Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-04-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the event of the UK leaving the EU, UK citizens living in EU member states will retain all of their UK pension rights and will continue to be treated the same as if they were resident in the UK.

Baroness Altmann

The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU.

As set out in the Government’s White Paper: ‘The process for withdrawing from the European Union’, published on 29 February, the withdrawal process is unprecedented. No country has ever used Article 50 – it is untested. There is a great deal of uncertainty about how it would work. UK citizens living in the EU currently enjoy a range of specific rights to live, to work and access to pensions, health care and public services that are only guaranteed because of EU law. There would be no requirement under EU law for these rights to be maintained if the UK left the EU.