Pensions: British Pensioners Overseas Debate

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Department: Department for Work and Pensions

Pensions: British Pensioners Overseas

Lord Rooker Excerpts
Wednesday 11th March 2015

(9 years, 7 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Freud Portrait Lord Freud
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This is the reason why this is a complicated area: it is about a bilateral agreement with another country. In practice, to take the example of Australia, I estimate that for any extra amount that we paid to ex-UK pensioners or UK pensioners living in Australia, more than 25% of that money would go straight into the Australian Treasury.

Lord Rooker Portrait Lord Rooker (Lab)
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My Lords, I fully accept the position that the Minister is in by answering this Question, but how often do the Government check and audit that the recipients of these pensions who are thousands of miles away are still alive?

Lord Freud Portrait Lord Freud
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The noble Lord will be very pleased to know that we now have a system, which has been introduced reasonably recently, of checking that rather more regularly than it used to be done.