New State Pension ‘Triple Lock Plus’ will not increase monthly payments for nearly half a million older people

The Conservative Party manifesto confirms that a General Election win on July 4 will see the introduction of the ‘Triple Lock Plus’, a new measure that will ensure the Personal Allowance - which has been frozen at £12,570 since April 2021 - rise in-line each year with the Triple Lock. This guarantee would mean that the Personal Allowance is always higher than the maximum rate of the New State Pension, which is now worth £11,502 annually.

The Triple Lock Plus is designed to prevent older people, whose sole income is the New State Pension, from being dragged into the tax net. The measure is forecast to cost £2.4 billion over the course of the next parliament.

However, while the new guarantee will ensure payments rise for more than 12.5 million pensioners living in the UK, the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP) estimates that 450,000 retirees living abroad will not benefit from it. They have highlighted how the issue of so-called ‘frozen pensions’ could be resolved for £50m.

Under the Triple Lock, the New and Basic State Pensions increase each year by whichever is the highest of - average annual earnings growth from May to July, Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation in the year to September or 2.5 per cent.

However, nearly half a million older people living overseas currency do not qualify for any uplift to their payments - even though they have accrued the required amount of National Insurance Contributions before taking retirement.

This is because they are now living in a country that does not have a reciprocal agreement with the UK Government.

This means that some retirees have seen their State Pension frozen at the point of emigration. But, the ‘End Frozen Pensions’ campaign aims to end the “injustice of pensions for Britons who have moved abroad” who do not receive the annual increase in line with the Triple Lock policy.

Commenting on the Conservative Party manifesto, Edwina Melville-Gray, spokesperson for the International Consortium of British Pensioners, said: “For less than £50 million the Prime Minister and his Conservative Party could have ended this long running scandal that condemns many of the nearly half a million affected overseas UK