with reflection, my like actually qualified by ‘be careful what you wish for’ - the ‘glitch’ could be everyone getting their princely sum could be getting it in error and the UK fixes the system accordingly!
A bit like appealing your (UK) council tax band?
From money saving expert_
Step 3: Are you in the wrong band?
At this point, we need to throw in a serious warning.
Challenging your band is not something to do speculatively without the checks, for one simple reason:
You can’t just ask for your band to be lowered – only for a ‘reassessment’, which means it could be moved up or down.
It’s even possible that your neighbours’ band could be increased, although this is rare.
This is why it is crucially important you do BOTH of the checks, and to be especially careful if you’ve added an extension or something that increases your property’s value.
Given that their rules (linked above) say that only residents in the UK are eligible doesn’t this seem rather pointless? Of course someone who DOES get it could ask why
as the UK Gov was quick enough to stop sending us our Winter Fuel payment, once they’d rejigged their “thinking” about France… they are obviously well aware we are Residents here in France… so I can’t see why anyone would think the £10 is a mistake…
“To get a Christmas Bonus you must be present or ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Gibraltar during the qualifying week.”
But I guess lots of government guidance is ignored so this is no different from the Covid parties. It is our duty to spend the €1 on something frivolous.
Which is certainly a lot of tosh… since the UK Govt has never asked where OH nor I was on any particular week… and we were already Resident in France… and they certainly knew it !!!
The Pensioner’s Christmas Bonus has never needed to be claimed, it’s allocated/given at the whim/decision of the UK Govt…
Whether this particular whim/decision of the UK Govt has changed over the years… I’ve no idea… but they’re still happy to send their money abroad…
It would cost far more to verify that everyone qualifies for the payment than it does to just pay it so it might just have been a cost/benefit decision.
For the “qualifying week”… it talks about the person being “ordinarily resident” in UK, blah, blah, blah and the EEA (which France is part of…)…
so I think everything is kosher… and, as I’ve said… they were quick enough to pull the plug on those of us living in France re Winter Fuel Allowance… so to pull the plug on the Christmas Pensioner’s Bonus would be just as easy-peazy…
As with much government stuff… the wording goes this way and that…
your partner or civil partner was also present (or ‘ordinarily resident’) in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, European Economic Area (EEA) country or Switzerland during the qualifying week
For my ignorance I must admit I had no idea such a thing existed. What an almost Dickensian horror. On the one hand it’s like the wealthy Mr Scrooge flinging a coin out to the poor people while they sit there in the snow shivering, and on the other for the people who actually need more money, especially at this time of year, it’s probably an extra 15 minutes worth of heating or electricity, something that is virtually no use at all. Bizarre. I’m sure if they put everyone’s tenners together they could do something actually useful with it, pay for some Christmas Day centres for people alone, get some homeless people off the streets, soup kitchens, fill up the country’s food banks that are apparently near empty at this point. Anything better than ‘you’re old/ poor/ disabled, here have a tenner, go buy yourself something nice… and very cheap… with it.’
Yes like the old yearly vignette system for cars here that we used to have stuck all over the windscreen. Cost more to implement than they got back in revenue so was scrapped. My car was a veritable piece of art with all the coloured discs as I never removed them.
I suspect the Christmas Bonus will be scrapped before next year’s one is due… as there is now close scrutiny on it… with demands for it to be uprated to keep in line with inflation.
No one pays for their pension nor earns it, it’s a benefit that one qualifies for through a history of national insurance contributions which, technically, could have cost the individual no money at all.
As mentioned further up, there’s no pension pot that you’ve paid into and today’s taxpayers pay today’s pensions as will (hopefully) tomorrow’s.
Appreciate there isn’t a ‘pot’ - by paying for the state pension I meant NI contributions / and or tax, and by ‘otherwise earning it’, I meant ‘free’ NI credits - particularly in mind was those for people looking after children at home, usually women. Also perhaps those looking after elderly relatives?
My rationale is that although such work may be unpaid its is still (economically) worthwhile, hence my phrase ‘otherwise earned’.
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