Retirement
Pension loophole for people living overseas ‘to be closed’
Foreign citizens living abroad will no longer be entitled to a state pension based on their spouse’s National Insurance contributions, under new government plans.
Pensions minister Steve Webb said UK taxpayers are funding state pensions for 220,000 people who live abroad and have never paid tax in this country.
The pensions can be worth £3,500 a year for the entire length of a person’s retirement, and are costing taxpayers £410m a year — a rise of more than a third over the past decade, The Telegraph reports.
Current laws allow spouses to claim a “married person’s allowance” based on their husband or wife’s history of National Insurance contributions.
Webb told the The Telegraph: “Most people would think, you pay National Insurance, you get a pension. But folk who have never been here but happen to be married to someone who has are getting pensions.”
The plans are set to be included in the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday.
