|
Statistics |
Note: the numbers in tables in this file are not updated regularly. But the arguments are still just as valid as on the day the tables were created.
Highlights in this section - click your pick
Government Actuary's report '06
Loss of Income to the
Australian Economy
The cost of uprating frozen
pensions
British State Pension rate history
National Health savings
National Insurance Fund surplus
Countries most affected
Rights denied in these
Commonwealth countries
Britain first froze the pensions of overseas residents in the early 1950s. At that time they may have been some excuse as the British economy was in dire straights in the years following WW II and there were very strict controls on the movement of Sterling out of the country.
Since then there have been many changes. Britain now has one of the strongest economies in the world, yet pays its elderly one of the lowest retirement pension rates of all the developed countries.
Though the Governments of some of the stronger countries, such as the European Union and the USA, have managed to persuade Britain to upgrade pensions paid to its residents in their countries, pensions paid to Britons resident in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, another 43 Commonwealth countries and certain other countries remain frozen at the date they first either emigrated as pensioners or became eligible after emigration.
The following table indicates the growth of the basic pension, year by year since 1948, paid to a single person after a full working life making compulsory contributions every week for upwards of 40 years. Being contributory this pension is not means tested.
British State Pension Rate History
showing rate changes for the 96% of British
pensioners who
enjoy annual indexation
Most pensioners in old loyal Commonwealth countries have their pensions frozen, while pensioners living in USA (for example) have theirs indexed each year.
(Basis: Basic pension, weekly)
The basic British Retirement, or Age, Pension is awarded in direct proportion to
the number of contributions made to the National Insurance Fund. 40 years of contributions earns the full pension. 11 years for a man, or 10 for a
woman, earn a 25% pension.
As from April 2010, new pensioners reaching pension age will receive 100% basic pension if they have paid contributions for 30 years or more. The minimum 11 or 10 years will no longer apply, and the basic pension will be 1/30th of the standard rate for each qualifying year.
|
Weekly Basic Pension |
|||||
|
YEAR |
SINGLE |
YEAR |
SINGLE |
YEAR
|
SINGLE |
| Prior to 1948 | £0.50 | 1983 | £34.05 | 2007 | £87.30 |
| 1948 | £1.30 | 1984 | £35.80 | 2008 | £90.70 |
| 1951 | £1.50 | 1985 |
£38.30 |
2009 |
£95.25 |
| 1952 | £1.62 | 1986 | £38.70 | 2010 | £97.65 |
| 1955 | £2.00 | 1987 | £39.50 | 2011 | £102.15 |
| 1958 | £2.50 | 1988 | £41.15 | 2012 | £107.45 |
| 1961 | £2.88 | 1989 | £43.60 | ||
| 1963 | £3.38 | 1990 | £46.90 | ||
| 1965 | £4.00 | 1991 | £52.00 | ||
| 1967 | £4.50 | 1992 | £54.15 | ||
| 1969 | £5.00 | 1993 | £56.10 | ||
| 1971 | £6.00 | 1994 | £57.60 | ||
| 1972 | £6.75 | 1995 | £58.85 | ||
| 1973 | £7.75 | 1996 | £61.15 | ||
| 1974 | £10.00 | 1997 | £62.45 | ||
| Apr. 1975 | £11.60 | 1998 | £64.70 | ||
| Nov. 1975 | £13.30 | 1999 | £66.75 | ||
| 1976 | £15.30 | 2000 | £67.50 | ||
| 1977 | £17.50 | 2001 | £72.50 | ||
| 1978 | £19.50 | 2002 |
£75.50 |
||
| 1979 | £23.30 | 2003 | £77.45 | ||
| 1980 | £27.15 | 2004 | £79.60 | ||
| 1981 | £29.60 | 2005 | £82.05 | ||
| 1982 | £32.85 | 2006 | £84.25 | ||
Note: Pensions are usually uprated in April of each year. The rates noted above are for individuals with full pension entitlement and are for a weekly benefit. The Australian dollar equivalent varies with the exchange rate.
By ending this shameful pension discrimination, the British Government would display the integrity its citizens expect, enable pensioners to afford the personal care and standard of living required in their retirement years, help return some degree of pride to the lives of pensioners, and bring Britain in line with all other developed countries!
The British Government claims that it would cost £650 million a year to update the pensions of the 556,000 Britons affected by their present policy.
They go on to say that their priority is to find more money for the poor in Britain and not for those who to choose to live overseas. A recent study by a think-tank says that if they means tested the many freebies paid to both rich and poor pensioners were subject to a means test they could save more than twice this amount.
They also take no account of the Billion pounds a year they save on the National Health Service and they take no account of the mounting surplus in the National Insurance Fund, which is the fund that pays all our pensions.
In a letter dated 15th May 2001 to the World Alliance of British Expatriate Pensioners, a spokesperson for the International Branch of the British Department of Health wrote as follows:
"Thank you for your letter of 10 April, asking for an approximate cost of savings to this Department (of Health) in respect of benefits not claimed by pensioners overseas."
"In relation to healthcare, the Department produces an annual average cost figure for EU (European Union) purposes. "
"For 1998, the latest year available, the annual cost per pensioner was £1546."
There are 766,000 such pensioners overseas, the annual saving to the British Budget on this account alone is therefore in excess of:
£1 BILLION every year !
The equivalent of a saving of $A2,700,000,000 to the British exchequer every year. Simply because Britons overseas cannot claim their National Health Service entitlements.
This alone would be far more than enough to cover the cost of indexing the pensions of all Britons, World wide.
National Insurance Fund Surplus
From the UK Government Actuaries Report at the
link below (specifically appendix 8):
In 2001/2002 the revenue from National Insurance contributions was
forecast at
£57.9 Billion. The forecast
expenditure was £55.5 Billion.
The report also says, in para. 4, that the balance in the fund at the 31st March 2003 is estimated at £27,577 Million.
And they say they cannot afford a measly £400 Million !!
Whitaker's Almanac
Whitaker's Almanac is a well respected and reliable source of information of all kinds, including information on aspects of Government.
Whitaker's publishes a table of the National Insurance Fund surplus, from which the following is an extract:
They could not explain the missing year.
| Account Year | Year Published | End of year surplus | Australian Dollars |
| 1996 | 1998 | £7.8 Billion | $21.7 Billion |
| 1997 | 1999 | £7.7 Billion | $21.4 Billion |
| 1999 | 2000 | £12.25 Billion | $34.0 Billion |
| 2000 | 2001 | £12.2 Billion | $33.9 Billion |
The figures speak for
themselves!
Since 2000 the surplus has continued to increase at the rate of about
£2.5 Billion a year!!
|
Frozen pensioners
represent just over 4% of the total number of UK pensioners |
|
|
Australia |
251,370 with pensions frozen |
|
Canada |
156,740 with pensions frozen |
|
New Zealand |
53,540 with pensions frozen |
|
South Africa |
38,110 with pensions frozen |
|
Zimbabwe |
1,440 with pensions frozen |
|
Pakistan |
4,360 with pensions frozen |
|
Bangladesh |
2,250 with pensions frozen |
|
India |
5,130 with pensions frozen |
|
Grenada |
1,430 with pensions frozen |
|
St Lucia |
1,270 with pensions frozen |
|
Dominica |
960 with pensions frozen |
|
Trinidad/Tobago |
1,590 with pensions frozen |
|
Kenya |
740 with pensions frozen |
|
Total number of frozen pensioners, world-wide |
555,920 out of 12,697,310 pensioners |
|
Of the 54 Commonwealth Countries only five, apart from the UK, have British pensions indexed:- Barbados - Cyprus - Jamaica - Malta & Mauritius. |
|
Britain denies full pension rights in these Commonwealth Countries:
| Antigua & Barbuda | Nauru |
| Australia | New Zealand |
| Bahamas | Nigeria |
| Bangladesh | Pakistan |
| Belize | Papua New Guinea |
| Botswana | Samoa |
| Brunei Darussalam | Seychelles |
| Cameroon | Sierra Leone |
| Canada | Singapore |
| Dominica | Solomon Islands |
| Fiji Islands | South Africa |
| The Gambia | Sri Lanka |
| Ghana | St Vincent & Grenadines |
| Grenada | St Kitts & Nevis |
| Guyana | St Lucia |
| India | Swaziland |
| Kenya | Tanzania |
| Kiribati | Tonga |
| Lesotho | Trinidad & Tobago |
| Malawi | Tuvalu |
| Malaysia | Uganda |
| Maldives | Vanuatu |
| Mozambique | Zambia |
| Namibia | Zimbabwe |
The cost of uprating Frozen
pensioners
Getting things into
perspective
Some
comparisons to think about
| Social Security total expenditure 2001/2 (latest available) | £106 Billion |
| Retirement Pensions expenditure 2001/2 | £45.7 Billion |
| Annual cost of restoring our expropriated uprating | £0.4 Billion |
| DWP 2003 spend on outside consultants | £0.4 Billion |
| INLAND REVENUE write-off of unpaid NI contributions | £0.75 Billion |
| TREASURY planned baby bond vouchers | £1.0 Billion |
| INLAND REVENUE tax credits paid in error | £2.0 Billion |
| DWP loss through ‘fraud and error’ (NAO report) | £3.0 Billion |
| TREASURY windfall from higher oil prices | £3.0 Billion |
| DWP annual benefits’ blunders (public spending watchdog report) | £7.0 Billion |
| Current surplus in the NIF | £27.0 Billion |
Since the year 2000 the NIF surplus has been increasing at about £2.5 Billion a year
To put it into perspective, the entitlement of which we are deprived, in order, we are told, to improve living standards at home, would buy for each pensioner a bunch of bananas a week.
However our entitlement would deprive them of nothing - because the annual increase in the surplus alone is 6 times the annual cost of granting parity to all British pensioners.
| Australian Capital Territory | A$5,000,000 |
| New South Wales | A$119,000,000 |
| Northern Territory | A$1,000,000 |
| Queensland | A79,000,000 |
| South Australia | A$68,000,000 |
| Tasmania | A$12,000,000 |
| Victoria | A$101,000,000 |
| Western Australia | A$77,000,000 |
| International Operations Branch or unknown State etc | . A$7,000,000 |