UK Ex-Pat Winter Fuel Payment

StuBurt wrote on Sun Oct 29, 2023 1:15pm:

There are over 500,000 UK Ex-pats living in France and Spain many of whom are retired old age pensioners.

About 10 years ago Iain Duncan Smith called for wealthy pensioners who do not need benefit payments such as winter fuel allowance and free bus passes benefit payments should volun...

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...tarily hand back the money to the government. I would enjoy reading the audited statistics of the money repaid.

Shock horror when all UK Ex-Pats living in France and Spain had their Winter Fuel Allowance cancelled.

The then Work and Pensions Secretary explained that calculations were made on official temperature figures for each country, based on a five month winter that represents the coldest time of the year in the UK, matching existing criteria used by the government for other forms of cold weather payment.

In response to questions about recognising the variance of temperatures depending on altitude and region, Mr Duncan Smith said the government had looked at a system of weighting temperatures for areas with heavy populations of British pensioners, as opposed to calculating using figures for each whole country. But as the highest concentrations of British pensioners were often found in the warmer parts of European countries, it would have meant at least as many countries would be excluded as under the adopted scheme, if not more.

On the complaint that warmer overseas territories of countries like France, Spain and Portugal had skewed the results for British pensioners in those countries, the Work Minister said that European law would have to be changed for France’s Caribbean islands, Spain’s Canary Islands and Portugal’s Atlantic islands not to be included in the calculations.

The changes implemented including the system of weighting meant that the measurement of temperature was altered to suit the new criteria thus denying UK Ex-Pat pensioners the Winter Fuel Allowance

For those of us UK Ex-pats that live full-time in France and Spain

we know just how cold the winter months may be.

Please view my UK government petition

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/647060

or click on the Q Code below to try and reinstate our much needed benefit to keep warm in winter.

swcoulthurst wrote on Sun Oct 29, 2023 5:39pm:

I'm sorry but in my opinion if you don't live in the UK then you shouldn't be entitled to the winter fuel payment. Yes it 'can' get cold but nowhere near the temperatures in the UK. Especially the North if the UK.

swcoulthurst wrote on Sun Oct 29, 2023 5:39pm:

I'm sorry but in my opinion if you don't live in the UK then you shouldn't be entitled to the winter fuel payment. Yes it 'can' get cold but nowhere near the temperatures in the UK. Especially the North if the UK.

marcliff wrote on Sun Oct 29, 2023 5:48pm:

Plus the Spanish government gave us allowances on fuel costs. Lower taxes, reduced car fuel, cap on gas prices and so on. To get the WFA from UK as well would mean we are benefitting twice. UK gets cold, many places below zero for a long time and 4 to 5 months when the heating has to be on in the...

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... houses. Last year I think we used the gas fire a few times to give some instant heat and the aircon heating very rarely. 

Loads of things you can do to semi insulate your home. Make sure you seal around the  doors and windows, secondary double glazing (simply like cling film over the windows, a curtain over the entrance to the stairwell and so on. 

I do feel for those living in France which can get very cold in the northern areas but they included the French colonies in the Caribbean in the average temperatures. Here, in Spain, some 90% of expats live within 10k of the coast and, with temps close to 20C in the daytime, nowhere near justifies the WFA , My daughter in UK has had her heating on all day since the beginning of October and here we are out sunbathing. Her bills are horrendous compared to ours. Heating has to be left on overnight as well which is something we have never had to do.

The reduction in costs and help given by the Spanish government more than makes up for the loss of the WFA.

StuBurt wrote on Sun Oct 29, 2023 5:57pm:

Thank you for your message. There are hundreds of thousands of well off households in the UK receiving this benefit when they do not need it nor do they return the allowance to the government as requested. 

We used to get the cold weather payment before the Canary Islands, French Polynesia in the South Pacific and other similar examples were included to change the winter temperatures in France, Spain and Portugal. ...

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...

We UK Ex Pats have paid all our National Insurance and Income Tax for most if not all of our working lives and suffer from cold winter months. The requested reinstatement of the winter fuel allowance is us asking for the previous level playing field being applied to old aged pensioners that choose to live in Europe.

swcoulthurst wrote on Sun Oct 29, 2023 5:39pm:

I'm sorry but in my opinion if you don't live in the UK then you shouldn't be entitled to the winter fuel payment. Yes it 'can' get cold but nowhere near the temperatures in the UK. Especially the North if the UK.

Stephanie M K wrote on Sun Oct 29, 2023 6:32pm:

How cold do you believe is cold........minus 19C, cold enough for you ?  It  killed off the olive crop where I live and it took 5 years for the trees to recover.  That was the coldest winter I can recall in over 20 years of living here.   We regularly get minus figures in...

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... February, which is the coldest month in Spain

swcoulthurst wrote on Sun Oct 29, 2023 7:01pm:

How often has this -19 happened. Yes it does go into minus sometimes at night. In the UK it remains at minus far more constantly. When it was 14 degrees (and I thought it was cold here) my son sent me a picture of the temp on his car at -9 during the day! If you want a winter payment then loby th...

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...e country where you chose to be resident. 

YOU DO NOT LIVE IN THE UK.   YOU NO LONGER PAY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE UK.   THE UK PAYS FOR YOUR HEALTHCARE EVEN THOUGH YOU DONT LIVE THERE.

The UK chose to leave the EU. If we had remained, guess what, you would have been entitled to all the previous benefits. Now you have the bare minimum.

Stephanie M K wrote on Sun Oct 29, 2023 8:39pm:

It regularly goes down into the minus teens during the winter here where we live every year.  It even snows too. That particular year was, I confess, was the lowest it has been for over 20 years of living here. Hate to have to tell you that due to having Government pensions, we still pay tax...

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... to HMRC and will be also soon be getting our UK votes reinstated that were taken away from us, due to the 15 year ruling. Not really interested in getting the winter fuel allowance, the pittance it is.  Had it for a couple of years before they took it away.  Response was really due to the fact that you mentioned that it didnt get that cold in Spain.  Incidentally, 2 weeks ago, we drove back home from a holiday in Andalucia, through the Sierra Nevadas. Weather was beautiful. The following day they had their very early snowfall.