Expats in France look set to lose winter fuel allowance
George Osborne said: "From the autumn of 2015, we will link the winter fuel payment to a temperature test. People in hot countries will no longer get it. It is, after all, a payment for winter fuel."
This means all pensioners living in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Gibraltar and Cyprus, will no longer get the benefit as they have warmer winter weather.
The list of countries was drawn up by the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, which analysed which countries were warmer on average between November and March than the south west of England - the warmest part of the UK.
I thank my friend Craig McGinty of thisfrenchlife for the above.
Regular followers of this page will have seen how very harsh our winters can be, and without central heating, we spend hours chopping wood, keeping fires lit, often whilst snowed-in and unable to replenish supplies.
I, personally, don't receive any state pension, but Lady Magnon does and her meagre annual 'winter fuel allowance' has always been extremely welcome. With winter temperatures dropping to around minus 10 C, or even at times as low as minus 15 C, we need to heat the house on a permanent basis or risk the interior walls becoming cold and difficult to re-heat. 300 year old stone houses did not come with insulation. This tiny payment to help pensioners with their fuel bills (whilst, in our case, perhaps not essential) is greatly appreciated.
So, here's an open invitation to George. Come and spend a few weeks chez nous during January or February, and see for yourself if it's bloody cold or not.
As for the idiots at the pathetic Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia; I bloody despair.
p.s. Don't even get me going about the vast amounts of money handed out to every Tom, Dick, or Mohammed, who knocks on Britain's door; maybe George should do something about them first; NOT take money from those who've actually paid in for it!
I forgot to mention, above, that anyone who knows this part of France will be perfectly aware that it is warmer in Summer than the UK, and considerably colder in Winter! France, historically, also has a higher annual rainfall than the UK.
ReplyDeleteHigher annual rainfall? Even than Wales??? Seriously, I do sympathise and particularly agree with your last paragraph!
DeleteIt is ridiculous. I do try to avoid listening while politicians gibber but from what little I do hear they are a most peculiar breed and nothing to do with this planet at all.
ReplyDeleteIn the recent "budget" (surely a mis-use of the word if ever there was one) our ("our") dear Chancellor ranted about the need to chop £11.5 thousand million (I won't use the foreign "billion" since it is nothing of the sort) from the accounts. This while signing off with a nod on a 33% predicted overspend on this so-called high speed rail link from who care to the heart of nowhere in particular, an overspend of some £10 thousand million...
These cretinous excrecencies in Westminster rant and rave about how folk should make provision for retirement - all while changing the rules and changing decades-old contracts to make it impossible to do so. When I was a lad one paid NI for the state pension and added to that a pension from your work. Now neither exists or is safe and, apparently, it's all my fault!
No strong feelings on the matter, as you can plainly see Sir.
'From the cradle to the grave' seems to have been done-away-with as well. It's been replaced with 'From the cradle to whenever we say'.
DeletePerhaps you should move into your house in England for the winter, like people in England used to go to the South of France in the old days? If Lady M. moved to Sweden for the winter, then you might get your heating subsidised there too, but you would definitely need it!
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder what I might be entitled to from HMG. I never had cause to use the NHS, was never on the dole, paid my taxes on UK earnings and made one or two (ahem) extra contributions to the Exchequer in the form of fines (usually for speeding), yet I hear of expats claiming disability benefit (?). I never realised expats could claim for winter fuel allowance. I left the Army believing that I was entitled to 9/16ths of my pension which would pay out at the normal retirement age of 55 for Army Officers but have heard recently this has been raised to 60 for preserved pensions. This raises the obvious question: what happens to the pot if I die before 60?
ReplyDeleteYorkshire's last surviving dyed in the wool communist, Yorkshire Pudding would approve of my attitude that having left Albion's shores one cannot expect anything further but having seen how hate spewing refugees and their families can be housed and fed at a Kensington address at the taxpayer's expense, I would like to try dipping my hand into the till as well.
Considering that Lady M receives a single yearly payment of £150, it does erk that foreigners (with no affiliation to the UK) can turn up and not only be given plenty of spending money, but also a nice pad to live in as well. Taking away her £150 is hardly going to fill the coffers.
ReplyDeleteAnd it probably, most likely, costs the Civil Service far more to process the payment of £150 per annum.
DeleteMy uncle died of Asthma but until the day he died, he was employed by a building contractor. The contractor said to me that he had to employ hundreds of lazy foreigners, why couldn't he employ one sick Englishman?
And his attitude reinforces yours, Cro. What difference does a 150 quid a year make to the big picture?
Alas, it seems that politicians the world over were all cut from the same bolt of cloth.
ReplyDelete