‘My mum’s pension was frozen at £6 a week, now I’m in the same trap’

Ray Williams emigrated to Canada in 1969 and his mother Katie followed him a few years later when she retired, but it was a move that would cost her far more than she had first imagined. Mrs Williams relocated to Canada at the age of 65 in 1972. That year her UK state pension was “frozen” at the same rate for the remaining 34 years of her life. She died in 2007, just shy of her 100 birthday, still on a pension of just £6 (US$8/CAN$11) a week. (Photo: Pgiam/Getty/iStockphot/Paul Giamou Photography Ltd)

Caught in the same trap

Her sons Ray and Adrian, who were also living Burlington, Ontario, had to subsidise her for the rest of her life. Ray Williams told The i Paper: “Her pension was frozen from the time she came to Canada, so my brother and I looked after her. We were both working then. Anything she needed, it didn’t matter, we got it for her.” Now the 86-year-old, who was born in Rhymney, in Caerphilly, South Wales, finds himself caught in the same trap. Despite spending 17 years of his working life in the UK, starting at the age of 15 in the mines, then joining the Army for three years and eventually working in Leeds, his state pension is “frozen” at the level it was on the day he retired in 1997. He gets £41.40 per week and his wife Mary receives £39.95 per week (Around CAN$77 and $74/US$55 and US$53).

'Being treated unfairly'

Mr Williams said he feels “annoyed and upset” by the policy. “It’s like anything else when you think about being treated unfairly – why would they do that?” he said. “It’s simple – treat us the same as everybody else. Why would you want to screw two or three countries? You go across the border to Buffalo [in the US] and you would get the full UK pension.” (Photo: Joe Giddens/PA)

£1k for a dentist trip

Mr Williams was employed as a paramedic in Canada and receives a pension through his work there. He and his wife also recently down-sized from a house to a retirement flat, still in Burlington. He said: “We have got to a stage in our lives where we are not spending that much money because you don’t do much and you don’t go that far. There are lots of people who are worse off than us.” But a trip to the dentist recently set him back more than £1,000 (around CAN$1858/US$1329). Unlike pensioners in the UK, Mr Williams’s pension does not rise annually as a result of the triple lock system. The triple lock ensures UK state pensions rise in line with the rate of inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent, whichever is highest. (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty)

One of around 144k in his situation

However, Mr Williams is one of around 144,000 UK pensioners in Canada and about 492,000 worldwide living in countries with no reciprocal agreement with the UK Government over state pensions. It means their pension remains at the level it was when the claimant was first entitled to it or at the date they left the UK if they were already pensioners. For Mr Williams, that was the day he reached pension age in Canada, while for his mother it was the day she left UK shores for Canada. The Department for Work and Pensions (at the time of first publication, May 2024) said it provides information on its website here about how moving abroad can impact people’s finances. (Photo: Oleksii Liskonih/Getty/iStockphoto)