Ex Pats To Lose Winter Fuel Allowance

I've been to Torquay.
It wasn't like that when I was there.

 

That must have been pre 1900 - 1930 according to this pic:

 

If the 'anti ex-pats' amongst you would care to note.....the winter temperatures in most of France (excluding coastal areas) are lower than in the UK. The main difference is that, overall, the winters are shorter. The argument that we no longer contribute is simply not always true. In many cases, ex-pats are still paying tax in the UK. Facts.

 

Stopping the winter fuel payment, can not really happen as the Gov has messed up the wording
They should have stated "no longer payable to persons not living in the UK"

Instead they stated "Payable temperature dependant"
Now it is dependant on temperatures colder than Central London, which is hotter than
anywhere else in the UK due to businesses, transport, heating and lighting of a big city
Consequently even CYPRUS can be colder

Then the problem of what period, they pay WFA end of September, who knows how cold it will be in Italy or Spain in NOV, (do they take it back off you in FEB ?)
Who after all the Public sector pay off's does the calculations and stopages

To my knowledge Spain,France,Italy etal on average are colder, due to mountains and snow
This means that due to the average in France, then someone living in Southern France or Southern Spain, still get the payments

I lived in Gibraltar for three years, from October to March we had to have the coal fire on, it was freezing when the Sun went down on an evening

No it is all a big foot in mouth to look and feel good Gov

Jack McH

 

near Turin where I come from, all payments towards cold payment would be justified...!!!It can be very warm in the summer but equally very cold in the winter. I think that the same would apply to all the areas not too far from the Alps.

PS referring to the picture posted by Scrungee: palms started appearing in the UK when the first holidays abroad took place and people started develop a curiosity for the exotic as well as what in Italy is called "English lawn" in fact copied from Spain.

In that particular time the wealthy used to "show up" filling their gardens with exotic flora.

 

Shiney,how would the goverment know who is living abroad for six months and spending six months in this country? I certainly won't be telling this goverment any time soon my movements when I get to 60

Mr Kandy was sent a form when he was nearing 60 and had to send proof of his age I think it was and then when he became eledgible for it had to send his bank details so that the money got paid straight into his bank account

A lady was saying on the radio the other day that she was talking to a young Eastern European girl who told her that she was going back home to her country taking her four kids with her and she was still going to be recieving her child benefit and other benefits even though she was no longer going to living here,so perhaps that should be stopped.

My hubby hasn't had a pay rise in quiet a few years plus when he was getting a pay rise it was 1/4 of 1% and was also getting a market supplement as the wages elsewhere were higer for his type of job so it was a carrot to keep the workers,but his bosses took away the MS when money was needed to be saved and we have had to change our way of life to still be able to pay our bills,but we have had to accept it as Mr Kandy is on the wrong side of forty to be able to get another job It does all seem unfair but as the goverment says we are all in this together and we all have to feel the pain,or perhaps not...PS, Even the queen is getting 5% pay rise this year as if she needs it

Oh and I can't see this lot of muppets getting in to power next time because of their cock up with the so called bedroom tax but that is another debate

 

My O.H.and I spent our winters abroad for the warmer, drier weather, we were in Malta and Cyprus, winters are classed as starting New Year till end of March.
Due to the humidity it felt a different sort of cold, as when it`s hot it feels different to a sunny day in U.K. When the weather was as its worst, it was a feeling of having a lump of ice inside that would not go.
As Malta is a small flat island I cannot remember any special arrangements for winter heating for pensioners.
Cyprus however does get snow in the mountain areas, The Troodos, I have some beautiful photos of snow covered mountains, this is compensated by the government of Cyprus with an allowance paid to people who live at or above a set height above sea level, 600 metres, this is paid out on the property regardless of nationality of persons in occupation.

 

I tend to trust the info on Age Concern's website

More than I believe what's in The Guardian:

 

True story. Somebody at work went on the internet and without logging in to anything (ie theoretically anonymous), they searched to find out if their phone was likely to work abroad when he goes to America on his forthcoming holiday. It was less than 4 hours later that quite out of the blue, he gets a text from his phone provider advertising a travel package specifically for the US. It could be a coincidence of course, but it wont have been. I'm afraid that nowadays if we use any form of communication technology, our location and lots of personal details are in the public domain. Its not conspiracy or secret agent stuff, its just nodes in networks and known geographical locations of IP addresses and phone masts and such. Plus it doesn't help that the default settings on both Android and iOS, the two main operating systems on current mobile phones, collect GPS location data and feed it back to a central database for 'product analysis and marketing purposes'.