AN EXPATRIATE British pensioner begins her appeal to the House of Lords today for the right to receive increases to her state retirement benefits.

In a key test case, lawyers for Annette Carson, 64, who has lived in South Africa since 1989, will argue that the Government’s refusal to give her a full state pension is unlawful.

The Government adds inflationary rises and other increases to the state pension it pays to about 470,000 expatriate pensioners living throughout the EU and in countries such as the United States, Israel, Jamaica, Barbados, and the Philippines.

However, because of a quirk in Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) rules, the same rises are denied to about 540,000 British pensioners in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The pensioner groups that have helped to fund Ms Carson’s case hope that it will force the DWP to pay equal state benefits to all expatriate pensioners, regardless of the country in which they live. The DWP estimates that to do so would cost between £300 million and £400 million a year.

“The suffering and worries endured by the deprived pensioners wouldn’t be tolerated if they were still in the UK,” said Grahame Chrystie, a partner in Thomas Eggar, who will represent Ms Carson in the House of Lords.

Ms Carson’s pension has been frozen at £67.50 a week since she began claiming it in 2001. In the UK she would receive £79.60. Some expatriate pensioners in their 80s receive less than £10 a week.

In June 2003 the Court of Appeal affirmed a High Court ruling in favour of the DWP and its award of costs against Ms Carson.

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