Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of how many residents of the British Overseas Territories in receipt of UK state pensions have had those pensions frozen.

There are 14 British Overseas Territories: Anguilla; Bermuda; the British Antarctic Territory; the British Indian Ocean Territory; the British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; the Pitcairn Islands; St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; the Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus (Akrotiri and Dhekelia); and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Information on the Overseas Territories in which UK state pensions are paid and the number of cases in payment is available at: http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/100pc/sp/cccountry/cnage/a_carate_r_cccountry_c_cnage_may14.html

The tabulation tool distinguishes between those countries where the state pension is up-rated and those countries where the state pension is ‘frozen’. Up-rated state pensions are payable to people living in Bermuda, Gibraltar and the Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus. However it is possible that in some cases state pensions paid in countries where the state pension is ‘frozen’ will be up-rated, for example when someone is only visiting the Territory.