Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimates he has made of the potential cost to the public purse of uprating state pensions for pensioners who live overseas.

Successive post-war Governments have followed the same policy. Up-rating UK State Pensions for recipients who are overseas residents is longstanding; state Pensions are payable worldwide and are up-rated where there is a legal requirement to do so.

The policy on the up-rating of UK State Pensions paid to recipients living outside the UK has been in place for over 70 years. The UK State Pension is payable worldwide without regard to nationality. Entitlement to the UK State Pension is based on the national insurance contributions on a person’s national insurance record. The annual index-linked increases to UK State Pensions are paid to recipients overseas only where there is a legal requirement to do so, for example in EEA countries or in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement in place that provides for the up-rating of the UK State Pension. The Government has no plans to change the policy upheld by all previous Governments, Labour, Coalition and Conservative for the past 70 years.

The estimated costs of up-rating state pensions overseas where they are currently not up-rated are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimated-costs-of-uprating-state-pension-in-frozen-rate-countries