Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan has admitted his hands are tied over Manx ex-pats in certain countries whose pensions cannot be increased.

More than 500 people living in countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia had their pensions frozen at the time they moved away.

Responding to a question in Tynwald on Tuesday, Mr Cannan said: ’By virtue of international social security agreements, the Treasury is legally obliged to follow the UK Government’s policy in this area and it is therefore unable to unilaterally review the provisions by which pensioners living in certain countries do not benefit from annual increases to their state pensions.’

Dr Alex Allinson, who raised the matter, said: ’Unfortunately Manx pensioners choosing to retire abroad can no longer rely on the state pension and will need to take out extra financial provisions to maintain their standard of living.’

Mr Cannan pointed out: ’People who choose to go and live abroad choose to do so for a variety of circumstances, and each environment in which they choose to live is different.

’After the Second World War, the UK Government entered into social security agreements with a number of countries where it had interests or a special relationship to pay for pensions to UK citizens living there.’

The Isle of Man was tied to those agreements.

Mr Cannan suggested a reason why attempts in the UK to rectify the position had met little success was ’because of the political decisions to focus and concentrate on pensioners resident in the United Kingdom’.