AIBU to think claiming two state pensions seems unethical?

[CoffeeAndCats3]

I wrote about this on another thread, but thought I'd start my own as it irks me and I'm wondering if IABU.

My parents emigrated from the UK in their early/mid thirties and have never lived in the UK since. They are now late 60's. My Mum told me recently that both her and my Dad are claiming a full UK pension, in addition to a full pension in the country them emigrated to. They don't need this money, but she seemed quite smug about how they can 'double dip' and live the Life of Riley while sitting on a load of money, rental properties etc. I told her it seemed a bit unethical to me, but she didn't understand my viewpoint at all.

How is this possible? She said that they only had to pay their (national insurance?) for a period of time after moving, to then be eligible for the full UK pension on retirement? Can someone explain to me if this is correct, as I half think they've scammed the UK system somehow!

Youve grossly misrepresented it.
you have to work and pay NICs then whilst you are an expat you pay voluntary NICs its around £900 per year now if you pay on time. You can pay up to six years late but it goes up every year. You still have to have 10 full years to get any state pension and 35 full years to get the full UK state pension, plus in many countries it’s frozen. The amount you get when you claim at 67 stays the same, there is no triple lock or increase at all. There are expats in Canada on full uk state pensions that are £20 a week.

yes it’s around £900 now, it goes up every year and the break even point is 3 years so if you get to 71 or 72 you’re getting interest on your principle investment.

It has literally only just gone up to £900,
in fact no one has actually even paid that yet so people are allowed to be annoyed there was a policy in place that allowed people to milk the system for so long.

My husband and I both worked in the UK, making contributions, before we emigrated. We're entitled to it - why wouldn't we collect it?

Yes, because that’s what NI contributions primarily fund…

Quite.

£200 per year? I wish, cost us over £5,000 to get a full state pension for the nearly two years my husband lost after taking redundancy due to ill health and that was quite a few years ago. Perhaps topping it up was cheaper years ago, its not now.

£5k for two years seems very expensive. I paid voluntary contributions from 1995 onwards and it was about £600 per year then.

I think it depends on what you earned and what contributions you previously paid. My husband was a shift electrical engineer so his NI would have been higher as his salary was high. Still got the same old age pension as others though. Not quite sure how the state pension contributions work, as all I know is what we had to pay. The cost went up quite steeply from either April 2025 or 2026 which is why we topped it up for missing years when we did as it would have cost a lot more after the increase.

There are well-off pensioners but a lot are poor too.

Its £923 annually each for class 3 voluntary. Its absolutely worth it, especially for older workers. Its a ridiculous loophole

How do they have enough qualifying years?