Half a million retired Britons overseas stand to win £3.9 billion ($9.23 billion) in increased pension rights if a test case against the British Government succeeds.
The claim, in the High Court at London in April, could benefit those who have had their pensions frozen to rates set in the 1950s.
Many
live on or below the poverty line.
Lawyers will use the Human Rights Act to argue that pensioners living outside Britain are being discriminated against by not receiving full state pensions.
The case, which comes after a 20-year battle, is being brought by 33,000 pensioners in South Africa.
Marjorie Ferreira, aged 68, who was born in Manchester and has lived in Durban for 33 years, could barely afford the £3 it takes to join the campaign the South African Alliance of British Pensioners is waging against what they call "pension apartheid".
"We are standing up for our right, which is an end to discrimination against Britons living abroad," she said.
"Why should I get £14 when in the UK I would get £72.50 a week, a house, telephone and Meals on Wheels?"
The pittance Mrs Ferreira gets from the British Government barely covers food and a small insurance. If it were not for the modest income of her South African husband, the former Wren and hat factory worker would be destitute.
The British policy Mrs Ferreira wants scrapped was adopted soon after the Second World War. It freezes pension levels for most of those living overseas at the rate fixed when they left Britain.
Some countries, such as Jamaica and the United States, have secured pension increases for expats in bilateral agreements with Britain. Most have not and expats there continue losing out.
Over the years, they have been powerless to do anything but watch bitterly as the older they get, the poorer they get. Their fixed income, in some cases just a few pounds a week, has also been eroded by inflation.
The alliance's general secretary, Eric Byrom, 69, said: "People feel disenchanted about being encouraged by the Government to live abroad and then being abandoned."
Mr Byrom knows a couple in Johannesburg whose joint pension was frozen at £13 a week.
"She is 91, ill and having to choose between food and medication."
London lawyer Graham Chrystie, who is representing the South African pensioners, said: "Every year, all pensioners at home and 440,000 abroad get an increase, and 550,000 do not.
"I believe Britain's treatment of expat pensioners has been one of the most disgraceful episodes of post-war Governments. Colleagues in Europe can't understand how they have got away with it.
"If we win, we're hoping to open the door to unfreezing all UK pensions in countries where people have been deprived."
- INDEPENDENT
Half a million retired Britons overseas stand to win £3.9 billion ($9.23 billion) in increased pension rights if a test case against the British Government succeeds.
The claim, in the High Court at London in April, could benefit those who have had their pensions frozen to rates set in the 1950s.
Many
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