The older expats facing poverty – thanks to Brexit and frozen pensions
Anne Puckridge isn’t scared for her future yet. But thanks to the post-Brexit fall in the value of the pound, that time may soon come.
When the 93-year-old second world war veteran and lecturer moved to Canada in 2001, she expected to live in modest comfort on her UK pension. What she hadn’t realised, however, was that pension would be frozen at the amount it was worth at the time she moved to North America at the age of 76.
“The recent fall in the pound has made a terrible situation even worse,” said Puckridge. “All my money goes on accommodation, food and the essentials of living. There’s nothing left. I live from day to day, with the knowledge and fear that if the exchange rate goes down any more, I’ll have to use up the last of my life’s savings and then, I will literally have no financial cushion left.”
Puckridge is one of the half a million or so British people whose pensions have been frozen after moving overseas, a rule that affects many living in – among other places – British Commonwealth countries, including Australia and Canada.
Full Content: The Guardian
