All state pensioners living in the EU will have received a form to prove that you are still alive
If you don’t return it they threaten to stop your pension. Quite justified in my opinion except that this is a breach of the Withdrawal Agreement for those of us living here before 1/1/2020
I have been advised that the UK government is not permitted to discriminate on cash benefits by reason of residence
Proof of life is not required of UK residents.
I emailed an offer to voluntarily return the document and the conditions under which I would do so. I emailed copies as an ernest of good intent.
This may seem a minor matter but I must remind you that the Withdrawal.Agreement protects many off us from loosing our rights to residence , health care, state pensions and others. In my opinion breaches of this agreement should not be tolerated in minor as well as major matters as governments have the option of abandoning past commitments
Today I received a response to my emailed
Proof Of Life form sent on the 14 July refusing to accept it unless sent by the post and ignoring my email on the compromise that I would accept. I have complained to my MP…
This post feels like it could have been written by Basil Fawlty. But occasionally, while not being the heroes we want, Basil’s are the heroes we need, so you go to it, make the bastard ‘big man’ submit!
That’s probably because UK-resident pensioners are “in the system” for lots of other things like income tax, council tax, NHS, electoral roll, telephone records etc. and it’s therefore much easier for the DWP to cross-check if someone is still alive!
It’s not so unreasonable for them to want to make sure that someone with whom they have no contact other than via issuing their pension is still around. Clearly it would be a big waste of public money for them to continue paying pensions to people who have died. Especially those who live overseas, who as any Reform UK voter will tell you are all wealthy former bank-robbers lounging by their pools and sponging off the British taxpayer. 
I don’t see this as “discrimination”, but a basic administrative measure.
Are you sure this is correct?
Could you please quote the specific clause in the WA that is being breached?
I think it may be more nuanced than that. It always discriminated for the WFA for example. Some benefits are not payable at all to UK citizens living overseas for example. And I believe proof of life certificates were required pre Brexit, so I am not sure why the WA would have impacted.
I am all for holding governments to account but I am not sure this is a battle worth fighting, and especially not unless you are able to point to the section of the WA or other legislation that is clearly being breached.
My French mil who has lived in the UK for 55 years has to also tell France she’s alive to get her pension, a common part of paperwork, nothing to do with brexit.
My husband has to annually prove he’s still alive to the French pension people. If I ever get my pension, (not holding my breath), I expect to be asked for proof of life and have no problem with that. Sorry but I think you’re giving yourself a headache you don’t need.
Why question something that has nothing to do with brexit? These forms existed before that happened. Personally I would comply with any requests from all my pension providers both english and french and the local mairie keeps a photocopy of these on file too. It states you must return by post (LRAR oviously), emails are a huge waste of time and your deadline would run out long before anyone gets around to reading said emails. Life too damn short to worry about sending forms in plus it can also offer some form of protection against being written off as dead or scamming the system.
These forms have always been sent by the UK Gov and by the FR Gov for people living in the UK who have a French pension,nothing unusual or new in it at all.
I can vouch for the fact that these Proof of Life forms have been sent out by the International Pension Centre (part of the UK DWP) years before Brexit happened.
Copies are nestling in my filing cabinet. 
@Poons be assured the requested Proof of Life form is standard, as is the wording of the letter. In my experience ALL Pension Providers will say along the lines of “if the form doesn’t reach us by blah blah… the pension payment will be withheld until the situation is sorted out…”
It is a minor matter and completely unrelated to our rights under the withdrawal agreement as others have said. I think you may be ploughing a lonely furrow.
For heavens sake! Are there not more worthwhile things that an MP should be getting on with?
Just get the wretched form signed and move on!
The amount of time I waste proving my fifteen deceased relatives that I continue to claim OAP for are still “alive” is a terrible burden. Abandoning the requirement would release a lot of productive time that I could use for other, perhaps more lucrative fraudulent activities.
So go for it.
Send me the seven most annoying forms and I will be happy to fill them in for you, Lord Scully.
While I am lounging by my pool in Benidorm, of course.
To be fair, the more mindless busywork they’re given, the less damage they can do, so I’m not sure I entirely agree with the sentiment…
So if discrimination on payment of benefits based on residence is illegal, then how did the UK government succeed in cutting off the Winter Fuel Allowance to UK pensioners resident in France?
I would genuinely like to know this and think they should be held to account
There are companies that can do online checks to find out if a pensioner is alive. I know they exist but I don’t know how they work. There are also services than can check on people who are out of the UK but my pension provider doesn’t use one. I have to do annual checks as well.
Part of the reason for the checks is that some spouses or families don’t declare that someone has died and just keep taking the money for a long time. Someone I know who works in pensions has had to threaten or even start court proceedings before the family gave the money back.
to benefit from WFuel Allowance one’s country of residence had to be a certain temperature during the winter (vague explanation).
We used to get it here in France, plopping into our French bank account.
I’m sure you will have read the to-ing and fro-ing in the UK Press when the goalposts changed worldwide.
I expect there might be another change/reduction in eligible countries if this year’s heatwave temps rock on into winter and become the new norm.
I think the DWP included Guadeloupe and St. Martin when they calculated the average temperatures for France.