Indira Das-Gupta, Evening Standard

Expatriate British pensioners from all over the world have appealed to French President Jacques Chirac to help them in their fight with the Blair Government to win a decent pension.

As reported in the London Evening Standard in January, these 'forgotten' pensioners spent most of their working lives in Britain and paid full contributions into the State pension scheme, yet in some case receive payouts of as little as £3.38 a week.

The injustice has come about simply because the expats retired to countries without a reciprocal agreement with the UK to update pensions, so their British pensions have been frozen at the level they were at when they emigrated. These so-called 'frozen' countries cover 48 out of 53 Commonwealth members, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Trinidad and Grenada.

Around 460,000 British pensioners, or around 54% of the 850,000 living abroad, are affected and fail to receive benefit parity. Of those who do not receive uprated pensions, 98% live in Commonwealth countries.

Earlier this year, the Evening Standard highlighted the plight of Katherine Woodward, 96, who retired to Montreal in Canada from her native Scotland in 1963 - when the State pension was £3.38 a week. Her payments had remained at that level for almost 30 years. It is a typical example. Her furious daughter Jessie said: 'People like my mum were Britain's backbone during two world wars and this is all the repayment they get.'

The late Conservative MP for Romsey and Waterside, Michael Colvin, was a champion of the forgotten pensioners' cause, but since his death in February their struggle for equal treatment has been made even more difficult. Faced with the consistent refusal of the Government to act on their complaints, the World Alliance of British Expatriate Pensioners is now taking up the cause with President Chirac, as France currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Britain is the only country in the EU that does not update the pensions of all its pensioners, regardless of where they live.

In our earlier report, we also examined the case of June Borsberry, who - despite the fact that she lives here - has still become a victim of the system. June, 75, lives alone in Cheltenham and would like to join her son Laurence and three grandchildren in Toronto, Canada.

She said: 'I first considered moving to Canada 10 years ago and calculated that had I done so I would have already lost £13,000 by now. Repeated attempts to get the Government to sit up and take notice have got us nowhere, so now we are taking up our case with Monsieur Chirac.'

Until now, there has been an agreement between Britain and Australian governments to increase the pensions of each other's citizens if they are living in the corresponding country. But exasperation over Britain's refusal to back down on the frozen pensions issue prompted the Australian government last month to cancel the agreement. The cost of topping up the incomes of the 200,000 Britons who have retired Down Under costs Australia £39m a year.

For more information, contact Wilson Dunn on (1) 416 969 8286, or Douglas Ross from the Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners on (1) 416 929 5494.

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