Winter Fuel Payment

33Lurcher

Still not got ours yet , rang last week just one month after writing to them and they said its been actioned for the new bank details and will be paid after Xmas prob in Jan .

33Lurcher

Got ours yesterday

Gillyches

I wonder if anyone has any advice or knowledge about this situation:

My husband and I are both pensioners (he's 74 and I'm 67) and for the past few years we've both had our Winter Fuel Payments.

This year it was stopped because we have a home in Gibraltar and live there for 60/70% of the year... approximately.

However, our situation is rather different from folk who have sold up and left the UK because we still have a property in the UK and pay council tax, our income taxes, electricity, gas and phone bills, road tax on the car etc in the UK. We bank in the UK. We have our state pensions and some private pensions paid into our UK banks. Our heating system is left on throughout the winter so that frozen and burst pipes don't become a problem.

Two questions:
1) What, essentially, is the difference between us and anyone else who permanently resides in the UK? We pay everything that everyone else pays... except we don't buy the bulk of our food over there.
2) Another stipulation for the payment is that the claimant has to be in the UK between the period 21-27 Sept!! Well, my husband WAS in the UK during those dates... remember he still pays the same as everyone else regarding the list of payments shown above. So, if someone is out of the country visiting overseas family (for example) they don't get the Winter Fuel Allowance either?

Is there anyone in the know about these matters? This seems to be a ludicrous and arbitrary situation given that we fulfil 99% of the requirements.

Mojisola

Seems pretty clear cut -

https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/eligibility
"You can’t get the payment if you live in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal or Spain because the average winter temperature is higher than the warmest region of the UK."

Gillyches

https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/eligibility
"You can’t get the payment if you live in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal or Spain because the average winter temperature is higher than the warmest region of the UK."

I think this probably refers to folk who have sold up and left the UK... who have no property in the UK that they also call their home.

Mojisola

Gillyches wrote: »

I think this probably refers to folk who have sold up and left the UK... who have no property in the UK that they also call their home.

Your home overseas is your main home - the UK house is a second home - so you are resident in Gibraltar and not entitled to claim WFP.

Gillyches

... if we pay ALL our dues and demands in the UK and have paid into the system all our working lives!!

What is substantially different between us and anyone else in receipt of the payment...? Answer... nothing.

While we're not in the UK we're not using libraries, NHS, bus passes etc... so the 'system' is saving in effect.

When I think of what some folks get... it seems that this is akin to denial of benefits!

Mojisola

Gillyches wrote: »

When I think of what some folks get... it seems that this is akin to denial of benefits!

Take it up with your MP.

elljay

Aside from the rules which have been mentioned, the intention behind the payment is to ensure that pensioners have help with additional fuel bills which we have to pay in this cold damp country with our poorly heated and uninsulated homes and to minimise the risk of death or poor health through cold.

In your case you live in a warm country so don't have to pay these additional fuel costs. I don't see it as what we have paid into, more about what the need is. My mother and her friends have been looking into returning the payment as they don't have a need for it, they live in warm modern houses with low bills. It's the same thing as you - and of course they have also paid taxes for all their lives.

margaretclare

I get tired of the argument that 'we have worked and paid into the system all our lives'. That applies to everyone, so if you choose to live in a warmer country then it's up to you. I can't see that a couple of hundred quid a year makes such a huge difference.

I lived in Cyprus for 2 years in the 1960s and it was bl**dy cold in the winter. The houses were all geared up to warm weather, with stone-flagged floors etc. Much of France can also be extremely cold, but I assume there is the 'average' that is the definition.

I think if you go and live in a foreign country you should live as the people there do.