§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what information he has as to how many United Kingdom pensioners are at present resident(a) abroad, (b) in the United States of America and (c) in Canada.
§ Mr. ScottThe table shows the countries where United Kingdom pensioners are known to live, the number of pensioners living there, whether annual increases are paid and an estimate of the average pension paid at 31 December 1986. Pensioners living in the Channel islands are not included as there is no ready way of identifying payment to them separately from payment to pensioners in the United Kingdom.
360W
Number of pensioners in overseas countries at 31 December 1986 Country Number of pensioners (Including number of widow pensioners Average pension at 31 December 1986 £ Albania 6 — 14.52 Algeria 2 — 16.46 American Samoa 1 — 7.01 Andorra 106 (2) 7.90 Angola 1 — 23.98 Anguilla 63 — 14.44 Antigua 149 (7) 17.06 Argentina 140 (7) 3.88 Ascension Island 3 — 1.82 Australia 106,531 (2,735) 12.94 Austria1 2,191 (105) 13.80
361W
Country Number of pensioners (Including number of widow pensioners Average pension at 31 December 1986 £ Bahamas 114 (4) 9.48 Bahrain 18 (3) 5.94 Bangladesh 4,161 (799) 6.59 Barbados 878 (26) 17.69 Belgium1 3,011 (146) 14.25 Belize 8 — 19.53 Benin 1 — 23.04 Bermuda1 258 (13) 20.22 Bolivia 3 — 0.48 Botswana 48 (7) 7.31 Brazil 162 (19) 4.67 Brunei 8 (1) 13.57 Bulgaria 9 — 5.68 Burma 5 — 9.27 Canada 66,649 (1,925) 13.26 Cayman Islands 29 (3) 15.83 Central African Republic 2 (1) 16.50 Chile 45 (5) 4.00 China 11 (1) 1.86 Colombia 20 — 14.25 Cook Islands 4 — 10.74 Costa Rica 7 — 15.91 Cyprus1 2,586 (123) 20.55 Czechoslovakia 28 — 12.33 Denmark1 293 (33) 23.77 Djibouti 5 — 36.47 Dominica, Common-wealth of 287 (10) 14.17 Dominican Republic 147 (6) 18.84 East Germany 18 (2) 11.62 Ecuador 7 — 5.56 Egypt 46 (3) 5.40 Falkland Islands and Dependencies 8 (1) 5.12 Faroe Islands 2 (1) 24.11 Fiji 26 — 8.74 Finland1 54 (14) 25.06 France1 5,262 (196) 14.53 Gambia 7 — 31.49 Ghana 45 (1) 8.42 Gibraltar1 329 (24) 27.21 Greece1 832 (67) 16.06 Grenada 363 (17) 18.07 Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique and Reunion Island1 5 — 17.56 Guyana 137 (3) 10.90 Haiti 1 — 28.68 Honduras 3 — 20.42 Hong Kong 383 (21) 11.48 Hungary 158 (5) 14.12 Iceland1 20 (4) 16.04 India 5,914 (353) 6.00 Indonesia 21 (1) 1.48 Iraq 4 — 1.39 Irish Republic1 45,275 (3,663) 24.05 Israel1 2,134 (67) 20.76 Italy1 9,007 (881) 20.83 Jamaica1 10,951 (360) 24.22 Japan 55 (11) 6.36 Jordan 7 — 5.24 Kenya 395 (10) 4.55 Kiribati (Gilbert Islands) 3 — 6.04 Kuwait 4 — 12.40 Lebanon 26 (3) 5.41
362W
Country Number of pensioners (Including number of widow pensioners A verage pension at 31 December 1986 £ Lesotho 6 — 17.97 Liberia 5 — 16.40 Luxembourg1 56 (7) 13.77 Madagascar 2 — 50.95 Malawi 58 (5) 2.82 Malaya 59 (7) 13.69 Malta1 1,628 (72) 17.64 Mauritius1 104 (6) 15.74 Mexico 70 (5) 5.01 Monaco 186 (6) 11.51 Montserrat 189 (1) 15.33 Morocco 35 (1) 2.13 Naura, Republic of 2 — 20.54 Nepal 20 (2) 4.15 Netherlands1 2,128 (182) 15.48 Netherlands Antilles 9 (1) 4.83 New Zealand 26,092 (467) 13.17 Nigeria 105 (31) 4.46 Norfolk Island 14 — 2.75 Norway 164 (14) 15.00 Pakistan 9,521 (1,159) 5.99 Panama 6 (1) 17.62 Papua New Guinea 17 (1) 4.96 Peru 35 (1) 1.99 Philippines 49 (4) 13.30 Poland 2,764 (41) 3.62 Portugal (including Madeira)1 1,166 (24) 13.95 Puerto Rico 5 (1) 13.51 Qatar 9 (1) 3.95 Rumania 20 (2) 9.35 St. Helena and Dependencies 28 — 16.79 St. Kilts-Nevis 303 (9) 17.08 St. Lucia 443 (8) 18.34 St. Vincent 286 (10) 16.92 San Marino 2 — 10.90 Sarawak 3 — 8.33 Saudi Arabia 34 (9) 4.17 Senegal 7 — 12.52 Seychelles 28 (2) 10.20 Sharjah 2 (1) 5.68 Sierra Leone 41 (3) 6.90 Singapore 78 (9) 7.62 Solomon Islands 3 — 15.70 Somalia 164 (21) 14.30 South Africa 22,781 (834) 12.89 South Korea 1 — 19.66 South West Africa or Namibia 13 (2) 18.43 Spain (including Balearic and Canary Islands)1 15,395 (586) 16.58 Sri Lanka 111 (11) 5.60 Sudan 11 (2) 11.62 Swaziland 58 (2) 10.07 Sweden 74 (5) 11.45 Switzerland1 1,724 (69) 19.71 Syria 2 — 19.09 Taiwan 5 (1) 16.64 Tanzania 36 (1) 2.94 Thailand 52 (5) 9.13 Tonga 3 — 9.37 Trinidad and Tobago 296 (14) 15.38 Tunisia 5 (1) 5.13 Turkey1 225 (20) 11.25 Turks and Caicos Islands 4 — 25.33
Country Number of pensioners (Including number of widow pensioners Average pension at 31 December 1986 £ Uganda 16 (1) 0.91 United Arab Emirates 22 (6) 7.70 USA1 37,697 (1,132) 19.98 USSR 769 (7) 11.31 Uruguay 17 (1) 3.70 Vanuata (New Hebrides) 2 — 3.25 Venezuela 27 — 2.65 Virgin Islands 37 (7) 9.47 Western Samoa 8 (3) 23.82 West Germany1 10,123 (1,009) 15.60 Yemen Arab Republic (North) 902 (63) 14.15 Yemen People's Democratic Republic of (South) 121 (10) 15.07 Yugoslavia1 989 (30) 32.75 Zaire 5 0.25 Zambia 117 (12) 3.40 Zimbabwe 4,122 (162) 5.12 1 Indicates pension increases paid. Note: The above figures do not include 5,453 retirement pensioners and 241 widow beneficiaries residing abroad (other than in the Irish Republic) to whom the Department is making payment on behalf of the Northern Ireland authorities.
§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services when he expects to treat British pensioners living in Canada on an equal basis with those in the United States of America, Yugoslavia and West Germany.
§ Mr. ScottWe cannot give any undertaking about payment of increases in retirement and widow's pensions to pensioners living in Canada.
The Government must keep a strict control over public spending as part of our long-term programme of re-building our economy. Extending arrangements for cost-of-living increases to further groups of pensioners abroad must be considered in relation to the Government's priorities for other improvements to our social security system.
§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what savings accrue to his Department from the lower rates of pension paid to retired Britons living in Canada.
§ Mr. ScottThe national insurance scheme does not in principle provide for cost-of-living increases to be paid to pensioners living outside Great Britain. It is funded on the basis that such increases are paid only where the United Kingdom has entered into a social security convention to provide for them. Consequently not paying cost-of-living increases to pensioners in Canada does not produce a saving to the scheme.
The additional cost of such payments, if there were funds available, would currently be about £41 million a year.
§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the basis on which cost of living payments are made to retired Britons living abroad.
§ Mr. ScottCost-of-living payments are made to recipients of British pensions if they are living in a country with which the United Kingdom has a social security 363W convention which provides for such payments. Whether we negotiate a bilateral social security convention of this kind depends on the characteristics of the other country's scheme, how far reciprocity is possible and the extent to which the advantages to be gained by a convention justify the additional expenditure incurred by the United Kingdom.