Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2014-04-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when officials of his Department in Harare last met the Zimbabwean government director of pensions to discuss distribution of the funds reserved for payment to overseas pensioners; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Simmonds

We continue to pursue a resolution to the non-payment of Zimbabwe civil servant pensions and are in regular contact with the interested parties, including the Overseas Service Pensioners Association (OSPA) and the Federal Pensioners Association in Harare.

UK officials last spoke with the Director of Pensions at the end of January and are still pursuing a response from the Zimbabwean Civil Service Commission to our letter from December 2013. We have also raised the issue since with other interlocutors, including the Zimbabwean Ambassador in London.