Ah ha! I see I have touched a nerve with some of the old colonels on this site by daring to question things.
This is what I was trying to say: is it right that UK citizens, who choose to leave the UK and go and live elsewhere, should continue to benefit from hand-outs and subsidies designed to ease the hardships of living in the UK? Just because you have paid into the system for a number of years doesn't necessarily mean a moral entitlement. I've paid car insurance for 40 years without getting anything back but don't begrudge all those poor people who benefited from payouts after they had an accident. That's the way tax and insurance work. I maintain that the people who thought up the WFA did NOT have ageing middle class French residents comfortably installed in sunny south-west France in mind when they first drew up this plan.
There are borderline cases of course: people who have just moved to France at age 60 or so and who live in the Nord - Pas de Calais perhaps. Otherwise I don't see any others. Certainly not - my example - UK citizens who left over 40 years ago and never paid anything in.
Finally, I read this article because it concerns me as an ex-UK citizen and resident. I commented on it because I was horrified by the general reaction which was 'Scandalous - we should be entitled too'. And I stand by my comment that this sort of thread should be kept to a local UK page and not strewn before us all as a 'Worth a read' page.
You may regard this as 'whingeing': I regard it as asserting my right to give an opinion ... even if it does appear to be a very minority one!
Simon I guess if you looked at the title...and were Dutch, Australian, American, German etc...you wouldnt choose to read this one thread..much less read it and then complain. If I see a thread on SFN that doesnt apply, I choose not to read it....simples!
Gick please explain why we who are elligible should not get the WFA i recieved it before i left the uk the first year they tried to stop it but had to give it having worked for 50 years in the uk i am as much entitled to it as i am to my old age pension those that spent their lives in the pub and Post Office cashing their Giro still get theirs
Excellent info...many thanks for this....
Thank you Tony. This is most useful as I assumed you had to be retired to claim this. I am going to try and see if I can get it, if I can it will be most helpful if last winter was anything to go by.
Thank you - a wonderful post. I had no idea that the issue of WFA was being contested, although I always thought the discrimination another despicably mean attitude adopted by the UK to ex-pats. Like you I lived and worked in the UK paying taxes and NI contributions, only to be told that I was ineligible for WFA (and some other things too).
I am sure that there are many members of SF like me, so you have been a great help to a large number of people.
Many thanks for the information. Can't understand why people on here whinge about this sort of useful stuff. If you're not interested in the headline why read the rest of the post ? and why waste time and effort in complaining about it ? it may not suit your personal circumstances but rather than take a "selfish" view - live and let live.
I did not discover I was entitled to claim the Winter Fuel Payment at all, until after I came to France aged 62, believing I had to wait until I was 65. So I claimed at 65, but quickly learnt that the so-called retrospective element did not apply across the board. I appealed, and went to a tribunal, but the first three years of entitlement were rejected, as having applied too late! How could I have claimed if I didn’t know - I didn’t get a letter telling me I had qualified! We definitely need the payment - last winter we had fifteen consecutive days with a temperature on or below -12oC!! As to Tony’s point about discrimination against ex-pats, why can we not claim for cold weather allowances too? No, Tony is right, there is discrimination, and there are some Peers and MPs who would like to see ex-pats disenfranchised from all benefits.
I expect that all the millionaire recipients of the state pension do the same.
"Any other country" means a country other than the one you now live in. Simples Ech!
I have never believed we should be getting the WFA here in France as there is an alternative available for those who really NEED it. I left the UK before the age of 60 but I know people who have claimed it on the basis of a spurious UK address. I have been persuaded by my OH to claim it and send the money to a charity for people that really do need it.
Haha! Neil ... If there was a post aimed at ex-christmas-postal-workers I would certtainly not be bothered to read it.
Jane, quite right. But I messed it up by informing everybody I was leaving the UK, mainly because despite my age we have young children and there was child benefit to stop and so on. I have probably done myself out of three years, c'est la vie, so have to start over again. However, until this appeared I didn't know how to and was always meaning to find out...
Simon, please read the title of this Network! This payment may help some SFNers to do what it says on the tin. Discrimination should be tracked down and put down wherever it occurs, as citizens we have rights under law that apply to all citizens of the UK. If you don't like James's 'Worth a read", don't read them, I don't!
I have heard this from my friend in UK that anyone over 60 would receive the initial benefit and I assume, anyone over 80 (I too think it is 80), would receive the higher amount. I too paid into the system until I was nearly 58, working from 16 and did not receive it whilst living here. However had to be back in UK for two awful years recently due to elderly family commitmens (now back in France forever I hope!), and hope now to receive it. I think a lot of people cannot afford to retire in UK and have any standard of living e.g houses too expensive and one of their considerations to living in France especially is that housing is cheaper and therefore they can still own their own houses here without any dreaded mortages. Therefore they are forced anyway to live abroad. I can only say I love it here and would not want to be anywhere else!
Wow! Thanks for that Tony. I will give it a try!
I left the UK when I was 18. I worked for two weeks at the Post Office at Christmas when I was 17, so I have stamps on my card. So I can claim this allowance. Is this fair? Is this just? Is this relevant?
This is a forum about France, not the UK. I'm all for this sort of discussion being limited to a 'UK page' or whatever but not being featured by James as a 'Worth a read'.
Our American, Australian, South African, Norwegian, German, Dutch members must be scratching their heads.
Brian, my WFA has always been paid since I left UK. I cannot remember having to apply to continue to receive it here in France. If you were 60 before you left UK your allowance should have followed you here.
It is paid in to my UK bank account.
Tony, I was still there. I had just had my 60th birthday just in time. We moved after, so I had the entire winter in Wales and not here. So, no reason to ask for it back.
You're probably lucky, Brian, that they didn't ask for the payment back that they made in mistake!
No not retrospective, I just had a go this afternoon because I have three years between my last payment and this claim. I did not apply in the first place, it was just given then, so with nothing since I thought... but no dice. Ya gotta try!