A quirk in Government retirement rules has denied many retirees a full state pension
13 February 2021 • 5:00am
Thousands of British pensioners from the Windrush generation have been denied their state pension in full, and continue to miss out on tens of thousands of pounds.
Many from the Caribbean who came to work in Britain in the 1940s, 50s and 60s to help plug a skills shortage, and who have since returned home, have found their state pensions frozen.
There are more than 510,000 retirees worldwide with state pensions that will never rise in value. Retirees in Britain and certain countries, where there is a reciprocal agreement including the EU and America, receive annual increases under the “triple lock”. This has led to unusual rules in the Caribbean, where British pensioners living in Jamaica or Barbados see their pensions increase every year.
The plight of two Windrush emigrees
Nancy Hunte (right) and her daughter Gretel Hunte have had their UK pensions frozen at amounts far less than what is their entitlement.
Even as Britain announced that redress is forthcoming for the persons of the Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants who became victims of a government clampdown on them, stories abound about the condition in which some of these victims have found themselves.
John J Duffy - Chairman, International Consortium of British Pensioners, who has been tracking the plight of these victims, told the story, recently, about two Antigua nationals.
Duffy wrote that Nancy Hunte, born in Antigua in 1931, in 1958 took advantage of the U.K. government’s invitation to British citizens living in the Caribbean, to come to Britain to fill jobs being created by the expanding economy.