Extracts from Parliamentary Proceedings - April 20
|
Extract from Urgent Question on Persecution and Detention of
LGBT Citizens: Chechnya Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South)
(SNP): All Glasgow weeps at this news, and when I return there
later this afternoon there will be a vigil in George Square at
which politicians and ordinary people will express their horror at
what is happening in Chechnya. I must disagree with some of my
colleagues, in that I see no need for this matter to be escalated
to the Foreign Secretary. I...Request free trial
Extract from Urgent
Question on Persecution and Detention of LGBT Citizens:
Chechnya
Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South) (SNP): All Glasgow weeps at this news, and when I return there later this afternoon there will be a vigil in George Square at which politicians and ordinary people will express their horror at what is happening in Chechnya. I must disagree with some of my colleagues, in that I see no need for this matter to be escalated to the Foreign Secretary. I think that the Minister is a very capable Minister, and a deeply thoughtful Minister. I echo the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Livingston (Hannah Bardell). Is it not time for us to join countries such as Canada in having an envoy on LGBT rights who will report directly to the Prime Minister? I also echo what was said by my hon. Friend from Clydebank and—in the context of the Commonwealth—by the hon. Member for Ribble Valley (Mr Evans): now is not the time to cut the foreign aid budget. The Minister for Europe and the Americas (Sir Alan Duncan): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind words—unusual, I have to say, during this particularly fervent political period, but deeply appreciated nevertheless. I am contemplating their inclusion, in quotation marks, in my election address. I note what the hon. Gentleman said about an envoy. It is not for me to say what our policy will be on that, but my personal observation is that a dedicated envoy is not always as effective as action by all Ministers across the board, and, indeed, by all Members of Parliament. If that is in the hon. Gentleman’s manifesto, however, we will let the people decide. To read all the exchanges, CLICK HEREExtracts from debate on State Pensions: UK Expatriates Sir Roger Gale (North Thanet) (Con):...Those 551,000 people have made those contributions. However, we still have the ludicrous situation that a British pensioner living on one side of Niagara Falls, in Canada, receives a frozen pension while another living just a mile across the falls, in the United States, has their pension uprated every year. Additionally, some Caribbean islands enjoy uprated pensions, while other small countries and overseas territories do not, with unintended and perverse consequences... ...The human consequences of this injustice can be devastating and are illustrated by scores of communications that the International Consortium of British Pensioners and the all-party parliamentary group on frozen British pensions have received from expatriate UK citizens. A spokesman for the Parity or Poverty Group, which has members in Canada, Thailand, Turkey and South Africa, says:
“We are trying desperately hard to undo the predicament that’s
driving us into poverty. I can see it on the horizon for myself
as once affordable items are now out of reach. I dread the future
for myself and my wife.”... “I was brought up to believe that Britain was a fair country. It’s a disgrace, it has to end, it’s terrible to meet pensioners over here who say they have to come back to Britain because they can’t manage.” Joe Lewis, 90 years old, who lives in Canada and has recently lost his wife, will be moving back to the United Kingdom as he can no longer cope with his frozen pension. After suffering a severe fall, Joe is increasingly struggling to afford living and medical costs. The only way he can make ends meet is to use up all his savings. Joe Lewis, a nonagenarian, says: “All I want is my full state pension which I have paid into my entire life”. Here is another anomaly: any returnee, including those visiting the UK for a couple of weeks to see family on holiday, is entitled to claim their full uprated pension for that period. Of course, cometh Brexit, cometh another issue that will have to be addressed. The 492,000 British pensioners living in the 27 European Union member states and EFTA countries are protected by the social security provisions of the EU single market, but what will happen to their pensions when we leave the EU? A resident in France wrote to me to say: “I have been a ‘victim’ of a frozen pension for the past 15 years having lived in Zimbabwe for 45 years and being forced to move to a EU country in order to get my pension... During my working life, I continued to pay Class 3 NI contributions to safeguard my UK pension and it was only when I reached age 65 that I found out that my pension would no longer be indexed, and this has cost me many thousands of lost pounds over a period of 15 years. Now the same issue is rearing its head because of Brexit.”
Will there be 27 different reciprocal agreements or one blanket
agreement? Will former EU pensioners find their pensions frozen
like those in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Indian
subcontinent, Montserrat and other countries? Surely now, in the
light of Brexit, is the time at least to start to put all expat
UK pensioners who have paid their dues on an equal footing... ...Bernard Jackson, 91, moved to Canada, but was forced to return to the UK in order to obtain his full pension. He said: “I was brought up to believe that Britain was a fair country. It’s a disgrace, it has to end. It’s terrible to meet pensioners over here who say they have to come back to Britain because they can’t manage.”.. ...Joe Lewis, 90, lives in Canada and has recently lost his wife. He will be moving back to the UK as he can no longer cope with his frozen pension. After suffering a severe fall, Joe is increasingly struggling to afford living and medical costs. The only way he can make ends meet is to use up all his savings. Joe says: “All I want is my full state pension, which I have paid into my entire life.” Why should Joe not get something for which he has paid? That is the salient point. Joe and everyone else we are talking about have paid national insurance. This is an entitlement. George Gray, 77, now lives in South Africa. He paid national insurance for 48 years until reaching retirement at 65. He was completely unaware of frozen pensions until it came to applying for one. He states: “I was even told that getting our state pension was not a right, but merely a benefit from the British Government that could be amended at any time - but I’ve paid for it all of my working life.” Anne Puckridge, 90, now lives in Canada. She worked in the UK up to the age of 76, paying mandatory national insurance contributions, and now has a frozen pension. She says: “The Government should be doing more, especially for Commonwealth countries, and MPs cannot explain why they are not.” Jane Davies, 70, now lives in British Columbia, Canada. She worked in the NHS for more than 20 years, helping hundreds as she worked in rehabilitation and elderly care. She was unaware that pensions could be frozen. She has said: “It’s outrageous when you think that it’s mainly Commonwealth countries that are affected, especially when Canadian pensioners living in the UK receive a full pension.” That is why the Canadian Government are so exercised about this. They pay a full pension to their citizens living here, and yet we fail to reciprocate....
Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton
West) (SNP):...Around 7.5% of British pensioners
live abroad. As my hon. Friend the Member for Ross, Skye and
Lochaber (Ian Blackford) explained, entitlement to receive the
state pension relates only to the national insurance
contributions made during a recipient’s working life, not to
their place of residence. Despite that, the UK takes a wildly
inconsistent approach to uprating state pensions. More than half
a million pensioners—almost half of those living overseas—are
excluded from uprating. My hon. Friend also made the point that
their pensions are effectively frozen at the level at which they
first received them abroad. Worse still, the vast majority of
those with frozen pensions live in the Commonwealth—around a
quarter of a million of those affected live in Australia, and
almost 150,000 live in Canada... Without uprating, recipients reliant on their state pension income could find themselves increasingly impoverished, leaving them unable to afford a basic standard of living and increasingly dependent on relatives, and they may be forced to return to the UK—we have heard many examples of that during the debate. Surely it is time that this country established a fair system to support our pensioners regardless of where they choose to live. Those who have spent their life working to contribute to the national economy should be supported in the manner they deserve.
Over recent decades, it has become increasingly clear that we
live in a globalised world—a world that sometimes requires people
of all ages to move across borders to Europe, the US
or Canada, or sometimes further afield. As we
look to our new future out of the European Community, but working
in a more comprehensive partnership with the wider world, I ask
the Pensions Minister to do what other Ministers, Labour and Tory
alike, have failed to do, and start increasing overseas pensions
now...
Extracts from
Westminster Hall debate on Emissions and Vehicle Type
Approval
Mike Weir (Angus)
(SNP):...The hon. Member for South West
Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) alluded to the fact that
in Canada and the United States the
company has come up with money and compensated consumers. He also
mentioned the loss of tax revenue and perhaps vehicle excise
duty, but I suggest that the impact on the public purse has been
much wider. Because emissions have been much higher than we were
led to believe, there will have been an impact on public health.
Addressing that impact will have been funded by the taxpayer
throughout the United Kingdom. Volkswagen’s actions have put
people’s health in danger and caused greater Government
expenditure, and the Government should take that into account in
dealing with the matter. The same situation will apply in many
countries throughout Europe that have a public health
service... |