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An Excellent letter sent to Jack Straw by one of our members |
The Straw speech to which the writer refers is on our web site, at Straw Speech
06/09/07
Mr Jack
Straw MP
House of Commons
Westminster
London, England
Dear Mr Straw,
The Pension Injustice
I was very interested to read your views involving justice and the rights of man that you gave in your fine address in St.Paul’s Cathedral. I do so agree with your theme.
But, with the greatest of respect, I cannot help wondering how, thinking as you do, you can justify the cynical refusal of your Government to rectify the injustice that ex-pats suffer if they spend their years of retirement in Australia, New Zealand, Canada or South Africa.
I am 95 years old and moved to Australia some 16 years ago. If I had gone to somewhere else in Europe, or the USA, Germany, Japan or almost anywhere else in the world, my British old-age pension of course would have been unaffected. but, as a result of my coming to live here , from the moment I arrived, the vitally important annual bonuses that are paid to counteract the ravages of inflation have been cancelled. With every year that passes the purchasing value of my pension falls. Pensioners who have been living here for many years have seen their pensions reduced to pathetic values. Disgracefully, no warning of this major problem was apparently ever issued to emigrant pensioners.
There can be no justification for such extraordinary and unjust discrimination. How can there be any logic in discriminating against pensioners who move to the dominions? Pensioners suffering in this way scraped together money to challenge this injustice in the Courts. Eventually after years the case reached the House of Lords. As you know, their Lordships, by a majority verdict, ruled in effect that the discrimination was not relevant -- Parliament had the right in law to decide who should receive pensions and how much each should get. So, the case was lost and the money wasted - .a disaster, for the pensioners. I wonder how you personally felt about the judgement - would you call it a triumph of justice?
The situation now, of course, is that the pensioners must rely on the conscience of MPs forcing them to cease using the technical verdict, or the cost, as excuses for short- changing these defenceless old people, who are of the generation who fought and won the war. I am told that if the pensioners could again scrape together enough money to bring the case before the European Court , it is highly probable that that Court would condemn the savage discrimination, leaving Britain little choice but to end the absurdity and cruelty of the present system. The cost would be small because by then countless thousands of pensioners, including me, will be dead. The plain fact is that the longer the Government can prevaricate the less pensions there will be to pay.
If we complain to MPs about the unfair discrimination, we are fobbed off with two official excuses. The first is that Lords have given their judgement and that’s that, and the second that to rectify the injustice would be too costly. The latter excuse is not only shameful for a wealthy country to offer but is untrue. In reality, to start paying the rightful pensions from now on would only cost a tiny fraction of the total pension budget. At the stroke of a pen the rightful bonuses could be restored. , tt has to be remembered that by moving abroad we ex-pats save Britain a huge amount in health care and welfare. What a financial burden it would be for Britain if we all decided to return!
I am too old of course for this issue to be of importance to me personally, but, remembering the strong views you have expressed about justice, I appeal to you, for the sake of all the thousands of other pensioners, to talk to your colleagues and do your utmost to right this great injustice.
I am disturbed to hear that it is most difficult to read your full speech on the web-site. The text apparently mysteriously vanishies swiftly from the screen. Could this be rectified so that all can read it? I would be grateful if you would be kind enough to answer this letter yourself so that I can at least be sure that that you have been able to read it before anyone could slip it into a “Never Received” basket.
In your address you drew attention to the memorials in the cathedral to those who battled for justice. You might perhaps be interested to know that there used to be one more memorial of the same type in the Cathedral until a German bomb shattered it, there was a huge window in one of the North chapels in memory of the Earl of Meath, He was my grandfather. Amongst his many achievements for the public is the fact that he was the founder of Empire Day, now Dominion Day, a great conception. I’m sure he would be horrified to know that these days, if British retire in the dominions, their pensions rights are savagely reduced He would find it unbelievable
Finally, I would mention that I intend to send copies of this letter to HM The Queen and to the Leader of the Opposition, both of whom should be made aware of the grave injustice being inflicted on a huge number of British pensioners.
Yours sincerely and hopefully,
Geoffrey B Holt,
An Excellent letter sent by two Frozen pensioners
John R. Greenway
MP for Ryedale
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA
United Kingdom
Dear Mr Greenway
As former residents of Malton still on your Electoral Roll and now registered
for postal votes, we write to express our deep concern over the present
Government's continuing refusal to index the state pensions of those living in
Australia.
We retired and joined our family here in 2000, having no relatives left in the
UK. Our pensions were frozen on the date of emigration, in spite of the fact
that both of us had paid National Insurance contributions all our working lives.
You will appreciate that everyone who emigrates is no longer a burden not only
on the UK National Health Service, but on all Government services, thus actually
benefiting the Exchequer. The fact that emigrants to Australia, Canada, New
Zealand and South Africa are discriminated against compared with people who
emigrate to Europe, Fiji, USA etc seems to be a violation of human rights which
deserves further investigation.
The Australian authorities have to top up the UK portion of pensions of citizens
who have been able to work over here for part of their lives and this too is
unfair on the Australian Government. For those of us who were not eligible to
seek employment the future is going to be one of pensions decreasing in value
over the years, combined with variable rates of exchange.
It is particularly disturbing that the most flagrantly short-sighted
discrimination is directed against British pensioners who use their lifetime's
experience to benefit the major Commonwealth countries. One would have thought
that British governments should be seeking to strengthen, not weaken, the ties
with the Commonwealth. We appreciate that you have many issues to deal with, but
we hope you can help to do something to abolish the British government's
discrimination against pensioners, many of whom continue to render significant
service to the Commonwealth to which we all belong.
Yours sincerely,
Signed by two Doctor members of BAPA.
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