The U.K. Government does a cruel disservice to honest pensioners

Sep 16, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
British pensioners living in the Caribbean (except Jamaica & Barbados) who told the U.K. Government they were moving to the Caribbean will have had their British pension frozen from the time they left the U.K. Unlike pensioners living in the U.K. (and Jamaica & Barbados), they don’t get their pension up-rated in line with inflation. Each year, the U.K. Government cheats British pensioners living in the Caribbean out of part of their pension, a pension which was paid for whilst working in the U.K. and paid in exactly the same amounts as everyone else.
However, any British pensioner living in the Caribbean who did not tell the U.K. Government that he/she moved abroad still gets their pension up-rated every year. They are known by the U.K. Government as ‘benefit cheats’. You would think that when the U.K. Government catches a ‘benefit cheat’ they would treat him/her at least equally with all the honest people but, Oh No! The U.K. Government lets them keep all of their pensions and cannot, under law, reduce their pension so it pays to be a ‘benefit cheat’.
Whilst the British Caribbean Pensioners Association does not condone breaking the law, it has no argument with ‘benefit cheats’. They are just using the law to obtain the pension to which they are entitled; it is the U.K Government, who is the real benefit cheat, by stealing from people who rightfully earned a pension when paying the same contributions as everyone else.
Maybe every Caribbean pensioner, when returning to the U.K. for whatever reason, should consider re-registering in the U.K. and then not tell the U.K. Government when they return home. If the U.K. Government is going to play foul perhaps the only way to play the game is with their rules. A MESSAGE FROM THE BRITISH CARIBBEAN PENSIONERS ASSOCIATION
John Duffy

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