A British retiree in Canada had to return to work at the age of 80 as a result of his UK state pension being frozen, something campaigners have called a “scandal”.
Peter Sanguinetti, 85, left the UK in 1984 after a work trip to Vancouver led to a job offer.
He spent the majority of his career working in the rope-making industry, and as a National Serviceman with the Royal Hampshire Regiment overseas.
But when he started to draw his state pension in 2009, Mr Sanguinetti, from Dorset, discovered that the sum had been frozen – and not increased in line with other retirees in the UK.
He said: “My wife and I made the move to Canada because I was offered a position in a rope manufacturing company in Orillia.
“When I left, on April 18, 1984, my UK state pension was frozen at a rate of £72 per week.”
Mr Sanguinetti is one of the estimated 500,000 British expats receiving what is known as a frozen pension – where recipients’ state pension payments remain fixed, gradually becoming less and less valuable.
This is compared to state pensioners living in the UK who see their pension increased each year by the triple lock policy which means it will go up in line with inflation, average wage growth or 2.5 per cent (whichever is highest).
The new full state pension is set to increase by £460 a year from April 2025. The rise is pegged to wages, which have gone up by 4 per cent.
However, the increase does not happen for those living overseas unless they are living in a country which has a reciprocal agreement with the UK.
It means British pensioners living in countries including Canada, Australia and Thailand receive far smaller pensions than those living back in the UK.
After the realisation that he wouldn’t be able to survive of this sum of money alone, Mr Sanguinetti decided to get a part-time job as a school bus driver.
He said: “Between 2009 and 2020, I drove a school bus, getting up in the morning at 5am, completing a circle check of the bus, sometimes in temperatures of minus 30 and clearing snow before leaving on my morning route picking up 30 to 40 children for school.
“Should it really be necessary at the age of 80 to have to work solely to replace that missing part of my state pension which the UK Government steals from me every day?”
Mr Sanguinetti estimates over the years he has lost £29,000 due to his UK state pension being “frozen”.
It comes as pensioners were told this month they will receive £230.05 a week for the full, new flat-rate state pension, which is for those who reached state pension age after April 2016.
John Duguid, chair of the End Frozen Pensions campaign, said it is “once again disheartening” that this group of pensioners will be “excluded” from the uprating.
He said: “These payments can make a crucial difference to ‘frozen’ pensioners between being able to afford food and medicine, with one in two receiving just £65 per week or less.
“This longstanding and ongoing scandal is deeply impactful on pensioners living overseas.”
Mr Sanguinetti had to give up his work as a bus driver because of Covid, and now, him and his wife have to live “frugally”.
He added: “We don’t take holidays, we haven’t been back to the UK for years, we buy strictly to a budget, and we grow as much of our own food as possible.
“To be a recipient of the extra cash being given to the pensioners in the UK next April would obviously help extend our budget.”
Under the terms of Britain’s departure from the EU, arrangements to adjust pension payments were extended to Brits living on the continent and additional agreements have since been signed with non-EU member states to index state pension payments to pensioners living there.
But, despite campaigning from British expats and charities in countries like Canada, no such agreement has been made to increase their payments. In the neighbouring US, however, British retirees living there do have their pensions indexed.
Mr Duguid added: “With every yearly increase, overseas ‘frozen’ pensioners comparatively receive less and less, forced to endure increasing emotional and financial hardship while looking on to the millions receiving the adequate support they are rightfully owed.”
