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The Government has issued its latest figures on the number of people affected by the frozen pensions policy

The statistics were revealed by Lord Freud, the minister for welfare reform, after the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Jones of Cheltenham applied for a written answer identifying how many people living outside the United Kingdom received non-uprated United Kingdom state pensions in the most recent period for which data is available, broken down by country and territory".

They show that there are now well over half a million (555,650) British retirees abroad whose pensions are not inflation-proofed, as well as identifying which locations are home to the most people affected.

Nearly half (45 per cent) are living in the popular expat destination of Australia, with Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India making up the rest of the top five.

Reacting to the figures, Tony Bockman, chairman of the International Consortium of British Pensioners, said they underlined the shocking scale of the frozen pensions scandal".

"Over half a million people who have worked hard and contributed to the life and health of Britain are being discriminated against because of where they have chosen to retire," he said.

The injustice of frozen pensions grows every year as more people are affected and their pensions lose more value. Its time for the government to take real steps towards unfreezing pensions.

Under current Government rules, pensions are generally only subject to cost-of-living increases in countries which belong to the European Economic Area (EEA) or which have agreements with Britain which allow for such increases.

The policy means that in practice, the spending power of many British pensioners decreases every year, with some who moved abroad many decades ago struggling to survive.

A government e-petition calling for an end to the freezing has reached nearly 17,600 signatures, putting it among the most popular petitions in the country.

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Over half a million expats denied full pension