# Unusual government pension eligibility rules in other countries for dual nationalitie



## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

A question here about eligibility for OAS by a dual nationality got me thinking about how dual nationality and residency can affect pensions for dual nationals.

One of the more interesting ones I have come across is from the United Kingdom. They had (superseded a few years ago) what they called a Spousal Pension. This was intended to give a non-working spouse (housewife) a separate pension from the pension of the working spouse.

Back in the day when women did not need to work for a household to earn enough to live on (I know some here won't be able to conceive of such a world), a man in the UK got a government pension at age 65 based on contributions while working and residency in the UK. So instead of 2 separate pensions like we have here in Canada for CPP and OAS, they got one pension that combined both types of eligibility, contributions and residency.

But that meant that a housewife who never worked and therefore never contributed was not eligible for such a pension and there was no pension for residency alone such as our OAS pension provides. If all the pension income a couple received was solely based on the husband, if he died before his wife did, she would be left with no income. 

So they came up with the Spousal Pension which gave the wife a pension when she reached age 65 that was equal to 2/3rds of her husband's pension when he reached age 65, usually the man was older than the wife of course. Never mind why a wife was only entitled to 2/3rds, this was back in the days before equal rights for women obviously. But then along came equal rights and some bright spark thought, 'hey, this is discrimination against men.' What if the woman worked and the man was a 'house husband'? He would get no government pension since the Spousal Pension only applied to women! So they changed it to apply to both.

About the same time as that change, there started to be an increase in the number of people marrying foreigners. The old assumption that someone would marry someone of the same UK nationality as themselves was changing. Increasingly common was UK men marrying say women from Thailand or the Philippines. Now ask yourself if a spouse gets a 2/3rds pension based on the working spouses pension, what about residency? Or even citizenship? Nope they did not apply, were not in the applicable pension act.

So, a UK guy/gal 65 marries say a 62 year old Canadian(or any nationality) woman/man and at age 65, she/he can claim a UK Spousal Pension equal to 2/3rds of his/her spouse's UK government pension WITHOUT ever even having spent one day in the UK in her/his entire life! 

This was finally changed only a few years ago to stop having to pay under such circumstances. It's kind of hard to justify why someone should be eligible for a government pension when they have never even lived in the country at all.

Does anyone know of any other unusual pension laws that apply to other countries? Just curious.


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## OnlyMyOpinion (Sep 1, 2013)

Longtimeago said:


> ... there was no pension for residency alone such as our OAS pension provides...


OAS is also income-based, not just residency alone.
But the income limits are too inclusive so that may be a bit moot.
Maximum beneft is 'only' $607/yr but it adds up to over $50Bn year currently and growing with the senior demographic.


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## Eleni (Sep 13, 2019)

I know about the situation that is opposite to what you have described. 

If a Ukranian citizen becoame a citizen of another country after Ukraine got its independence in the 90ies, that person loses his right to the Ukrainian government pension even if he contributed to it for 20 years or more


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

Eleni said:


> I know about the situation that is opposite to what you have described.
> 
> If a Ukranian citizen becoame a citizen of another country after Ukraine got its independence in the 90ies, that person loses his right to the Ukrainian government pension even if he contributed to it for 20 years or more


Ouch.

Hmm, what would happen if say a Ukranian citizen retired in Canada but did NOT become a Canadian citizen? You can live in Canada as a Permanent Resident without ever having to apply for Canadian citizenship.


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