British government announces pension boost for Kindertransport refugees
By JONNY PAUL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
A group of Kindertransport refugees who fled to Britain from Germany before the Second World War are set to receive a boost to their state pensions, UK Minister for Pensions Reform Mike O'Brien announced on Monday.
Stripped of their German nationality, around 10,000 children came as refugees to Britain from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia on Kindertransport before the outbreak of the Second World War. Those that entered into manual occupations in the UK when they reached the age of 16, however, fell under the pre-1948 social insurance arrangements.
Some of the refugees subsequently returned to Germany while others remain in the UK.
In the 1990s, the German state pension system was opened up to the Kindertransport, enabling those without German insurance contributions to 'buy in' to the German system.