Winter fuel allowance
 

WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS

Following a recent judgement in the European Courts
(Daily Telegraph 24th August 2012) winter fuel payments are now being
paid to UK pensioners living in the member states of the European Union.

Previously pensioners who were in receipt of the allowance before moving to a member state could continue to receive it. However if you are one of the many who either moved after reaching pension age or have attained pension age whilst
living in a member country you can now claim the allowance.
The qualifyingweek for this winter was 17-23rd September 2012

It is necessary to claim by completing Form WFP3(EEA) which you can either download from the internet or by requesting a form from the International Pension Centre,
Newcastle. Tel +44 191 2187777.
Husband and wives just require one form as there is provision for them on the aforementioned application.

To qualify a member of your household must have been born before the 5th July 1951. The rates vary according to how many persons live in the household and their age. Generally the allowance for two qualifying persons under 80 is £200pa. (£100 each) Unfortunately back payments after 2001 are not allowed.

The allowance can be paid either directly into your local account or
a UK bank. The choice is yours and it is not necessary to have the allowance paid in the same way as your UK State Pension.

The closing date for receiving claims is 31st March 2013.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Just how long is it going to take them to implement temperature restrictions on the payment I wonder. :huh:

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Yes but now look what you nasty expats have done Mr Clegg is talking about taking this and the free bus pass of Millionaires to pay for you lot getting it, I hope you all feel sorry for them.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

It's a stupid idea and the complications haven't been thought through. They will never come up with a workable system due to the huge variations in the climate across Europe.

Take my case, living on the Costa Tropical in Granada province. they would almost certainly use the weather records for Granada city and that would almost certainly qualify although there is a huge difference between Granada and the coast. Even some of the weather forecasts show temperatures for the coast based on the nearest airport which is in Granada!

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Hola
What is meant by qualifing week? On the claim form It says you must answer 2 questions 'yes' one being have you stayed in U.K. for one day during September. How many of us have done this. Not me. Anyone help please? :confused:

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

I think you have the wrong form. The new one only asks if you have been in prison, in hospital or in a care home - it doesn't ask if you were in the UK for that week.

The correct form is here http://goo.gl/Z6LHv

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

if you take Malaga as being at sea level, Granada is 750metres asl - in old money thats about half a mile up :eek:
and after having one day of rain (our first since April) the Sierra's have already started gathering a white tablecloth.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Same here Dom, we can't even see our mountains, they went missing two days ago... and with an amber alert weather warning coming from the council I doubt we will see them again for a while yet as we are sat in cloud.

We are about the same height as you are Dom, after two days of rain the temperature here is the same as in the UK.
We have put the shorts away, brought out the winter clothes and bedding and we have all the windows and doors closed.
What happened to summer...last week we had forty degrees not fourteen. :huh:

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Its only right and proper for people to claim pensions abroad but claiming winter fuel allowance is taking the pee.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Disagree.

I am still having to pay U.K. taxes, with little or no benefits from paying those taxes.

So if a winter fuel allowance is paid into my bank, so be it. I'm not rejecting it.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

These allowances to pensioners should only be paid if you live in the UK. Why should tax payers fund those living in the sun! Paid taxes to a country is to run that country you pay the taxes in not to subsidize people in other countries! Next thing they will be claiming bus passes in Spain!

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

....and why not? I will be retiring next year and I intend to live in Spain. I have worked and paid taxes all of my working life in the UK. I should be eligible to claim the same benefits as any other pensioner. At present in an attempt to be "green" I use the bus to work every morning. Even at 7.30 am It is full of people with bus passes claiming free bus rides, paid for by my taxes. I see no reason why I should not get whatever benefits I am entitled to, when my turn comes, irrespective of where I chose to live!
Pete

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

UK pensioners have generally paid tax to the UK all their working lives & are still doing so

the state pension is taxed in the UK unless they choose to have it taxed in Spain

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Please remember this is an EU ruling, if you were receiving it in the UK you would continue to receive it, all it has done is to make it available to ALL UK pensioners living in the EU, if you don't want it, then don't claim it.. simples.. Bus passes a totally different thing as they are dealt with by local councils, and rules do vary. The local councils receive a sum of money from central government to cover this. Pensioners in Spain in some areas do get reduced bus fares in the same way that Spanish citizens do.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Bus pass regulations can be different dependent on where you are living, here we can't use the bus before 9:30am Monday to Friday, In Lincolnshire we could use the bus at any time of the day, but our Lincolnshire passes were only valid in other areas from 9:30am Mon - Fri.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

In Scotland they can be used all day everyday and everywhere in the country.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

This is no more ludicrous than paying child benefit for the children of citizens from other EU countries who are working in Britain, although the children themselves may not be resident there. Not that they are doing anything wrong, because the system allows it.

Or paying state benefits to more than one wife and family of men in polygamous marriages, whilst bigamy is illegal in Britain.

My OH has been enabled to claim the WFA for the first time by the recent European Court ruling, and will certainly be claiming it. Having worked and paid taxes and NI in the UK for 40 years, then if a universal benefit it available to all UK pensioners then everyone eligible should certainly claim it.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

But only the Scottish ones, and theirs would be restricted in England. Different areas, different rules as I've said.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

I get my London freedom pass in November. It's fantastic and covers the underground, overground and buses at any time. National rail within zones 1-6 are free after 9.30.
I do not think it is fair that it is available before 9.30 though, it should only be available for off peak travel.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

It is because we are now part of the E.U. and many parts of the E.U. have a colder climate than leafy Surrey.

The E.U. bureaucrats are now in charge of the U.K. and they have ruled that U.K. expats will receive the said allowance.

Therefore Call me Dave and the other clowns in Westminster have to do what Europe tells them.;)

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

This is very welcome news, especially as it can be claimed at 60 (should be 61 but Boris bless his heart, has put in the 60+ Concessionary Travel Scheme). Well for now that is, who knows if qe and rescuing banks will affect this in the future like the other cuts...

Cheers, Johnny!

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Every year this winter fuel question comes up:D
Last year got quite heated excuse the pun:lol:

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Just to be clear, if you are fiscally resident in Spain you cannot choose where your state pension is taxed, it is taxable in Spain. However, if this is your only income then the allowances you receive ( in either country) mean you won't pay any tax in either country.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

if you are fiscally resident in Spain you have to make a tax declaration in Spain - your state pension can be taxed in the UK & then the tax you have paid will be balanced against whatever you might or might not owe in Spain

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Well why not after all if you have paid all your taxes NI etc and you are living in a EU member state why should you be penalised?

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Fair enough :) Again it is just another one of those "entitlements" that everyone wants even if they do not need it! Ask the younger people in UK who will be funding this how they feel? Especially those who have had the child credit cut because they earn over the threshold? Knowing that when they get to retirement age there may not be anything for them? Paying taxes is two fold, one to manage the country, and keep it safe, and fund the NHS and the Old Age Pension (which should just be a supliment not the main pension) second as an insurance for people against loss of employment, financial disasters etc. and for the truly needy in their old age. Do the EU members (Spain for example) have to give heating allowances to their citizens living in UK, or does the UK do that too out of all the taxes they collect?

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

isnt that "the question"??

when that nice man Jock Salmond gets to rule his own country what will happen when he finds that the payment per head from London (which is lower than the payment for anyone in England or Wales) will cease to come into his coffers every month. Then he will suddenly find that all the subsidised freebies he is giving his people will suddenly cease as he will have no money. Worse he will not automatically be granted membership of the EU and will fail the fiscal tests of the Eurozone.

Then all his home loving eejuts strutting around in their kilts will suddenly find their sporans are empty and start travelling South into England.:eek:
Where the Army will be able to practice their Afghanistan anti-terrorist tactics as they try to come over Hadrian's Wall.
:thumbsup:

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

But the UK state pension is not taxed at source, so the allowances will generally cover it. This means that its other income that might be taxable, and you're right that any tax paid will be offset, in terms of not paying twice. However, a couple of observations

1. There are recent reports that the Hacienda are insisting that you pay the full amount of tax , and claim back what you have paid in the UK, which you can do, with certain exceptions.

2. I think choose is the wrong word, because it implies that once you have made the choice you don't have to pay tax in Spain, which as we know is now causing people problems.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

what a load of unwarrented old tosh :thumbdown:
suggest you contact Sue and tell her you want to hand in your membership of BE. I am sure she will accept :fingerscrossed:

When I was a younger person in the UK I was paying in to keep the elderly living around the world. I was also paying for schoold children to be (poorly) educated even though at the time I didn't have any children.

I have made a note to send you a PM when it gets really cold here, currently a balmy 14c, no sun visible for 2.5 days. But last winter we had weeks of nights at -10c, something quite unusual except in the upper reaches of Scotland.
So you tell me again why when I was paying taxes and ni why it was being given to Poles who were receiving Child Benefit for children where the UK had no record of their birth and no way of checking for sure they actually existed.

Get a life and go and annoy some other forum, not the nice people of BE

kind regards

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

The UK general retirement pension is not a tax free payment. It is subject to tax evaluation the same as all other income. That the pension is below the tax free allowance is another matter - but the pension is still taxable, and if (some hopes) it should rise to above the tax free allowance then it will be subject to tax being charged.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

That makes no sense. Have you been on the Buckfast?

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

There was a post by someone it had happened to on another forum of which I am a member

Supplementary post

I've just remembered there was a letter in the Costa Blanca News a couple of weeks ago about this.
Someone who said they'd been asked to pay the full amount of tax and claim back from the UK, even though it was a police pension, and therefore incorrect, as its treated as a government pension under the DTA.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

I'm not saying it is tax free, you need to read my post in the context of the other posts it refers to.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

It is perfectly true.

You must pay tax in Spain on your UK state pension.

If you have been taxed on it in the UK you can claim that back against your Spanish tax.

UK tax is never deducted from the UK pension at source but if you have other income any tax due on the state pension will be deducted from the other income via your tax coding.

If this is the case you can ask HMRC to pay your pension income (state and private pension) tax free in the UK.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

I didn't say you could choose exactly, - but yes, I see what you mean

I did say that you have to make a tax declaration in Spain, which should clear up any confusion

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

I think that is why the current government or at least Mr Duncan Smith wants the increased but standardised pension to do away with all these add on's.

I also take your point re the younger ones and what will it be like for them. However I also believed that I would get a pension at 65 and my wife at 60. In a very short space of time we now find mine is ok as I get it at 65 and 1/2 my wife though has to wait extra 6 years. Her loss of pension for that period is over £38,000. Given that we have both worked and paid our dues I'm afraid if I am entitled to something from my contributions then I will obviously claim it.

I do take also your point that it is ridiculous that people come to the UK and are entitled to claim everything that we that have paid NI for, when they haven't paid into it. However that is down to it being residence based system, maybe that is more the reason there will be very little in the pot for our children more than expats claiming a few 100 quid. Of course our great leaders would never admit to that.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

Domino I hope they get them before Hadrians Wall as I live a little bit north of that can I suggest Berwick please.

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

ok fair enough, my apologies, they will just have to find the money, maybe they can take it away from those benefit defraudsters and not just the Poles. Our pension will not even be indexed as we are not in the EC and we have also paid into the system! Maybe a fairer system would be to up the pension amount payable and leave off all those bits and pieces like the different benefits thereby everyone who paid gets the same wherever they are living!

Re: Winter fuel allowance
 

I think that is the plan of Ian Duncan Smith however my understanding of what they plan is that it will not affect those already in receipt so I'm afraid unfortunately you will dip out. Also one thing if they do do this what about all those that have paid SERPs for a bit better pension they will have paid for nothing. Still I suppose nobody said life was fair hence if I am entitled I will make sure I claim it lol