Lord Jones of Cheltenham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people living in each country of the EU are in receipt of the UK state pension which is currently uprated annually under EU regulations and reciprocal agreements, and what assessment they have made of what will happen to those pensions if the UK leaves the EU.

Baroness Altmann

The Government has a clear position, which has remained consistent for around 70 years: UK state pensions are payable worldwide and uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so for example in the European Economic Area or countries where we have a reciprocal agreement that allows for uprating. There are no plans to change this.

Details of the numbers of people in receipt of the state pension, and whether they live in countries where the state pension is frozen or uprated, is included at Annex A. Countries where the UK state pension is up-rated are identified by an asterisk by the name of the country.

The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. Of course there is uncertainty about how a vote to leave the EU could impact on access to pensioner benefits for UK pensioners living in other parts of Europe. These questions would need to be answered as part of the process of negotiating the UK’s exit if there is a vote to leave. We could only consider the detail of access to pensions and benefits for people in receipt of UK state pensions who are resident in Europe as part of the process for leaving the EU.