441-02390 (Foreign affairs)

WHEREAS:

• There are 435K British subjects over 45 years old who are now living in Canada. 113,000 of them are currently receiving a frozen UK pension;
• In the last 2 years the UK state pension has increased 18.6% to keep up with inflation. British pensioners in Canada received 0%;
• Canada annually indexes the CPP for Canadians who live in the UK, so there is no reciprocity;
• Recently the UK sought the support of Canada to join the CPTPP which was willingly given, and yet Canada has requested an end to this one-sided arrangement 5 times in the last 10 years. All of these attempts have been rejected or ignored; and
• The UK negotiated a similar pension agreement with the USA in 1969 and as there is a current loss to the Canadian economy of $700 million annually, the potential accumulated loss over 55 years is more than $20 billion.

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, citizens and residents of Canada who receive a UK Pension or will be eligible to draw a UK pension in the future, call upon the government of Canada to seek a meeting with officials in the UK Government, to negotiate a standalone Social Security Agreement to include uprating of UK Pensions.