Frozen or not State Pension?

SouthCoastBoy

Apial said:

I am currently living in Dubai. In March next year I will hit 66 and be able to take the full UK state pension. Later in the 2025 I will be moving to Portugal permanently without returning to the UK. 

Will my State Pension be frozen at £221.20 a week forever, or will it increase with the triple lock once I move to Portugal? 

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad/rates-of-state-pension

squirrelpie

DBdoobydoo said:

Marcon said:

Apial said:

I am currently living in Dubai. In March next year I will hit 66 and be able to take the full UK state pension. Later in the 2025 I will be moving to Portugal permanently without returning to the UK. 

Will my State Pension be frozen at £221.20 a week forever, or will it increase with the triple lock once I move to Portugal? 

You can't be paid in one country for part of a year and then another country for the rest of the year, so waiting until you move to Portugal would seem to make sense.

That's surprising. Do you have an official link that confirms this?

Assuming such a restriction applied the simple answer is to get the state pension paid into a UK bank account.

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad

pinnks

Having done a bit of searching, it seems the right to have a state pension uprated annually is dependant on being "ordinarily resident" (OR) in the UK (or a country where pensions are uprated). That is different from resident for tax purposes, where, perhaps the notion of 6 months/183 days arises.  If you come back to the UK (or an "unfrozen country") on holiday, you may qualify to have your pension temporarily increased until you leave again.  But to keep the annual uprating you need to be OR.

OR is not defined in law. It is a question of fact and degree turning on your personal circumstances but if you have a frozen pension and move to an "unfrozen country", such that you become OR in that country, as I read it your pension is "unfrozen" and adjusted back to what it would have been had you always been in the UK, or that other country.  

This is an interesting read - Frozen overseas pensions (parliament.uk) - as is the DWP Decision-maker's Guide, Chapter 7, Ordinarily Resident 070769 - 070789. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/.../dmg0701.pdf

It therefore seems to me that if you move to Portugal with a view to making your home there, moving all you belongings and having an intention of permanency (for the time being), then you are likely to be OR there and thus qualify like any other ordinarily resident of that country for the annual uprating of your UK state pension...

Hopefully, the above links will help you have a "grown up" conversation with DWP.