They're softening us up for a second Referendum, so have embarked on Project Fear #2.
From The Sun:
EXPAT Brits who have lived and worked in Europe face losing access to their pensions in a No Deal Brexit scenario, Ministers will admit on Thursday.
Most at risk are Brits who have worked in EU countries and built up pension funds abroad that are then paid into a UK bank account. Under Brussels pensions rules, funds that cross borders can only be paid into a bank account registered in an EU country.
Pensioners who have worked in the EU and now live in countries outside the union are currently made to open bank accounts in an EU state to collect their funds.The UK will become a “third country” on 30 March 2019, sparking the risk of expats and former expats with British bank accounts having their payments cut off.
That rule sounds plausible, it's basically protectionism for banks in EU Member States. But all people need to do it open another bank account in an EU Member State, that's hassle and a few extra Euros in bank charges every month, but not the end of the world.
Rather less plausibly, from This Is Money:
A technical paper published by the Department for Exiting the EU raised fears that UK citizens in Europe may lose access to insurance contracts and other financial services if British-based companies cannot use passporting rights, as is likely to happen if the UK and EU cannot agree a deal.
At a press conference following the publication of the government’s technical papers regarding a no deal Brexit, Raab said British expats' access to their pensions would be 'a practical issue that we will be able to resolve'.
Again, I can imagine that insurers in the remaining EU Member States will be pushing their governments to deny British insurers from peddling their services in their countries, and why wouldn't they? I've no idea why any sane person would want to take out insurance with a foreign company anyway, they are slippery bastards at the best of times, but getting an insurance company abroad to pay out must be a nightmare.
Existing pensions contracts are under UK law, UK based savers paid in their premiums under UK law (before they went abroad) and are entitled to their pensions payments under UK law. If the remaining EU Member States really were to do the stupidest thing imaginable and block such flows of money into their countries (a kind of invisible export), then all expat pensioners need to do is have their UK pension paid into a UK bank account first, and then take the money from there.
The interesting point is that under tax law in most countries, a UK pension received by a UK expat is taxable income in the country where the expat lives, so the other country should be encouraging people to declare them. If they do what is threatened, they would be actually encouraging tax evasion (having hidden the source, the expat would be daft to then tell the authorities that they receive it).
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While I'm on the topic, I saw a related headline on BBC News 24 today, to the effect that EHIC cards would no longer be valid. The most up-to-date article I can find on the BBC is this, which is as misleading as is possible without actually lying:
If you are getting ready to go on holiday to another EU country or Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, you are likely to be packing your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) along with your passport. The EHIC entitles you to state-provided medical treatment* should you need it while visiting one of those countries...
A House of Lords report in March 2018 warned that "in the absence of an agreement on future relations that covers this topic, the rights currently enjoyed by 27 million UK citizens, thanks to the EHIC, will cease after Brexit".
* Not true, the cards just entitle you to medical treatment on the same terms and conditions as people in the other country would get, so if a country has prescription or treatment charges for its own residents, a British tourist has to pay the same charges. And by and large, there is no 'state-provided medical treatment' in most European countries. It is usually privately provided (even if that is by government bodies acting as private businesses) and funded/regulated by the government (or some quango or other, which is controlled and regulated by the government).
But it only takes two minutes to find the actual official UK government website which explains that EHIC cards have fuck all to do with the EU:
An EHIC lets you get state healthcare* in other EEA countries and Switzerland at a reduced cost or sometimes for free.
* Same mistake again, but hey.
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