Shelia Telford, the chairperson of the International Consortium of British Pensioners, told the publication that the UK "is now defaulting on the Commonwealth Equality Charter, which the Queen signed this March, calling for equality and an end to discrimination for all".
“We believe that until this issue of discrimination and inequality is dealt with, the Commonwealth should consider suspending the UK from membership,” Telford added, according to the Telegraph’s report.
"How can it be equal when a British pensioner living in Canada aged 90 receives one-third of the pension of a British pensioner aged 65 living in Canada, or indeed a British pensioner living in the United States, just across the border? Many very elderly pensioners are suffering greatly."
Telford noted that almost 95% of the pensioners affected by the frozen pension issue live in Commonwealth countries, and yet "the Commonwealth has refused to discuss it".
The matter of the frozen pensions has been a hot topic for years among expats, particularly in certain countries, such as Canada. As reported, the pensioners suffered a major blow in March 2010, when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the UK did not need to boost the state pensions of these expat retirees, saying its refusal to do so was "not discriminatory".
In the 11 to 6 judgment, the Strasbourg judges said they "did not consider that it sufficed" for the 13 British nationals who had brought the case to be "in a relevantly similar position to all other pensioners, regardless of their country of residence" merely because they paid National Insurance contributions while working in the UK.
Such contributions form part of the revenue which pays for a whole range of social security benefits, the court observed, as part of a "complex and interlocking system of the benefits and taxation systems" which "made it impossible to isolate the payment of National Insurance contributions as sufficient ground for equating the position of pensioners who received up-rating and those, like the applicants, who did not".
It was estimated at the time that the UK Treasury would have had to pay out at least an extra £500m per year if the decision had gone the other way.
Pensions frozen ‘at level when payments began’
Only expats living in countries that have signed bilateral agreements with the UK, such as France, Spain and the US receive index-linked state pensions. In others, such as Canada, Hong Kong, South Africa and Australia, pensions are frozen at the level they were when the individual first started receiving payments.
This had led to some pensioners in their 90s receiving as little as £17 a week, the Telegraph report notes.
It is estimated that around half a million British expats do not receive inflation-proof pensions.
According to Telford, the frozen pension issue is becoming an irritant for the Governments of Canada and Australia, which often have to make up the shortfall.
“Taxpayers of other countries pick up the slack. Canadian and Australian ministers repeatedly ask that this issue be addressed, only to be stonewalled,” she said.
