Today the House of Lords begins hearing an appeal case to determine whether Britons who retired abroad should have their pensions increased inline with the retail price index at a cost of £400m to the British government. Currently Britons who retire to a country in the European Union receive a full indexed state pension, whereas those who retire to many Commonwealth countries such as Australia and South Africa receive a "frozen" pension with no increase.

The case has been brought by Annette Carson who emigrated to South Africa in 1989. Although Ms Carson continued to make full contributions to her pension, since retiring she has not received any indexation with the effect that her pension has remained "frozen" at £67.50 per week compared with an indexed amount of £79.60.

The test case could effect as many as 540,000 pensioners with non indexed pensions currently living in Commonwealth countries.

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