HL Deb 09 April 2001 vol 624 cc152-3WA
Lord Shore of Stepney

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hollis of Heigham on 29 March (WA 58) on the uprating of national insurance retirement pensions for United Kingdom pensioners residing in Cyprus, Jamaica, Malta and Mauritius, what are the reasons why these four Commonwealth countries should be so favoured while the rest of the Commonwealth, including countries where large numbers of United Kingdom pensioners have retired, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, are excluded from uprating. [HL 1651]

Baroness Hollis of Heigham

The United Kingdom's bilateral social security agreements with Cyprus, Jamaica, Malta and Mauritius provide for UK state pensions to be uprated in those countries. However, their main purpose is to provide some co-ordination between social security schemes for workers moving between the two countries.

For many years, partly due to the significant cost of uprating retirement pensions paid abroad, the UK has entered few new social security agreements allowing for pension increases. Of those mentioned here, the most recent, with Mauritius, first came into force in 1981.