AFTER 13 years of living in Canada, Ann Puckridge, 90, is being forced to leave her family and friends and return to England.

Mrs Puckridge moved to Calgary in 2001 to be with her daughter Diane, and grandchildren Kirsty, 11, and Andrew, nine, who had moved there a few years earlier.

However due to the Government’s policy on pensions for those who live abroad in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada she is now unable to financially support herself and must return home and live a ten hour flight away from her immediate family.

Along with the 560,000 other expatriates her state pension was frozen when she emigrated.

Having served as an intelligence officer in the Women’s Royal Navy in the Second World War and making mandatory National Insurance contributions throughout her teaching career in Gloucestershire she would receive £110.15 per week had she stayed in Britain.

“I lived in Painswick for 15 years and then Valley View Road in Stroud for 20 years so when I have to move back it is my intention to settle back in the Gloucestershire area,” said Mrs Puckridge.

“However currently I have no definite plans and am hoping I won’t have to make that decision in the end.”

Mrs Puckridge has spent 12 years writing letters to British ministers and campaigning for justice alongside the International Consortium of British Pensioners.

However she said that the cost of her posting a letter to an MP is the same amount that she must also budget for one meal.

Mrs Puckridge moved to Canada at the age of 77 to be with her family but can no longer survive on the pension she is receiving and she has exhausted all of her savings.

“I am being forced back to the UK where I will live alone with no family at all,” she said.