Fury over state pension ‘injustice’ as 500,000 miss out on benefits increase | Personal Finance | Finance

A Greens politician has called out the “wrong” that 500,000 state pensioners do not get the annual pay rise because of where they live.

People only get the increase in April if they live in certain countries, leaving out other popular places for Britons to emigrate, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Baroness Natalie Bennett, who previously led the Green Party, has been campaigning against the frozen pension policy since 2014.

She told Express.co.uk: “Frozen pensions are not the result of a policy decision, but of historical accidents.

“And while some of them are ‘rescued’ in terms of income from the nations they live in, that is a clear abrogation of the UK’s responsibilities. People who are paid into a pension; they should have a right to it.”

To receive the annual upgrade, a person must live in:

• the European Economic Area
• Gibraltar
• Switzerland
• A country that has a social security agreement with the UK.

The Green Party proposes the introduction of a citizen’s pension, an unconditional payment for all Britons, with the annual upgrade linked to earnings.

Baroness Bennett said: The Green Party believes that no older person should live in poverty, that everyone has the opportunity to live a happy, secure, comfortable life.

“That’s why in the 2015 manifesto and since then, we have been demanding that a ‘citizen pension’, an annual maximum, paid to all pensioners, be set at a level so that no pensioners are living in poverty.

“That policy also includes supplements for those who live alone and are disabled or have special needs. People should not have to rely on means-tested benefits – which many applications will not or cannot to make them – to ensure freedom from desires, people who sometimes need them too.many pensioners are now surviving.

“I have long been pushing for more action from the government to help those who miss out on Pension Credit.”

For those who receive the annual increase, the state pension increases every year in line with the triple green policy, with payments rising by 2.5 per cent, the rate of inflation or the increase in average earnings, the highest number.

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