Is the UK State Pension frozen if I move abroad?

It depends entirely on the country. If you move to any EEA country (Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy and so on), Switzerland, the USA, Gibraltar, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, or one of 14 other countries with a bilateral social security agreement that covers uprating, your State Pension rises every April with the UK triple lock exactly as if you'd stayed in Britain. If you move to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, most of Asia, most of Africa, the Caribbean (except Barbados, Bermuda and Jamaica) or most of Latin America, your State Pension is frozen at the rate it is when you first become entitled to it abroad - and it never rises again, even though the UK Treasury pays it in full each week.

Which countries get the UK State Pension increase?

All 30 EEA countries, Switzerland, the USA, plus 16 countries and territories with bilateral social security agreements that include uprating: Barbados, Bermuda, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Israel, Jamaica, Jersey, Kosovo, Mauritius, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the Philippines, Serbia and Turkey. The full list is published by DWP and updated periodically on GOV.UK. Notably, the UK does have bilateral agreements with Canada and New Zealand, but those agreements do NOT cover uprating - so pensioners in those countries are frozen.

How do I claim my UK State Pension from abroad?

Contact the International Pension Centre (IPC) in Newcastle. You can claim online at gov.uk/international-pension-centre, by phone on +44 (0)191 218 7777, or by post using the IPC claim form (IPC BR1). DWP will usually write to you four months before your State Pension age regardless of where you live, but only if they have a current address on file - so always update DWP with your overseas address. You cannot claim through the standard UK online service if you've already moved abroad; the IPC route is the correct one.

Will I lose my State Pension if I move overseas?

No. Your entitlement is based on your UK National Insurance record and doesn't change when you emigrate. Anyone with at least 10 qualifying years gets a State Pension and the full new State Pension of £241.30 a week is payable abroad in 2026/27 to anyone with 35 qualifying years. What changes is whether it gets the annual increase, how it gets paid, and how it interacts with the tax system of your new country.

Can I get the State Pension paid into a foreign bank account?

Yes - and you have a choice. You can have it paid in sterling into a UK bank account, in sterling into an overseas account (your bank will then convert it and may charge a fee), or in local currency into an overseas account (DWP converts it via Citibank at the rate on payment day, with a fixed conversion charge of around 0.39%). You can also choose to be paid every 4 weeks (the UK default) or every 13 weeks to reduce conversion charges. If your weekly amount is under £5 - rare but possible for partial pensions - DWP pays once a year.

What is the International Pension Centre?

The International Pension Centre (IPC) is the DWP team based at Tyneview Park in Newcastle that handles every State Pension, bereavement benefit and Industrial Injuries claim from people who live, or have lived, outside the UK. It is the only correct point of contact for overseas pensioners. Phone +44 (0)191 218 7777 (Monday to Friday, 8am-6pm UK time), or write to International Pension Centre, The Pension Service 11, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton, WV98 1LW, United Kingdom. The freepost address from inside the UK works too.

Do I pay UK tax on my State Pension if I live abroad?

The State Pension is UK-source income and is in principle taxable in the UK. But almost every double-taxation treaty the UK has with a major retirement destination assigns the taxing right on the State Pension to the country of residence - not the UK. So if you are tax-resident in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Australia, Canada, the USA or any other major treaty country, you typically declare and pay tax on the State Pension only in that country. UK government service pensions (NHS, civil service, armed forces, police, teachers) are different: those are usually taxed in the UK regardless. To stop UK tax being withheld, you complete form DT-Individual (or the country-specific version), get it stamped by the local tax authority, and send it to HMRC.

Is my State Pension frozen in Australia?

Yes. Australia is the largest single frozen-pension country: roughly 245,000 UK pensioners live there and none of them receive the annual triple-lock increase. Their State Pension is fixed at the rate it was when they first became entitled to it after moving to Australia. The UK has a long-standing bilateral agreement with Australia, but Australia terminated the social security part of that agreement in 2001 and the British government has never re-opened it. A FOI response in 2025 put the cost of uprating Australian-resident pensioners alone at £33 million in the first year and £18 million annually thereafter.

Is my State Pension uprated in Spain after Brexit?

Yes. UK State Pensions paid to residents of Spain - and every other EEA country plus Switzerland - continue to be uprated under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) of 30 December 2020. This applies whether you were already resident before 31 December 2020 (covered by the Withdrawal Agreement) or moved after (covered by the TCA). Brexit changed many things for UK retirees in the EU - visa rules, healthcare access via the S1 form, residency thresholds - but the annual State Pension increase was deliberately preserved on both sides.

How much have frozen pensioners lost over time?

It depends on when they retired. Someone who first received the basic State Pension in 2009/10 (then £95.25 a week, rising to £97.65 in April 2010) is still on roughly £97.65 today if they live in Australia or Canada - versus £184.90 for the same basic pension in the UK, or £241.30 for the full new State Pension. Over 16 years that's about £4,500 a year lower than the UK rate, and cumulatively in the order of £40,000 to £60,000 of foregone income depending on the exact retirement date. The gap widens by another 2.5% to 8% every April. End Frozen Pensions International, the campaign group, estimates the average frozen pensioner is around £140 a week worse off than they would be in the UK.

UK State Pension abroad: frozen vs uprated explained

The verdict, in one line

~250,000 UK pensioners abroad have frozen pensions

Your UK State Pension is fully payable in any country in the world if you have 10+ qualifying NI years. But it is only uprated each April in the EEA, Switzerland, the USA and 16 other countries with bilateral agreements. Move anywhere else - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, most of Asia, most of Africa - and the figure you receive on day one is the figure you'll still be on in 20 years' time.

£241.30 per week

Full new State Pension (uprated countries)

2026/27

£97.65 per week

A frozen pension first claimed in 2009/10

Still paid today in Australia, Canada, NZ

500,000 people

UK pensioners living overseas

DWP International Pensions

49 countries

Get the annual uprating

Out of ~190 worldwide

The frozen vs uprated country list

This is the single most important fact for any UK retiree thinking about a move overseas. There is no rationale a normal person can find satisfying - both sets of countries pay UK pensioners exactly the same kind of pension, paid for by exactly the same UK Treasury, from exactly the same National Insurance contributions. But where you live decides whether you keep pace with UK inflation or fall behind it for the rest of your life.

The list below is confirmed against the official DWP publication Countries where we pay an annual increase in the State Pension.

Uprated

Full triple lock applies

EEA (30 countries)

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden

Plus Switzerland, USA and bilateral-agreement countries

Switzerland
USA
Barbados
Bermuda
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Gibraltar
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Israel
Jamaica
Jersey
Kosovo
Mauritius
Montenegro
North Macedonia
Philippines
Serbia
Turkey

If your country of residence is on this list, your State Pension rises every April in line with the UK triple lock - currently 4.8% for 2026/27.

Frozen

No increases. Ever.

The big four (where 95% of frozen pensioners live)

Australia (~245,000 pensioners)
Canada (~135,000)
New Zealand (~38,000)
South Africa (~33,000)

Other common frozen countries

India
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Malaysia
Singapore
Hong Kong
Japan
China
UAE
Saudi Arabia
Egypt
Kenya
Nigeria
Ghana
Zimbabwe
Trinidad & Tobago
Mexico
Brazil
Argentina
Chile
Falkland Islands
Cayman Islands
British Virgin Islands

Plus every other country not on the uprated list. The rule is simple: if it's not EEA, Switzerland, USA or one of the 16 bilateral-agreement countries, it's frozen.

Source: DWP - Countries where we pay an annual increase in the State Pension. Pensioner population estimates from DWP International Pensions statistics.

The trap nobody warns you about

The UK actually has bilateral social security agreements with Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Those agreements help with totalising contribution years and a few other technicalities - but they do not include uprating. Reading "we have an agreement with country X" is therefore not enough. The only test that matters is whether country X appears on the official GOV.UK uprating list above.

What "frozen" actually means in pounds

Scenario

Mary, 76

Moved to Australia in 2010 - frozen ever since

Mary, 76, lives in Perth. She moved from Surrey in March 2010, six months after starting to draw her State Pension. At that point her basic State Pension was paid at the 2009/10 full rate of £95.25 a week; from April 2010 it edged up to £97.65 - the figure she still receives today, 16 years later, because her pension was frozen the moment she became Australian-resident.

Her weekly UK State Pension in 2026: £97.65.
What she would receive had she stayed in the UK (full basic State Pension, 2026/27): £184.90 a week.
The gap: £87.25 a week, or about £4,540 a year.
Cumulative loss over 16 years of frozen uprating: approximately £40,000 to £50,000 depending on the exact April-to-April compounding.
The gap widens by another 2.5-8% every April - for the rest of her life.

If Mary moved back to the UK tomorrow and notified DWP of her new address, her pension would immediately step up to the current full rate (£184.90 for the old basic pension) - and start rising annually again. The "frozen" status is geographic, not personal. Many pensioners do exactly this in their final years; some have moved to New York rather than Sydney specifically because the USA is on the uprated list.

What to do - a decision tree

Quick check

Where are you in the journey?

1
You're already living abroad and approaching State Pension age

→ Claim through the International Pension Centre - gov.uk/international-pension-centre - at least four months before you reach State Pension age. Do not use the standard online UK claim service. DWP should write to you automatically but only if your overseas address is up to date.
2
You're planning to move and you've picked an EEA country, Switzerland or the USA

→ Your pension will be uprated normally under the Withdrawal Agreement (if EEA-resident before 31 Dec 2020), the UK-EU TCA (if EEA-resident after) or the relevant bilateral agreement. Tell HMRC and DWP of your move date. Apply for the S1 form for healthcare if moving to an EEA country.
3
You're planning to move to a country on the bilateral-uprating list

→ Same protection as EEA - Israel, the Philippines, Jamaica, Turkey, Mauritius and 13 other countries fully uprate UK State Pensions. Confirm the country is on the DWP list (linked above) and the agreement still includes pension uprating, as some have changed.
4
You're planning to move to a frozen country (Australia, Canada, NZ, etc.)

→ Run the maths first. A pensioner moving today on the full new State Pension (£241.30/week) who lives 20 years post-retirement loses roughly £60,000-£100,000 of cumulative uprating in nominal terms - and far more if inflation runs hot. The pension is still payable; just frozen. Some retirees choose to defer claiming until they are about to return to the UK.
5
You're already in a frozen country and want to fix it

→ Two options. (1) Return to the UK long enough to be classed as UK-resident; your pension is immediately uplifted to the current rate (but freezes again if you re-emigrate). (2) Move to an uprated country - some pensioners have relocated from Australia to the USA or from Canada to Mexico/France specifically for this reason.

How the State Pension actually works abroad

Your entitlement is unchanged by emigration. The rules that decide whether you get a State Pension and how much are based entirely on your UK National Insurance record:

You need at least 10 qualifying years of NI contributions or credits to get any State Pension at all (under the new system that applies to people reaching State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016).
You need 35 qualifying years for the full new State Pension - £241.30/week, £12,547.60/year - in 2026/27.
Years between 10 and 35 give you a proportional amount: roughly £6.89 a week per extra qualifying year.

None of this changes when you move abroad. What changes are the four mechanics around it: how it's claimed, how it's paid, whether it's uprated, and how it interacts with tax.

Claiming from abroad

The State Pension is not paid automatically - you have to claim it. From abroad, the only correct route is the International Pension Centre (IPC), part of DWP, based at Tyneview Park in Newcastle upon Tyne. The IPC handles every overseas claim, change-of- address, bereavement notification and payment query for British pensioners outside the UK.

Online: gov.uk/international-pension-centre - secure enquiry form and online claim portal.
Phone: +44 (0)191 218 7777, Monday to Friday 8am-6pm UK time. Textphone +44 (0)191 218 7280.
Post: International Pension Centre, The Pension Service 11, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton, WV98 1LW, United Kingdom.

DWP will normally write to you about four months before you reach State Pension age - but only if they have your current overseas address. Tell them when you move and again when your address changes; missed letters are the single most common reason for late or back-dated claims among overseas pensioners.

Payment options - currency and frequency

You have three payment routes, and you can change between them at any time by contacting the IPC:

Sterling into a UK bank account. Simplest and free. Then transfer the money yourself using a specialist currency service when the rate suits you. Most cost-effective for pensioners with regular spending in the UK or large pension amounts.
Sterling into an overseas bank account. Your bank does the conversion, usually at a poor rate and with a receiving fee of £5-£25 per payment. Rarely the best option.
Local currency into an overseas bank account. DWP converts via Citibank at the wholesale rate on payment day, with a fixed conversion charge of around 0.39%. No receiving fee. Best for pensioners with predictable local spending and who don't want to manage transfers manually.

You can choose to be paid every 4 weeks (the UK default) or every 13 weeks - the latter halves your conversion charges if you're paid in local currency. If your weekly amount is under £5 (rare, only with very partial pensions), DWP pays once a year.

Notifying DWP - and Winter Fuel Payment

You must tell DWP if you move abroad, even temporarily for more than six months. Failure to notify can result in overpayments that DWP later recovers, plus loss of access to the Pensioner Christmas Bonus and the Winter Fuel Payment. The Winter Fuel Payment was withdrawn from pensioners in warmer EEA countries in 2015 (the so-called "temperature link" change) and has since been further restricted to Pension Credit recipients - meaning very few overseas pensioners now receive it regardless of country.

UK State Pension and double-tax treaties

The State Pension is UK-source income, paid gross with no tax taken off at source. In principle it is taxable in the UK. In practice, as the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group explains, the UK's network of about 130 double-taxation agreements (DTAs) overrides this for most retirement destinations - assigning the taxing right on the State Pension to your country of residence, not to the UK.

Common cases:

Spain. Under the UK-Spain DTA, the UK State Pension is taxable only in Spain for Spanish tax residents. You declare it on your Spanish Modelo 100 each spring, where it stacks with other Spanish income for the Spanish progressive bands (19-47%). You file a DT-Individual Spain form with HMRC to stop UK tax being collected.
Portugal. Similar to Spain - UK State Pension taxable only in Portugal. The old Non-Habitual Resident regime (which gave a flat 10% pension tax) closed to new applicants in 2024, so most new UK retirees in Portugal now pay normal Portuguese rates.
France. UK State Pension taxable only in France for French residents. France also charges social levies (CSG/CRDS) on retirement income - but pensioners with an EU/UK S1 healthcare form are usually exempt from the bulk of these.
Australia. UK State Pension is taxable only in Australia for Australian residents. The Australian tax-free threshold (A$18,200) plus the Seniors and Pensioners Tax Offset means many UK State Pensioners owe little or no Australian tax - but they must still declare it.
USA. UK State Pension is taxable only in the USA for US residents under Article 17 of the UK-USA DTA. Reported on Form 1040 as Social Security-equivalent income (15% federal exclusion, the rest taxable at marginal rates).
Canada. UK State Pension is taxable only in Canada for Canadian residents. Reported as pension income on the T1 General; you can claim the Canadian Pension Income Tax Credit on the first C$2,000.

A critical exception: UK government service pensions - NHS, civil service, armed forces, police, teachers, fire service, local government - are usually still taxed in the UK regardless of where the recipient lives, because most DTAs reserve the taxing right on government pensions to the paying state. The State Pension itself is not a government service pension for treaty purposes; it's a social security pension.

To stop HMRC withholding UK tax on your overseas pension income, complete a DT-Individual form (or country-specific equivalent such as Form Spain-Individual or Form Australia-Individual), get it stamped by the tax authority in your country of residence, and send it to HMRC. They will then issue an NT (No Tax) code to your pension provider. UK personal allowance (£12,570 in 2026/27) remains available to UK and most Commonwealth nationals living abroad - useful if you keep any UK rental income, workplace pension or savings interest in scope of UK tax.

After Brexit - the EEA position in detail

Brexit did not break the State Pension uprating arrangement for UK pensioners in the EEA, but it changed the legal mechanism, as the House of Commons Library briefing on Brexit and State Pensions sets out. Three groups of UK pensioners in the EEA are protected by three different instruments:

UK nationals resident in the EEA on or before 31 December 2020 - covered by the EU Withdrawal Agreement of October 2019. Their State Pensions continue to be uprated under EU social security coordination rules for life, even if they move between EEA states.
UK nationals who moved to the EEA from 1 January 2021 onwards - covered by the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) signed 30 December 2020, specifically the Protocol on Social Security Coordination annexed to it. State Pension uprating continues. EFTA equivalents cover Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein; a separate UK-Swiss agreement covers Switzerland.
EEA nationals living in the UK - entitled to their home-state pensions uprated normally, in mirror image.

What Brexit did change for new UK movers to the EEA is healthcare access (S1 forms only available to UK State Pension recipients, not to early retirees on private pensions), the 90/180-day Schengen rule for non-residents, residency thresholds (the €30,000-€40,000 passive-income proof many EEA countries now require for a non-EU retirement visa), and access to the Winter Fuel Payment (withdrawn in warmer EEA countries from 2015). Pension uprating itself is one of the few areas the British government kept fully intact.

The political fight - End Frozen Pensions

The frozen pension policy dates back to 1955, when the UK signed bilateral reciprocal agreements with some Commonwealth and European countries but not others. The omissions were largely accidental. Successive UK governments - Conservative and Labour - have refused to fix the issue, citing cost. The DWP's most recent published estimate puts the cost of uprating all frozen pensioners at about £585 million a year; uprating only the Australian-resident cohort would cost roughly £33 million in year one and £18 million a year thereafter (FOI, 2025).

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Frozen British Pensions and End Frozen Pensions International (formerly the International Consortium of British Pensioners, formed by the Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners and British Pensions in Australia) continue to campaign for a change in policy. As of May 2026 the position remains as it has been since 1955: which side of an arbitrary geographical line you retire on determines whether your pension keeps pace with inflation.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Is the UK State Pension frozen if I move abroad?: It depends entirely on the country. If you move to any EEA country (Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy and so on), Switzerland, the USA, Gibraltar, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, or one of 14 other countries with a bilateral social security agreement that covers uprating, your State Pension rises every April with the UK triple lock exactly as if you'd stayed in Britain. If you move to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, most of Asia, most of Africa, the Caribbean (except Barbados, Bermuda and Jamaica) or most of Latin America, your State Pension is frozen at the rate it is when you first become entitled to it abroad - and it never rises again, even though the UK Treasury pays it in full each week.
Which countries get the UK State Pension increase?: All 30 EEA countries, Switzerland, the USA, plus 16 countries and territories with bilateral social security agreements that include uprating: Barbados, Bermuda, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Israel, Jamaica, Jersey, Kosovo, Mauritius, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the Philippines, Serbia and Turkey. The full list is published by DWP and updated periodically on GOV.UK. Notably, the UK does have bilateral agreements with Canada and New Zealand, but those agreements do NOT cover uprating - so pensioners in those countries are frozen.
How do I claim my UK State Pension from abroad?: Contact the International Pension Centre (IPC) in Newcastle. You can claim online at gov.uk/international-pension-centre, by phone on +44 (0)191 218 7777, or by post using the IPC claim form (IPC BR1). DWP will usually write to you four months before your State Pension age regardless of where you live, but only if they have a current address on file - so always update DWP with your overseas address. You cannot claim through the standard UK online service if you've already moved abroad; the IPC route is the correct one.
Will I lose my State Pension if I move overseas?: No. Your entitlement is based on your UK National Insurance record and doesn't change when you emigrate. Anyone with at least 10 qualifying years gets a State Pension and the full new State Pension of £241.30 a week is payable abroad in 2026/27 to anyone with 35 qualifying years. What changes is whether it gets the annual increase, how it gets paid, and how it interacts with the tax system of your new country.
Can I get the State Pension paid into a foreign bank account?: Yes - and you have a choice. You can have it paid in sterling into a UK bank account, in sterling into an overseas account (your bank will then convert it and may charge a fee), or in local currency into an overseas account (DWP converts it via Citibank at the rate on payment day, with a fixed conversion charge of around 0.39%). You can also choose to be paid every 4 weeks (the UK default) or every 13 weeks to reduce conversion charges. If your weekly amount is under £5 - rare but possible for partial pensions - DWP pays once a year.
What is the International Pension Centre?: The International Pension Centre (IPC) is the DWP team based at Tyneview Park in Newcastle that handles every State Pension, bereavement benefit and Industrial Injuries claim from people who live, or have lived, outside the UK. It is the only correct point of contact for overseas pensioners. Phone +44 (0)191 218 7777 (Monday to Friday, 8am-6pm UK time), or write to International Pension Centre, The Pension Service 11, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton, WV98 1LW, United Kingdom. The freepost address from inside the UK works too.
Do I pay UK tax on my State Pension if I live abroad?: The State Pension is UK-source income and is in principle taxable in the UK. But almost every double-taxation treaty the UK has with a major retirement destination assigns the taxing right on the State Pension to the country of residence - not the UK. So if you are tax-resident in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Australia, Canada, the USA or any other major treaty country, you typically declare and pay tax on the State Pension only in that country. UK government service pensions (NHS, civil service, armed forces, police, teachers) are different: those are usually taxed in the UK regardless. To stop UK tax being withheld, you complete form DT-Individual (or the country-specific version), get it stamped by the local tax authority, and send it to HMRC.
Is my State Pension frozen in Australia?: Yes. Australia is the largest single frozen-pension country: roughly 245,000 UK pensioners live there and none of them receive the annual triple-lock increase. Their State Pension is fixed at the rate it was when they first became entitled to it after moving to Australia. The UK has a long-standing bilateral agreement with Australia, but Australia terminated the social security part of that agreement in 2001 and the British government has never re-opened it. A FOI response in 2025 put the cost of uprating Australian-resident pensioners alone at £33 million in the first year and £18 million annually thereafter.
Is my State Pension uprated in Spain after Brexit?: Yes. UK State Pensions paid to residents of Spain - and every other EEA country plus Switzerland - continue to be uprated under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) of 30 December 2020. This applies whether you were already resident before 31 December 2020 (covered by the Withdrawal Agreement) or moved after (covered by the TCA). Brexit changed many things for UK retirees in the EU - visa rules, healthcare access via the S1 form, residency thresholds - but the annual State Pension increase was deliberately preserved on both sides.
How much have frozen pensioners lost over time?: It depends on when they retired. Someone who first received the basic State Pension in 2009/10 (then £95.25 a week, rising to £97.65 in April 2010) is still on roughly £97.65 today if they live in Australia or Canada - versus £184.90 for the same basic pension in the UK, or £241.30 for the full new State Pension. Over 16 years that's about £4,500 a year lower than the UK rate, and cumulatively in the order of £40,000 to £60,000 of foregone income depending on the exact retirement date. The gap widens by another 2.5% to 8% every April. End Frozen Pensions International, the campaign group, estimates the average frozen pensioner is around £140 a week worse off than they would be in the UK.

Related guides

How much State Pension will I get in 2026/27? - the full UK calculation
UK State Pension age - when you can claim, wherever you live
Is the State Pension taxable? - the UK tax angle in detail
Deferring your State Pension - sometimes worth doing before moving to a frozen country

Important: This page is general information about UK State Pension entitlement abroad. It is not regulated financial, tax or immigration advice. International tax in particular is highly fact-specific; always confirm your personal position with a qualified adviser in the country you plan to move to and, where relevant, with HMRC.