Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the motion before the Main Committee. This issue of UK pension indexation, or uprating, has been a problem for a very long time and has had a very negative impact on the lives of former UK residents for more years than they care to remember. We should not beat about the bush on this matter. We should not get lost in details, because the bottom line is that residents or now Australian citizens in Cowan and probably in every other electorate have had their UK pensions frozen by the UK government. I thank Jack Stoner of the British Australian Pensioners Association for contacting me about this issue.

In Cowan, recipients of British pensions like Peter Evans and John Beyfus are literally going without money they are entitled to because the government of the United Kingdom do not want to pay them the same rate as they pay former UK residents that now reside in non-Commonwealth countries. It is a disgrace, and the government of the United Kingdom bear full responsibility for their heartless action and their terrible lack of loyalty. Mr Evans has supplied me with copies of letters and newspaper clippings going back more than 10 years. He is 75 years of age now and has been in Australia for 30 years. Twenty-three years of his working life was spent in the UK. Having been in receipt of a UK pension since 1997, he is now in receipt of a pension that is around 60 per cent of what UK residents would receive. He told me that Australia spends $288 million per year topping up the pensions of UK pensioners such as him, yet they can still suffer disadvantage where exchange rate differences undermine the money they do get from the United Kingdom.

I also spoke to Mr John Beyfus. Mr Beyfus has been in Australia since 1970. He arrived when he was 40 years of age, yet he continued to make contributory payments to the UK pension fund for another 20 years. They took the money—let there be no doubt about that. Mr Beyfus’s situation is a very interesting case. He served in the Royal Navy and receives a small pension from his armed service, as well as a 20 per cent disability pension from that same service as a result of a back injury. It is interesting to note that both those pensions are indexed. Mr Beyfus took the UK aged pension in 1995, and he estimates that the £80 that he got then has not moved since. It is estimated that he would be around £30 better off if indexation were paid.

For a long time Australia was the patsy for this mean and nasty trick. The UK was happy for Australia to top up the UK pensions while not trying to advance the issue at all. Having had enough of the lack of progress, the former federal government drew a line in the sand from 2001. That meant that new residents in Australia who were eligible for a UK pension would have to wait 10 years to qualify for any additional Australian pension assistance. Those already here under the previous arrangements would still have their UK pensions augmented by Australian taxpayers.

It is clear that British pensioners are highly motivated by this issue. Each time the cost of living rises, the inequity of their situation becomes starker. If you look at the price of rents, food and petrol, the injustice of the situation not only becomes rapidly clear but also can be seen as something of a crisis. The problem relates to the British government not indexing the pensions it pays to former UK residents who now live in Australia and a number of other countries around the world. Indexation is still granted to former UK resident pensioners in Europe and the United States, but UK pensioners who now reside in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand et cetera are not similarly supported, and this is in spite of most of their working lives being spent in the UK and their contributing to the UK pension fund.

The fault in this matter is clear. This is not about past Australian government decisions; it is about the government of the United Kingdom not fulfilling their responsibilities. I call upon them to do so and to end this national disgrace. They must show some loyalty to the people who built their nation, people like Peter Evans and John Beyfus. The UK government should do this and they should do it now.

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