Winter Fuel Campaign ?
55 Replies
Replies
Absolutely agree, not really strapped for the hand out personlly, but the, injustice, as you put it, does annoy me too, typical soft targets, for A HUGE!!! budget economy, looking forward to my 3 "quidish' rise next year, how much are the politicos, house of, ho ho, Lords expecting???
Oh come on! You live in France with all it has to offer but you harp on about a mere £200 cos your entitled to it!!
You may have paid in but chose to leave so enjoy your new lives & move on from the old.
Get a life there are more important things.
Gross Injustice? the uk is borrowing money here there and everywhere so you can sit in France and collect your £200 winter fuel allowance? your attitude is a little bit nauseating the owt for nowt attitude .have a bit of pride in yourself and let the real deserving people ,usually the ones who dont campaign and demand have their needs met
I personally have no need for it but that's not the point. So under some people's reckoning and the term owt for nowt (that's norf of Watford innit?) then if folk leave the UK, how come they pay pensions to them that meet the requirement for a pension? The ones that come here have been defrauded by Osborne out of their right to the £200, Only a fool would believe that France is warmer overall than the UK in winter. In the early years we were in the Dordogne, we had temperatures of -18c, never had it anywhere near that cold in West Lundern !!
It might be "a mere £200" to some people but there are Brits who receive food parcels here in France, so you are insulting them by saying let those that deserve it have the money. Take a look around, go and ask questions about the poverty that some Brits live in over here and don't say they should go back, many cannot even afford to go home.
Now you know, I expect you two will be the first to get a food parcel together to help those rather less well off than you?
Owt for nowt has got nothing to do with it.
I paid UK income tax,VAT, NI, council tax, poll tax, car tax, stamp duty, business rates, insurance premium tax and hundreds of other hidden taxes for 45 years - and when I'm due a measly £200 that penny pinching, nasty piece of work Ian Duncan-Smith trumps up totally false climate data to deny UK ex-pats their due. Hopefully the EU may find in our favour that the winter fuel allowance was in fact part of the state pension and to deny it to ex-pats living in a particular country is discrimination.
Ehhhh £4 a week???
If you are so desperate for it maybe you shouldn't have moved to France. YOU CHOSE TO LEAVE REMEMBER!!!
as the previous poster said have some pride. There are many in the uk who are more in need of this. I bet most of you save £4 a week on your wine bill. Judging by some of your replies this could even be £8 a week
But of course you paid in all of your lives so that makes all of the difference.
Move on and enjoy the life you chose & don't feel bitter about what you left behind.
None so blind. Circumstances can and do change,for many they have unfortunately found themselves in a bad situation. Why do you mock people that you have obviously no idea about. Do you seriously think that Brits queue up for food parcels because they don't need the £200? You obviously haven't got a clue about how somepeople have to live over here....
Who said a lot of Brits can’t afford to go back?? What a load of utter crap, if things are that bad over here or anywhere else come to that then all Brits can go back and if legitimately down and out they will be housed fed and watered, I agree some are in need but of all those who claim to be many are not as a earlier poster said those in real need are often not heard, if an immigrant with nout can go into the UK so can a Brit, me I moved to France to get away from the freeloading lazy scrounging society that has taken over the UK, I feel so sorry for the minority that are genuinely in need, that genuinely cannot find work that are genuinely disabled and that are at the back of the queue because of the freeloaders,
There was a petition ages ago which did not receive the response required as far as I can remember.
I think you should be concerned if we do leave the EU. I am sure the UK will take no time at all in stopping the yearly pension rises. This happens if you live in a non EU country. You only get the amount of pension you were receiving when you left, no yearly rises.
If the UK leave the EU it's not just the pension increase that will be stopped but health cover also.
Returning to the UK is not as simple as that either.
On this site there are always those few people who will respond to posts just to p..s people off. How sad!
rance and fitter are right. There are people over here, through no fault of their own, who live in poverty. Your negative comments are borne of your understandable English attitude and your lack of understanding of life in France. Please don't judge what you don't understand. At the end of the day it still remains an injustice to take a fuel allowance away on the grounds that France is too warm in the winter. France is freezing in the winter, even southern France.
I can understand the feeling of injustice,but you are not going to get the winter fuel allowance,so just need to move on,your going to get an extra £3.53 per week on your UK state pension in April,which is nearly equal to the fuel allowance,the loss of the winter fuel allowance wouldn't encourage me to move back to the UK.sabc15.
Is Grebo a contraction of Greta Garbo? She certainly needs to be left alone to stew in her own ignorance as she signally misses the point. No one with any entitlement should be the victim of one of the most cynical warpings of statistics by the UK government in modern times.
Please to be clear besides death and taxes the other certainty is that Governments, of all political flavours in all countries, will ultimately defraud and rob from their taxpayers. This is done by ending benefits, spending in ways taxpayers are agin eg: Trident, Foreign Aid Budgets etc etc.or simply changing the basis of benefit payments.
Imagine you had fully paid in but emigrated to Canada or Australia - your UK pension would be frozen at the level when you left the country. With UK stating if a pensioner leaves UK for more than a month you lose your pension credit there is change in the air. Better to ensure this is not the "thin end of the wedge" with EU renegotiation to end paying UK state pensions to non resident citizens.
Dont winge about what has happened! Start complaining to stop what might!
Hey Wilbury Traveller who are you to tell me what I don’t understand about life in France I probably have more of a understanding of life in France than you I have been here for 21 yrs in all have you??
I have paid into the UK welfare state and the French one and for nformation I have not claimed a cent and so long as I have means of my own I wont there are far more needy people than me or you lot come to that.
The injustice is to take needed help from those that need it just because you’re entitled or just because you can, and as for those that plead poverty yet have the top of the range Iphone do not know what poverty is and I doubt you do either, what governments do they do right or wrong, what we do as individuals is what matters, stop wineing about a few measly quid and get on with your life or if your that bothered why not take your heating allowance that you don’t really need and give it unconditionally to those poor people you know that cant afford a meal but can afford a Iphone, yeah of course you will, its ok so long as someone else is giving eh.
The way the average temperature for France was an insult to normal people,
Also many people do not live here in retirement with G & T party crowd, I suspect that many people here do not have the choice of living back in the UK , small pensions and sky high property values ( I came from the South West) make it impossible to to return without spending a miserable retirement on benefits in rented accommodation.
At least by living here I can own a house and garden , have a life and survive - the Winter Fuel Allowance did go towards a cord of wood which was a help.
"If the UK leave the EU it's not just the pension increase that will be stopped but health cover also. "
The agreement between France and the UK on reciprocal health payments apparently existed before the EU was invented, so I am told-but as with the WFP fiddle,never underestimate the ability of today's politicians to get their sticky fingers in our pockets.
It's only within the last couple of years or so that the NHS stopped paying the French health service something like £3000 per head per year for every retired expat in France-whether they went near a doctor or not, now it is done on the basis that the NHS only pays on the actual individual costs.
Dirtrider, well bully for you!
Don't assume that the original poster or everyone who chose to live in France for that matter is not 'in need' or 'deserving' just because they live in France. Who do you think you are judging others!
Yes but you weren't given the full story. If he get's the WFA he either hasn't informed the Impots here that he is resident, nor has the UK had notice that he is no longer a UK resident. so he could be living here and not fiscally resident (naughty), thus able to still receive the WFA, or maybe he has just moved over in recent months and the wheels that turn slowly have not clicked on the fact he is a resident of France.
Have no fear anyone is living in France and all is legal and above board, they won't get the WFA
Sorry Watty but I forgot to say that I'm a summer only visitor to Brittany. UK tax resident.
Well Sunshinedays Take a leaf out of your own book about judging and I suggest you take the time to read my post properly before you respond, I never said or intimated everyone was not in need but having said that seeing as you brought it up the fact is they are not, "FACT", and yes bully for me, for your info my father bless him who had a lung removed in the war after suffering with TB and polio while a POW by the way was outside a B&Q in the UK before he died, started to reverse into a Disabled bay as was his right a guy in a van pushed in stuck his disabled sticker in the window jumped out of the van told my old man to F off and stop moaning and then loaded it with building materials before heading back to work, he was not needy I assure you nor was he disabled, it then turned out he was on disability benefit as well, do you want some more examples of scroungers, I have loads seeing as my job before I retired was to catch them and track them down, and by the way a lot of them lived and worked in France and Spain, so ill tell you who I am, and that’s someone who knows, oh and before I go there is a saying that starts something like” people in glass houses!!
Can you clear up something dirtrider, on another thread about builders on Finance and legal, you state you have been here 10 years but on this thread it has bounced up to 21 years that you have been in France.I'm sure there is a simple answer for this discrepancy.
oh rance well spotted, I wondered how long it would be till someone asked that question moved to France June 1979 with work first 3 years in Paris with Total, then moved to Marseille utill 1990 Sept when job ended went back to UK with work. took early retirerment in August 2005 and moved Lille in January 2006, moved to Pontivy 4 mths ago, trust that answers your question as to be factual I have lived here 10 yrs yet resided in France 21 in total, is that OK with you rance
To try and contribute somethng useful to the debate - French taxpayers who are on a low income are entitled to special low electricity tarifs. I would imagine that anyone who is in a situation where the WFA makes the difference between keeping warm and not, would qualify for this tarif, which over the year would save them more than £200. So I'm wondering, are people who are so upset at not getting WFA, getting the French benefit and wanting the UK benefit as well? Or have they not applied for the French benefit (very simple to do)? Or do they earn too much to be eligible?
Dirtrider, I'm not sure what you mean. Clarification would help as to why you think my post was judgemental.
As for your posts, you made a judgement that you know more about life in France than another poster (you don't know that), you made a judgement that there were more needy people than other posters (you don't know how needy others are), you made a judgement that others that were pleading poverty owned a top of the range iphone and didn't know what poverty was and the poster didn't either (you don't know that), you made a judgement that the poster didn't really need the winter fuel allowance (you don't know that) and you made a judgement that all Brits can go back to the UK (you don't know that). And for all you know, some people may already have been giving away their WFA to less fortunate people.
You also made an assumption that a poster was responding to a post you had wrriten when they could have been referring to other posts.
And one final point I would like to make is that there is a small minority of people who are classed as scroungers and they can be found in all societies not just the UK so I wouldn't say they have taken over the UK.
I think you know less than you think you know
Little ray of sunshine, you are welcome to your opinion as I am mine you may call them a minority I dont so lets just agree to disagree, dont know what you have done in your life and frankly I dont care, I do however know what I have done where I have been and its that experience that draws me to make my own conclusions and allows me to say and feel what I wish whether it coincides with yours or not or anyone elses come to that, I dont profess nor do i want to be politically correct I believe in calling a spade a spade, if that upsets then tough.
Well said Sunshinedays. Too many people, all over the world, make assumptions and judgements on the situation of others, whether that be a need for the help to keep warm that the WFA affords or the llife situations they find themselves in.
dirtrider, yes that clears it up, personally I don't see why you just don't just say you have lived in France for 21 years, covers all bases just fine. Oh by the way, when someone calls a spade a spade, it is better to ensure you have all the facts correct, otherwise it is just bull s**t and that gets no respect from anyone.
https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F10580
Further to reveuse post. Yu really would need to be on a pretty low income to receive aid. Being on CMU-C will help.
Don't worry about it if the UK exits the Euro you will loose a whole lot more than the WFA.
Dirtrider, it wasn't my opinion, it is fact. You're not the only one who knows you know. You didn't clarify how you claimed I was being judgemental.
As you state you don't care I won't bore you with the details only to say that I have experienced more than I should have in my life and have every right to be judgemental of others but I choose not to be as I was brought up never to tar everyone with the same brush. I try to see the best in everyone and try not to make judgements or assumptions, even though it's hard not to at times. And where I came from we called a spade a spade also but I try to treat others as I want to be treated myself so I don't use that excuse and it's got nothing to do with being politically correct.
Just saying that I will keep a wide distance from Pontivy , if the Winter fuel payment can cause such posts .Why not tax it if everone thinks it i fair .Even Lord Sugar ,Dame Helen Mirren and many others give their to charity OR you can pay it back to the government ,maybe in monthly or weekly instalments .As a matter of principle I think we should all be equally treated but Eutopia does not exist here on earth and never will human nature being what it is .I did however think that back in the mists of it was to make up for not having a decent pension rise one year .
Loved your spelling of Utopia, seems rather more inline with the topic.
Eutopia, a really good way to spell it in a Euro discussion, bravo.
The government bean counters could simply mens test the WFA to weed out the high earning big knobs and holier than thou expats that draw more than just the basic state pension. That would result in a huge saving so they could then press on with defending "American Interests" abroad.
As has been said circumstances change. Many people come here as retired couples, and if one sadly dies, very often so does a sizeable chunk of their income, and this can happen to anyone.
You must been in a very strong place financially to be able to hold the opinions that you do. Lucky you, but have some compassion for those less fortunate than yourself.
My mate gives his £100 to charity because he doesn't need it. He's never found a way to refuse it or to give it back to the Government.
Dave
Don't give back to the Goverment,they have just found 27 billion they didn't know they had.sabc15.
Why expect the UK to pay WFP to people who chose to move over to France and do not own a home in the UK? It is for keeping UK houses warm, not the French houses. The WFP has nothing to do with pensions.
Baefore we get too uptight about the loss of the WPF just remember that the price of oil has dropped considerably and the pound is now at 1.42 euros so I doubt, that overall, we are worse off at the moment. Of course the recent high rate of the pound will adversely affect the next tax return.
It was nice to have it but the UK is in the financial mire so I suggest we accept it and count our blessings.
And for the widows without a car?
UK in a financial mire? really, for the less well off, well maybe for many others, as ever, nothing has changed.Governments can pull up a billion or two for a war, so as for financial mire, the world goes on, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, plus ça change...
I am deeply happy with a warm glow in my heart for I have no doubt that my winter fuel allowance that I didn't deserve as I only worked in the UK for 45 years will go towards the £7000 rise that our Honourable Members of Parliament are getting,this thought that I am contributing to their welfare,along with an extra blanket will keep me warm this winter,though,after reading some of these posts from ego inflated,holier than thou posters,the more I see of Brits,the more I love my dog,and I haven't even got a dog.
Incidently,to the poster who took great delight in telling that he calls a spade a spade,where i come from,it's called an eff::: shovel.
Its not the £250 but the way it was done, nobody really expects politicians to be honest, but this was downright crooked. If a private company had done it to their customers they would now be sinking under the weight of writs. The final insult is that they then gave themselves a xmas bonus !!!!!!
So if only introduced in 1997 it is / was a bonus and not like old age pension ( which you pay into with ' the promise ' of a return when you retire ) - just because a relative gives you a present for several years it does not mean that they always have to give you a present