Expat pensioner fight begins

Andrew Verity
BBC News Personal Finance correspondent reports from the Court of Appeal

Annette Carson is appealing for inflation linked pensions

The government is unfairly discriminating against 460,000 pensioners without even attempting to give a rational justification for it, the appeal court has been told.

More than half of the 760,000 UK pensioners living abroad have their pensions frozen at the moment they retire and are denied any inflation linked increase.

The oldest pensioners in some countries are stranded on a basic pension as little as £7 per week - less than a tenth of the current level - even though they may have paid National Insurance all their working lives.

But nearly 300,000 pensioners who have retired to other countries get their pension fully uprated with inflation, the court heard on Monday.

Costly justification

The court was hearing an appeal by Annette Carson, a British pensioner now living in South Africa.

Ms Carson says the government is discriminating against her by refusing to uprate her pension simply because where she chose to live.

She claims government policy is in breach of the Human Rights Act.

Under bi-lateral agreements with countries including US and EU members, the government has uprated pensions for British people who retire there.

Government discretion

But arrangement with other countries such as Canada South Africa and Australia were drawn up much earlier, in the 1950s, before inflation became such an important issue.

"The present anomalous position is a matter of historical accident, and the true justification for maintaining the current position is purely cost, which cannot justify unfair treatment," said Richard Drabble QC for Ms Carson.

In June the High Court rejected Ms Carson's case.

Mr Justice Burns said the Human Rights Act did not apply and pension upratings were "a matter for government discretion".

However, Ms Carson's lawyers point to other recent cases successfully brought under the human rights Act.

In one case former Gurkhas successfully claimed they were unfairly denied UK government compensation payments for the brutality they suffered at the hands of the Japanese during World War II.