State pensioners have payments cut in 'half' due to 'cruel and outdated' policy

State pensioners have had their payments cut to "half" in a brutal Cost of Living blow as we head towards Christmas. State pensioners are on "half" of the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) state pension - and it's all because of where they live.

Anne Puckridge, who is soon to be 100, served in all three branches of the armed forces and recieves less than half of the state pension she is entitled to. She is among those affected by frozen state pensions, which impacts r etirees who relocate to certain countries, including some within the Commonwealth.

Having both lived and worked in the UK until the age of 76, paying her National Insurance in full, Anne’s pension was ‘frozen’ at £72.50 per week when she left the UK for Canada in 2001 to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren. Her pension doesn’t increase in line with inflation, meaning it effectively falls in real value year-on-year. Had she stayed in the UK, she would be receiving state pension payments worth £169.50 per week.

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Anne, who lives in Canada, is now planning to return to the UK over the "disciminatory" policy. John Duguid, Chair of the End Frozen Pensions campaign, warned: "This Budget does nothing to help the nearly half a million overseas UK state pensioners consistently denied all of the annual increases in the state pension despite paying all their National Insurance dues."

He added: "One such pensioner is soon to be 100 year old WW2 veteran Anne Puckridge who is making the 4,400-mile journey from her home in Canada in December to lobby MPs and challenge the Prime Minister to a meeting."

Anne has branded the frozen pension policy as "discriminatory" and wants a meeting with Chancellor Rachel Reeves. John said: "Every single one of us forgotten British overseas pensioners impacted by this cruel, outdated policy are immensely indebted to Anne for shedding light on this poorly understood scandal.

"That she is prepared to travel halfway across the world, aged nearly 100, to fight for others is a testament to her relentless drive and profound sense that it should not be this way."