state pension rise

[Quiksilver]

Sadly, ajm, I don't think they need any help. It's just a matter of time.....

[niemeyjt]

but you're not "working people" - so you are fair game in their eyes.

[exile]

More sh!t stirring by the UK media We're easy targets aren't we? After all, we're all stinking rich, rosé-guzzling, château-dwelling traitors who could afford to leave UK so why should we be eligible for 'benefits' or even a pension for that matter? God knows, it won't take much for any government to feel justified in 'saving' a few £££bns by freezing pensions paid overseas, especially when the Press and media do half the dirty work for them by stirring up resentment and petty-minded jealousy.

Before you get everyone stirred up into a fury: Our continued pension increases are guaranteed for a number of years yet under the Brexit withdrawal agreements.
And if KS is going to get a closer agreement with the EU, he will not be in a rush to change things when the agreement arrangements expire.

[Quiksilver]

I'm pleased for you, exile, if you've got faith in any Government and their intentions or commitment to honouring agreements. Personally, having been shafted several times by successive Governments' legislation, I wouldn't trust any of them as far as I can spit.

[exile]

I understand your scepticism and especially having been as you say shafted.

In this case it is less faith in a UK government that has been demonstrably unfaithful to pensioners and its citizens in general; but more a realisation of the political realities that apply today.
1. As already stated, a government that wants to smooth things with the EU, needs to tread carefully wrt agreements and treatment of its citizens living in the EU. A future tory government might well take a different view however.

2. Perhaps more importantly in this respect we are not alone. It was claimed that at the Brexit severance, there were about 1.5m UK citizens living in the EU. How many of those are pensioners, I have never seen reported, but let's say around 1m. The remainder being people working in the EU or early retirees. That is one side of the coin. However with 50years inside the EU, consider how many EU citizens have worked in the UK and become recipients of a UK pension and are now living back in the EU. This will range from agricultural workers through to trades people in the building trade, through to people working in Canary Wharf - just about all levels of society. Any change would impact them as well. How many is that? No idea but quite probably many more than us and it would impact future recipients of a UK pension as well as current ones.

We might like to think it was EU largess that protected our UK pensions in the Brexit deal* and perhaps in part it was; but they were equally looking after their own citizens. That is what I see as a political reality.

* It sure as hell did not come from Boris.

[Niftyons]

More sh!t stirring by the UK media We're easy targets aren't we? After all, we're all stinking rich, rosé-guzzling, château-dwelling traitors who could afford to leave UK so why should we be eligible for 'benefits' or even a pension for that matter? God knows, it won't take much for any government to feel justified in 'saving' a few £££bns by freezing pensions paid overseas, especially when the Press and media do half the dirty work for them by stirring up resentment and petty-minded jealousy.

The beauty of so called free speech.