Expats living in China receiving UK pensions get frozen pensions. The pension remains fixed at the amount it was during the first year it was paid. A group of expat pensioners took the UK govt to the Eurpoean Court of Human Rights a few years ago. The judgment was that they had a case. The lawyers representing the UK govt said the UK couldn't afford to pay all expats abroad unfrozen pemsions. The judges ruled in favor of the UK govt. Expats abroad who choose to live in countries who haven't signed an agreement with the UK govt re reciprocal index-linked state pensions will lose out financially.

I believe the UK's austerity measures means the maximum state pension is only 53 quid/month. The fact that the UK has the highest proportion of impoverished children of all the first-world countries is another indicator as well as the widening wealth gap between the rich and the poor which casts a shadow over the govt of the day.