Equal Treatment for Expatriate Pensioners

That the Parliament notes that the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/712), laid before the Westminster Parliament in March 2006, excluded expatriate pensioners living in countries not covered by reciprocal social security arrangements with the United Kingdom from having their state pensions up-rated in the same way as those living in the UK; further notes that the cost of including these pensioners in the annual up-rating order for 2005-06 would have been just £20 million; condemns this penny-pinching approach to pensioners who have paid many years of national insurance contributions before emigrating, and calls on the Westminster Government to restore these pensioners’ right to equal treatment with pensioners resident in the UK.