for UK citizens living abroad.

I think the worst likely outcome is that they stop allowing non-residents to pay into the state pension.

[kuma]

The UK government had this to say in 2016:

4.14 At present, someone working abroad does not usually have a liability for NICs in the UK, nor do mariners on foreign vessels. However they are able to gain access to the new State Pension by paying Class 2 NICs voluntarily*, whereas someone employed wholly in the UK but earning under £112 a week (and not eligible for NI credits) would have to pay Class 3 NICs if they wished to continue to gain qualifying years for the new State Pension. This means that they are currently paying much less than UK workers to gain access to the same State Pension on a voluntary basis.

4.15 The government believes it is right that everyone makes a fair contribution towards the State Pension, so the facility for those working abroad (and who are not UK insured) to pay Class 2 NICs voluntarily* will no longer be available after the abolition of Class 2 NICs. In the UK, all those who do not gain access to the new State Pension based on employment earnings or self-employed profits, or who do not receive NI credits, will need to pay Class 3 NICs should they wish to build qualifying years. Following the abolition of Class 2 NICs, the same rule will also apply to those working overseas.

* If they worked in the UK immediately before leaving, and had previously lived in the UK for 3 years in a row or paid 3 years’ National Insurance.

Source: 'Abolishing Class 2 and reforming Class 4 National Insurance contributions: response to the consultation' (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... se_web.pdf):

[This policy got abandoned, as we know, but it is interesting to look back at some of the government thinking and language from the time.]

National Insurance is a huge thing (raising £157billion in 2021-2; second only to income tax; https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-b ... ions-nics/). My understanding is that the plans to reform it got abandoned (shelved?) due to it being disadvantageous to a set of low-income self-employed people (and possibly some others?). Tinkering with such a big thing will take a lot of legislative wrangling.

[Beaglehound]

Despite being a fortunate Class 2 payer, I don’t disagree with the thinking behind charging us overseas folk (still cheap) Class 3 rates. I think it’s likely that will happen at some point, much less likely that the option to pay in from overseas will be abolished completely.