On the issue of pensions and the EU, you will appreciate that this is a fiendishly complicated matter, which is why I resisted going into it in my podcast (https://youtu.be/HzBIEqSxaWI). However I will try to explain the best I can.
As I am sure you are aware, State Pensions long-standing rules enable the co-ordination of social security entitlements for people moving within the EU. The rules also apply to EEA countries, i.e. the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and Switzerland – the last 4 of which are not in the EU.
The aim of the provisions is not to harmonise social security systems, but to remove barriers to workers moving between Member States. They enable periods of insurance to be aggregated, so an individual who has worked in other Member States can make one application to the relevant agency in the country of residence, which then arranges for each state where a person was insured for at least a year to pay a pension. They also enable a pension built up in one Member State to be drawn in another.
UK state pensioners resident in EEA countries also receive annual increases to their state pension. Elsewhere, the UK state pension is only uprated if there is a reciprocal social security agreement requiring this. In May 2015, the Department for Work and Pensions paid pensions to some 472,000 people in EEA countries, with the largest number of recipients in the Republic of Ireland (28%), Spain (23%) and France (13).
In place of the co-ordination rules, there is no reason why the UK could not seek to negotiate bilateral reciprocal agreement with individual EU/EEA Member States. For example, before joining the EU, or the EEC as it was then, the UK had a bilateral reciprocal agreement with Ireland, but that was superseded by the EU.
It also worth considering that the pension arrangements in the EU are rights EU ‘citizens’ acquire over time. Being a citizen of the EU permits you to access to the pension arrangements. With this in mind, my podcast referred to the “acquired rights” set out in the Vienna Convention, i.e. the rights current EU citizens would be protected in the event of Brexit, but there would be new arrangements for those entering into the system post Brexit. This new system would be subject to negotiation, but there is no reason the UK could not strike an arrangement with the EU similar to the way it has done with the US and Ireland.
I do hope this helped to clarify and alleviate any concerns you may have about voting for Britain to leave the EU and reclaim our sovereignty and independence.