British ex-pats living in Commonwealth Countries

British ex-pats living in Commonwealth countries may find they struggle to get the full state pension under rules coming in from January.

Getting the state pension requires workers to have a certain number of ‘qualifying years’ of paying National Insurance – 35, for the full new state pension.

At the moment, Brits living in Australia, Canada or New Zealand can count the time they spent abroad as part of the qualification period for their state pension. But from January 1 2022 that all changes, in a move that disadvantages ex-pats that have spent the most time overseas.

Any time Brits spent in these countries before March 1 2001 will not count towards their state pension. Time spent by ex-pats in most non-Commonwealth countries already does not count towards state pensions. The new rules bring the Commonwealth nations in line with this.