Winter Fuel Payment: More Tory support like this please!

While my previous posts on the subject of the Winter Fuel Payment - due to be removed from expat pensioners in 2015 deemed to be living in "hot" countries* - may have given the impression that all Conservative MPs are in support of their Government policies, as the extract below by Sir Roger Gale MP for Thanet North shows, that analogy is not strictly true.

Gale's View, June 2013, written after Chancellor George Osborne's Spending Review:

"Chancellor George finds himself at the Despatch Box announcing some eleven billion pounds` worth of public spending cuts. Pick your own headlines. “War on Welfare” fits the bill. There will, excluding the State Pension, be a cap on benefits and claimants will have to learn to speak English. A three billion pound 'joint budget', designed to improve healthcare and residential provision for the elderly, will be shared between the Health Department and Local Councils – which sounds remarkably like robbing Health Service Peter to prop up impoverished Local Government Paul. Council tax frozen for another three years, of course. Another eighteen billion of money saved from elsewhere to be ploughed into road and rail infrastructure which sounds good but, with the bill for High Speed Two rising like an Olympic stadium (currently £42 billion but next week who knows?), may not go very far.

And although the incoming Governor of the Bank of England, Mark “Mountie” Carney, is predicting interest rate rises, the really good news is that the 'double-dip recession' did not happen and growth is back on the agenda.

All of this looks likely, though, to leave a hundred thousand or so ex-pat UK citizens without a winter fuel allowance that is worth up to £300 a couple. Quite how this is going to be made to work is beyond my grasp of climate control. The theory is that 'regions' with a higher average winter temperature than the warmest UK regions will forfeit winter fuel payments. This is based, of course, upon the thesis that ex-pat UK citizens are all rich, idle,  spend their days lying in the winter sun and drinking G&T and do not need the modest sum hitherto available to help to pay winter fuel bills. The facts, of course, are rather different. As I know from my own overseas mailbag many retired UK citizens, having worked and paid UK taxes throughout their lives and in some cases still paying tax in Britain, are now elderly, infirm, living in genteel poverty and are feeling the cold. (My wife and I spent Whitsun, up to June 1^st, in mid-France and had a wood burning stove burning day and night throughout the entire break!)  I can see this policy being laid wide open to challenge in the Courts. Is Bournemouth, for example, colder than Finisterre? And, if so, during what period of time? I used to be a staunch supporter of our overseas aid policy, believing, I hope with compassion, that as still one of the strongest economies in the world we ought to be able to help the poorest people upon earth. I now feel that if money is tight then our own ex-pat retirees, having paid their dues, are more deserving of financial support than countries that can build rockets, engage in space programmes and develop nuclear capabilities.  And, while we`re on the subject of assistance to ex-pats it`s surely time that our overseas pensioners were given a fair deal on pension uprating in those countries where we do not have a reciprocal agreement."

*It should be noted that Sir Roger Gale's article was written prior to the Government's announcement of how their "temperature test link" would work - by taking an entire European country's average annual temperature (plus any overseas territories associated with that country - in particular those that lie close to the equator!) and comparing it to the average annual temperature of the South-West of England. As such, the Government's definition of "hot" in relation to France has been calculated using that country's overseas territories in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, where only 30 UK expat pensioners reside. As mainland France's average annual temperature falls below that of the SW England by more than several degrees this ensures that the Treasury does not have to pay those pensioners residing in France. This duplicity and deliberate manipulation can be seen when compared to the much warmer climes of Italy, where expats will continue to receive WFP!

Osborne: Backs bankers, sacks pensioners

There is nothing that winds up an expat more than seeing the UK Government spending taxpayer's money (which, incidentally, for many expats is their money too) on the most controversial of issues, while at the same hitting the aforementioned expat in the unmentionables under the premise of austerity measures that must be shared by all of Blighty's citizens.

I refer, of course, to George Osborne's latest announcement that he is launching a legal challenge to the EU's cap on banker's bonuses (http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/25/osborne-bankers-bonuses-eu-cap) while also implementing, from 2015, the removal of Winter Fuel Payments from senior citizen expats who live in so-called "hot" countries* (http://tilou62.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/expat-winter-fuel-payment-ban-fiasco.html).

So this begs the question, that if austerity is to be shared by ALL UK citizens, then why are the Conservatives, yet again, kow-towing to their rich pals in the City and punishing those at the other end of the financial spectrum?

And before anyone starts bleating and throwing the "sun and sangria" stereotyping expat insults into the mix, I'm not just talking about them here. Anyone affected by the welfare changes will be feeling the pinch just now. For example, a group of social housing tenants are currently fighting their way through the court system in their attempts to overturn the "bedroom tax" being foisted upon them because they have disabled children and require the extra space that the Government decrees they do not need.

So let's face it... when you read about these things you really do wonder if those in charge at Westminster have ever stepped outside of their cocoon and faced the real world?!

So what to do about it? Well. there are the petitions to sign, MPs to contact, and generally spreading the word among the affected community to get on board the protest train. This is quite difficult in expat terms, as we are spread far and wide - something that the Government knows and uses to it's advantage.

So I say, don't just sit there and play into their hands... MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD... and the more voices the better. Just look at the comments here to see exactly what I mean: http://www.connexionfrance.com/winter-fuel-allowance-France-15072-news-article.html

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY... remember, all political parties are seeking as many voters to put the tick in their box in 2015. Furthermore, they all like to target the "grey vote" - something Mr Osborne seems to have forgotten in his quest to put the Treasury boot into senior citizen expats. I know that the 15-year voting limit currently prevents many from their right to representation at the ballot box - hopefully that will change sooner rather than later. But even so, there are some 3 million eligible expat voters worldwide who can have their say. Five hundred thousand of those eligible voters live in France, one of the "hot" countries in the flawed temperature link test. SO LET'S HAVE OUR SAY!

Naturally, younger expats think that this does not affect them. YES IT DOES! Because one day you will find yourself in the situation... where the UK Government sticks two fingers up and tells you where to go, while at the same time that same Government will be helping itself to tax payments from your pension pot.

So do not be complacent about this. Do not take the "it will never happen to me" attitude. Because it will... and the only way to stop the rot is to get onto the Electoral Role and put that cross in the appropriate box to make your voice heard!

Links:

Petition re Winter Fuel Payments: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/52121

Petition to create Expat MP: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55085

Electoral Registration: http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote/british_citizens_living_abroad.aspx
Website for Voting Rights: http://www.votes-for-expat-brits.com/Home.php

*Note to Chancellor Osborne: there are many expats who will offer you hospitality to take a trip into the depths of France in January or February in order to prove to you that it is FREEZING COLD! That's if you can actually make the trip to your destination, as it is likely to be cut off by snow! Only 30 British expats live in France's DOM-TOMs, so why did you include their tropical temperatures in your calculations? Basic schoolboy error, or intentional bigoted nastiness? I think I know the answer.

Trolls, mules and parenting skills

There is nothing more therapeutic than writing about things that bug you. And that is exactly what this blog entry is about - a therapeutic whinge!

There have been two news stories that have been given a lot of airtime this week that have prompted a lot of animated conversation in my household - and more than a few Tweets.

The first story involved the tragic death of a teenager prompted by internet bullying, which led to hours of analysis by every UK media corporation. Day after day, they hauled in experts from here, there and everywhere, in a vain attempt to get an agreement that the internet was the online equivalent of some evil Bondesque villain that has to be stopped from World Domination!

A week of discussion was summed up in an "interview", on BBC Breakfast this morning, of the grief-stricken father of the victim, whose said that the internet had to "change".

FFS! The internet is not a person, it is an evolving technology.

If anything needs "changing", it is the attitude and behaviour of today's parents. The same parents who, according to another report yesterday, are happy to give their 5-year-olds mobile phones!

And that leads me on to the second story that was given, in my opinion, far too much airtime by BBC News and Sky News this week - the Peru drug mules.

The first impression that I had of the two "victims" were of a couple of spoiled brats who thought that they could just flutter their well-mascara'd  eyelashes at the Peruvian customs officers and they would be allowed to swan off to Madrid with their £1.5m cocaine haul.

Instead they, like hundreds of other UK "victims" enticed by the thought of making a quick buck, were swept off to a local jail cell, protesting their innocence with that well-known playground cry of "But he made me do it, Miss".

The only difference for this pair (who I refuse to name) - compared to the many others who get themselves embroiled in this illegal activity - was the publicity machine that swung into action to highlight their misfortune, which included footage of Daddy jumping on a plane within hours of his daughter's incarceration, flying half-way around the world and posing for a tearful reunion photograph that hit the front pages of many UK newspapers.

Their parents were quoted as saying "we thought they were in Ibiza". So again, a good example of exemplary parenting skills and communication within the family unit.

Which begs the question: As a parent today if you do not know what your child is doing, then are you fit to be a parent?

Winter Fuel Allowance - The Madness Continues

Must be that I'm getting a tad on the elderly side, as not a day goes by when I don't see or read about something that makes my blood boil - and today is no exception.

I certainly did not expect to be blogging yet again on the issue of Winter Fuel Allowance. However, on reading the latest report from the BBC relating to illegal workers in the UK, I just had to fingers to keyboard for the second day in a row.

An investigation by the Beeb - aided by a Freedom of Information request - relates to the fines handed out to UK company's found to be using illegal workers:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23535938

According to the statistics provided, the Home Office has issued something in the region of £80m of fines - but only collected around £25m. Leaving a gaping whole in the finances of some £55m.

Now, given 'Boy' George Osborne's determination to save money at any cost I think that it is a bloody cheek that the same Government cannot put its house in order and collect nearly double of what would be the proposed WFA savings, by collecting the fines issued to those businesses using illegal workers.

Pensioners who have paid their dues (NI and taxes - and many expat pensioners still pay taxes to the UK!) should not be penalised by way of removal of funds that provide necessary heat during the winter, while those breaking the law are getting away with it and laughing all the way to the bank.

And to add insult to injury, the Guardian published this little number today citing how tax breaks by mobile phone networks are only now coming under scrutiny, due to them paying little or no corporation tax:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jul/31/tax-breaks-mobile-phone-networks?CMP=twt_fd

So once again, we see this coalition Government targeting the easy prey, while veering and hiding away from the more difficult decisions and tasks in life.

Oh, if only we could all do that.

The Great Winter Fuel Debate - Part Deux

Today's news highlights the latest discriminatory practices put in place by a Conservative-led coalition - that of winning the first round of legal challenge to the "spare room subsidy" in relation to disabled people, despite the High Court's criticisms that the government has not done enough to provide for disabled children. Morally-compassed individuals can only hope that follow-on legal challenges will result in a bloody nose for IDS and his DWP cohorts, whose bully-boy tactics can only be compared to that of Flashman in Tom Brown's School Days - and is probably well representative of the Victorian values of many Tory MPs.

You do not need much imagination to envisage the Cabinet sitting around the table in Number 10 in animated conversation on what popular policies are needed to guarantee all out victory in 2015: immigration; in-out EU referendum; benefit scroungers; defenseless disabled; oh, and yes, those bloody expats - what to do with them?

Well, we know from 'Boy' George Osborne's recent Spending Review (and my earlier blog on the matter) that a soft target is the Winter Fuel Allowance (WFA) currently received by qualifying pensioner expats and, since Osborne's decision to end payments using a "Temperature Link" format, a document has been released revealing the system to be used and what areas of Europe will be affected.

And this is where it gets very interesting for any geography nerds.

The author of the report - a DWP cohort, of course - has decreed that the "Temperature Link" be based on the average COUNTRY temperature versus the average temperature of SW England (i.e. Cornwall & Devon). This decision being made using the argument that "it would not be feasible to administer winter fuel payments on a regional basis" (Treasury spokeswoman). As such, and using their spurious data methods, the DWP have decreed that expats living in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Gibraltar will all have their WFA withdrawn from 2015-16.

So for any expat living in Northern France, above the Latitude of anywhere in Cornwall or Devon, who experiences EXACTLY the same weather phenomenon as their pensioner counterparts in Kent and Sussex, will lose their entitlement to WFA. Not a bad bit of discrimination, eh?

The more eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that Italy (a country much further south than some others named above) is not on the list. This is, according to the DWP analysis, because Italy's average annual temperature is LOWER than that of the SW of England. Believe it if you will. More cynical commentators are of the opinion that so many MPs have holiday homes in the Tuscany region that they really don't want to take the risk of pissing off their expat neighbours by removing their WFA!

Personally, I think that the issue has been summed up very nicely in the August 2013 editorial of the English-language newspaper, The Connexion, which I have taken the liberty of reproducing here:

“A British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and strong arm of England will be protect him from injustice and wrong,” declared Lord Palmerstone in 1850. This boast was backed up with the promise of gunboats, if required. If Palmerstone was prepared to send a gunboat in support of a British subject, what might he have sent to protect a British citizen (an important distinction in the days of Empire)?

Today, times have changed and British citizens, residing abroad, can feel more confident that any vessel sent by the UK government would have its guns trained on them for their temerity in asking that their contractual rights be respected. Not merely has the current UK government declared its resentment at its obligation to obey its anti-discrimination commitments as an EU member, it has announced its intention of creating a new form of discrimination - even though that too is likely to be declared equally illegal.

It is, of course, the now-you-have-it-now-you-don't issue of Winter Fuel Payments for expatriate pensioners in supposedly 'hot' EU countries that is at issue here. The legalistic quibbling over the definition of 'hot' (France hot; Italy, though extending further south, not) shows the traditional notion of British adherence to the rule of law in a particularly poor light. One of the myths of anti-EU propaganda is that Britain enforces all EU regulations, however reluctantly, while other members, notably France, ignore them. These weaselling contortions undertaken by the government puts the lie to that notion.

The issue has further heated the concerns of those already trying to overturn the unjustifiable 15-year [voting] rule and to secure some form of parliamentary representation for expatriates, since it reveals the lack of protection afforded to those affected by an uncaring government.

Among the voting rights in question is whether expatriates will be allowed to vote in the planned in-or-out EU referendum. Since the EU is now shown to be the last source of protection for the expatriate community, it is to be hoped that they will, and will vote to stay in, in their own interests - just as they should support all campaigns to and petitions aimed at retaining or restoring their rights as British citizens.

Finally, it emerged in a report by the Commons Energy and Climate committee yesterday that more MPs are calling for WFA to be means-tested. I agree - as any savings made by not automatically giving £200-£300 to high tax payers and millionaires should far outweigh the purported savings from removal of the WFA from the expat OAP who is only in receipt of a basic State Pension.

Ah, but that's not a Tory vote winner, is it?

The Great Winter Fuel Debate

Well done George 'Bungle' Osborne for the delivery of bully-boy IDS's idea of a temperature gauge for expats in respect to whether they continue to receive Winter Fuel Allowance after 2015. There is no doubt from the Twittersphere that this news has followers of the Daily Mail positively salivating over their cream teas...

"Damn you expats! Supping your sangria in sunny climes on the verandah of your chateau. This will teach you for leaving Blighty to become over-run by immigrants taking our jobs, our homes, claiming our benefits... blah-de-blah-de-blah..."

Yeah, whatever.

Just to put the record straight. Yes, I know that WFA is not aligned to NI contributions in the benefit grand scheme of things. So saying things like "we paid into the system" (and I have said that, so guilty M'Lud) is never a good enough defence for the DM Mrs Buckets (oops, sorry, Mrs Bouquet). But those who are entitled to WFA have to be in receipt of a State Pension (or other benefits) that are gained through years of NI contributions.

Furthermore, those in receipt of WFA are not all rich pensioners living the high life on the shores of the Med, as the DM myth would have many believe. Some of us live very modestly, on basic State Pensions, paying increasingly high fuel bills to keep our houses warm during winter, just like our Blighty counterparts. And on that issue, I bet no bugger would suggest that retirees to the warmer UK areas like Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset should lose their WFA? Oh no... because they are probably the darlings of the DM who would vote the UK out of EU tomorrow should the opportunity arise!

So what of the life of a retired expat? We don't overload the NHS. Instead we pay for our medical care - would you get out the cheque book to see your GP, like we have to? We don't get Pension Credit to top-up State Pensions that are below the living amount decreed by Government - so many live below the poverty line. We don't get the additional Cold Weather Payments when our temperatures drop and stay in minus figures for days and weeks on end. Instead we live in fuel poverty - our energy bills being much more than 10% of income that the Government uses as a measure of fuel poverty.We don't claim Housing Benefit. We pay council tax - no rebates here. We don't block up the social housing list or rattle around in large houses more suitable for families. Since the bank crash of 2008 our incomes have fell by 20%, thanks to a weak Sterling vs Euro rate, while cost of living continues to rise.

So think before you start lambasting the pensioner expat who worked all their lives to spend retirement away from the rat race... one day we might all head home!

Free school dinners - social stigma or entrepreneurial opportunity?

Watching a debate on Sky News this morning, regarding how the Government's Universal Benefit plan will deny many children from poor families from receiving free school dinners, and the commentator's observation about the stigma of free school dinners, raised not just a wry smile on my face but a veritable chortle.

Not that I was belittling the issue - not at all. I was a free school dinner recipient back in the early 70s and the social stigma being discussed this morning reminded me of the way that my secondary school handled the situation in the days of pre-political correctness.

Dinner tickets were required for any pupil who chose to eat in the school canteen. Those children whose parents paid for the "pleasure", were required to purchase the appropriate tickets at the window of the school secretary on a Monday morning. Us "free school dinner kids" were obliged to attend said window at the first morning break... in full view of classmates and other school attendees who would inevitably take the "proverbial".

Worse, and obviously not content with the separate queuing system that segregated us "poor kids" from our better-off classmates, although the tickets for free school dinners seemed identical there was one further demarcation of our lowly status... that of a thick blue line running across the printed "Dinner Ticket" that was not visible on a paid-for ticket!

Needless to say, many free dinner school kids chose to take packed lunches as opposed to expose themselves to such discrimination and the inevitable bullying that teenagers can inflict on the "outgroup".

But - in a "what goes around, comes around" sort of way - by my third year of secondary school (perhaps by some sort of act of political correctness even, who knows?), the school changed the system. Yes, we still had to go to dispensing window at a different time to the others to collect our "freebies", but now the tickets were identical in every respect to their paid-for cousins. No more thick blue line delineating their (and our) lower financial status.

And what a chance for any budding entrepreneur (there were a few of us). Doesn't take a lot to imagine the scene:

"How much do you pay for your dinner tickets?"

"50p each."

"I have some here that I don't want... only 25p each."

"Deal!"