Comments on: Overseas Pensioners Enjoy Winter Fuel Cash

By: ian walker

ian walker — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:51:51 +0000

totally agree with comments that fuel allowance should NOT be claimed by ex pats
I live in France and have done for 10 years, I chose to leave uk and therefor gave up any uk benifits.
one cannot claim unemployment benifit from uk as the dept. say you are not living in uk therefore you are not entitled.
the same should apply to the winter fuel allowance, one is not living in the uk so one should not be able to claim a benifit from a country one does not live in.
It is costing the uk taxpayer £ millions which could be better spent elsewhere.
Fair enough claim fuel allowance whilst living in uk but once you move abroard then the allowance should be stopped.
The way round it is that providing the ex pat keeps open a uk bank account to which the allowance was paid into whilst in uk, move abroad but keep the account open and the payment is still payed into your account and no one is any the wiser !!

….

To add to my previous comments, why give to one and not the other?
if you moved abroard after 60 and had claimed fuel allowance, you still get it.
If you moved abroard before one reached 60 and therefore have not claimed the allowance you do not get it, once you reach 60 and are living abroard you cannot claim the fuel benifit …. why ?
This seems totaly unfair…. the govenment either gives to all over 60 or none !!

By: graham Kendrick

graham Kendrick — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 22:18:20 +0000

If you read June’s post again You will see that those of us that live abroad after retirement SAVE the uk money by not drawing pension credits etc. and with the pittance that the government jokingly calls a pension to spend (which we paid into all of our working lives) what funds do we “pile” into another country’s economy?
Believe me, if all the expats returned to Britain and drew all of the allowances that most pensioners do, Britain would be paying out much more than it does by giving us two hundred quid – which we have every entitlement to.
I am sure there are better things for you to complain about than a few pensioners getting back a tiny proportion of the money they have paid in national insurance all their lives. Try having a go, rightly, at the millions of pounds paid to illegal immigrants who have never contributed one penny to the british economy.

By: Leigh Scott

Leigh Scott — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:37:17 +0000

In reposnse to June Bamford.

June if you chose to leave the country then you are not contributing any further to the economy.You still get the addded benefit from the government pension for paying your national insurance.With this in mind and given that you no longer appear to contribute to the british economy and leaving those who remain to deal with the economic problems why on earth should you benefit whilst piling your funds in to another country’s economy.You said it yourself, few homes have central heating and the government there gives you nothing, more fool you then.I am sorry but I have no sympathy for you whatsoever

By: June Bamford

June Bamford — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:48:40 +0000

I am so fed up with the continual winging of the Little Englanders, stirred up by the Media. I moved to Spain before the introduction of the Winter Fuel Allowance, note that it is an allowance not a benefit, therefore am not entitled to it. I worked as a nurse so my pension is still taxable in the U.K. The State Pension increased by a derisory amount, I´m not sure in which year, possibly 1998 or ´99, & the reason given by the government was because of the large increase on the Winter Fuel allowance.
Why does everyone think that people living abroad enjoy continual sun & warmth? I live near the coast on the Costa Blanca but the weather, in the winter, is very cold. Our homes are not insulated & it is nigh on impossible to do this; no Government assistance with insulation here even if it were possible. Very few homes have central heating & we rely on trundling around a gas heater. I have just managed to raise the temperature in my sitting room to 16C. Added to all this, the fall of the Pound against the Euro has the effect of cutting the value of our pensions by nearly 30% & Spain is no longer an inexpensive place to live, ask anyone who has been here on holiday recently.
It is reported that three quarters of the expat British are moving back to the U.K. & many of them because of the Benefits they can claim there. This will cost the British tax payer much more than paying the heating allowance to some of us. So stop complaining & support your fellow countrymen.

By: stan Bacon

stan Bacon — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:12:55 +0000

One should have the right to live anywhere in the world and remain a loyal british subject, just as i did when i was seving with tie royal signals in egypt in 1952.
god bless all those who give their lives in afganistan.

Stan Bacon Pensioner.