Referendums and all that...

As the likes of Sky News goes into overdrive now that Scotland enters its 100 day countdown to its referendum on independence it is worth pointing out that Salmond & Co's authoritarian attitude in their all consuming efforts to "win the day" is comparable to that of Cameron and Farage's attempts to promote a UK exit from the EU in the near future, without consideration to the adverse effects it will have on some citizens.

I'm not saying that the people shouldn't have a choice. On the contrary, true democracies should give ALL citizens their opportunity to voice - and vote on - anything that affects their lives.

And this is where all political parties concerning themselves with referendums and choices are getting it so wrong... and failing citizens whose lives will be intrinsically altered (and not necessarily for the better) if results of these votes successfully play into the hands of the instigators.

The citizens I am, of course, referring to are those people who no longer live in their countries of birth, but are still fully tied to them, especially by way of taxes and state pensions.

Neither the Scottish independence referendum, or proposed in/out EU referendum, allow their expats to vote and no politician at the top of the tree (and believe me, I've contacted them all) are prepared to discuss the ramifications of "yes" and "out" wins on the pensioner expat community.

Naturally when raising this issue in any forum it will provoke the usual anti-expat rhetoric, mostly from the green eyed monsters who think all expats live in chateaus, quaff champagne all day and have an bottomless pit of money.

But in reality most pensioner expats, particularly those living in the EU, are living on basic state pensions (with some receiving modest public servant pensions on which they will always continue to pay UK tax) and do not meet the stereotype as previously described in any way, shape or form. In fact, since the financial "bust" British pensioners in the EU have seen a 20% reduction in state pension income.

What these politicians are doing in their refusal to even acknowledge the British expat in regard to these referendums is hiding from the British public the issues that would come to light if these expat pensioners were to all come home... an even more overstretched NHS, increased requirement for social sheltered housing, more demand for local government care services, increase of the winter fuel payment budget (the Conservatives are planning removal from EU-based pensioners from 2015 to save alleged £30m per year), increase of benefits budget for those allowances not currently received outside of UK (in particular, pension credit).

So why not ask your local MP what their party's contingency plan is for returning expats before you put that cross on the voting ballot form... I'll be interested to hear their views.

DWP Winter Fuel Payment duplicity... a tangled web indeed...

Originally published in January 2014.

First post of 2014 and I am taking the liberty of "borrowing" an editorial comment by Connexion France (www.connexionfrance.com) in respect to the duplicity of the Department of Work and Pensions in its decision to remove Winter Fuel Payment from British pensioner expats living in France. The article to which the editorial comment refers is also attached as a scanned document. I do not think I need to add anything else!

A tangled web

If it weren't is so important to so many people, the saga of the UK government's search to justify withdrawing winter fuel allowance from British citizens residents in France would be hilarious. The ever more complex knots in which ministers and civil servants tie themselves in the hope of persuading someone - anyone? - that their figures make any kind of sense demonstrate Sir Walter Scott's dictum on tangled webs created when " we practice to deceive".

The government is not interested in justifications, except for trying to bat away the demands of tiresome people like The Connexion team. All they care about is imposing their mean-spirited little scheme and to hell with the victims. It illustrates a growing and alarming dictatorial tendency of ministers. Small wonder so many Tory MP's would like to cast off EU rules; better yet to return to the golden days of the divine right of Kings, and send objectors to the Tower.

Dissent can annoy governments but most democratic regimes accept it as a legitimate expression of differing views. High-handed government must watch out: acceptance of dissent can be cut as easily as Winter Fuel Allowance.

Christmas cheer for MPs, China and the Lord!

Before placing fingers to keyboard, I was considering putting together a nice little Christmas ditty, based on the 12 Days of Christmas, starting with something like:

"On the 1st day of Christmas, the Government said to me

No more winter fuel payment from 2015..."

But then I realised that 12 days were not enough to cover all the aspects of discrimination that the UK Government - past and present - have dished out to pensioner expatriates living legitimately and legally within the EU.

So instead I have decided to focus mine (and hopefully your) attention on three current issues, dominating the headlines over recent days, that make a complete and total mockery of the current government's arguments, relating to the savings they need to make by the removal of £200 per year from expatriate pensioners, who have paid into the UK system all their working lives and, indeed, many continue to pay taxes to the UK even in their retirement.

The first of these issues is, of course, the proposal of raising MP's pay by £7,600 PER YEAR from 2015. That equates to 38 YEARS of £200 winter fuel payment. And, dare I say it, a reasonable percentage of pensioners are unlikely to get to the grand old age of 92 in order to fully enjoy receipt of a total of £7,600 over their entire retirement. But IPSA deems it perfectly acceptable for MPs, already in receipt of nearly 12 TIMES the basic State Pension (£66,400 vs £5,727), will have that amount landing in their bank accounts annually! And if this story headline in The New Statesman is to be believed (and I have no reason not to), then maybe our MPs should bear that in mind when considering their electioneering strategy in the lead-up to May 2015: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/12/just-10-mps-sign-parliamentary-motion-opposing-pay-rise

Secondly, why-oh-why is the UK sending over £27 MILLION in aid to China each year? If the government are prepared to sacrifice pensioners to cold winters in northern Europe, by withdrawing the £200 additional funding for paying our fuel bills, to save a proposed £30 million per year, then why not stop China's aid instead and allocate that money for pensioner expatriate's winter fuel payment? What is wrong with looking after your own? Since the financial crisis of 2008, many EU-based British pensioners have found their purse-strings ever tightened... just take a look at the sterling-euro forex rates for that period. Yet the UK government feels it perfectly acceptable to cast them to one side while funding a country that has just put a rover on the moon! You just couldn't make it up: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10519964/UK-paid-more-than-27m-in-aid-to-China-last-year.html

And last but not least... a round of cynical applause please for the audacity of Lord Hanningfield as he clocks in at Westminster for a matter of minutes to claim his daily £300 attendance allowance*. £300 PER DAY! Seems that his Lordship claimed £5,700 in attendance allowance over a month, with an additional £471 in travel costs (http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/17/lord-hanningfield-clocking-in-expenses). Given that the government will not even fund the travel costs for legitimate disabled claimants to attend required benefit tribunals in the UK, then even the payment to his Lordship of £471 travel costs is an insult to all concerned in that particular campaign.

So as we make the final approach to the season of goodwill, it might just be worth reflecting a little on the above and making a New Year's resolution for change by making your voice heard by the Parliamentarians.

Unlike Christmas, all it will cost you is a little time...

If eligible, register to vote:
https://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote/british_citizens_living_abroad/register_to_vote.aspx

Then sign the petitions:
Create an MP for expatriates:  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55085
Winter Fuel Payment:  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/52121%20%3Cbr%3E

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

*Attendance allowance in this case refers to a member of the Lords claiming for "attending" Parliament and should not be confused with the Attendance Allowance paid to disabled pensioners, which only equates to £2,756 (low rate) or £4,115 (high rate) PER YEAR.

MPs nice and toasty... OAPs nipping and frosty!

The phrase "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" is a generic name used in the UK for a person, usually with strongly conservative political views, who writes letters to newspapers in a tone of moral outrage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disgusted_of_Tunbridge_Wells).

In respect to this blog, I can quite legitimately take on that mantle - having been born in Tunbridge Wells - to express my political view (though not necessarily conservative!) in regard to the latest news headlines revealing that over 300 MPs have claimed heating costs for their second homes.


Naturally the British press are reporting this story in relation to the fact that, only last week, the Energy Select Committee hauled up the Big Six energy company bosses for a grilling regarding the increasing rises being foisted on their customers. And those customers - the British taxpayer - have every right to be angry at this latest revelation that shows how there is always one rule for MPs and one rule for the proletariat.

But there are another group of British taxpayers who are not just angry but incensed at yet another example of MPs feathering their own nests (or, indeed, having their noses in the taxpayer trough) to the detriment of those that they should be representing.

We are, of course, the British expat. A group of people who worked and paid into the British tax and National Insurance system all our lives (well over 40 years in most cases) and then took the decision to spend our retirement years in the relative peace and tranquility of a neighbouring EU country, using the legitimate and available to all those citizens living within the EU... the "Free Movement" principal (see below).

And it is under this EU principal that eligible British pensioner expats are able to receive an annual winter fuel payment, like their British-based counterparts, of £200 (or £300 if aged over 80). A mere drop in the ocean when compared with the nearly £6,000 claimed by Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi for heating his second home for one year... and it does not take a genius for anyone to calculate that £6,000 would pay a pensioner couple's annual WFP of £200 for the next 30 YEARS!

In fact, the total annual amount claimed by these MPs in one year, quoted as over £200,000, would pay 1000 pensioners their £200 WFP... or, if wanting to be facetious, one 80-year-old pensioner their annual £300 WFP for the next 666 years! Now I wonder how that number appeared in the equation - a sign, maybe?

However, as readers of this blog are aware, the coalition government (for that read the Devil incarnate himself, IDS) has decided to remove WFP from British expats living in supposed "hot" countries, from 2015. Those countries being: France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Gibraltar... but not, you may note, Italy, which has been decreed to have a colder annual average climate than the south-west of England, on which the Government's "temperature test" is based!

For anyone interested in how this calculation works - particularly in respect to France - you can read about it here: http://tilou62.blogspot.fr/2013_08_01_archive.html

So yet another MP scandal hits the headlines... and, in this case, comes too as a complete slap in the face to those who have paid (and in many cases continue to pay) into the coffers from which these heating payments have been purloined, I can - and indeed will - be signing off this blog and letters to our parliamentary representatives as...

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

SOURCES:

Free movement in EU: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=457&langId=en

Newspaper coverage of MP second home heating payments:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486858/Theyre-STILL--Hundreds-MPs--including-Ed-Miliband-Nick-Clegg--energy-bills-paid-expenses.html

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/10423705/More-than-half-of-MPs-have-claimed-for-power-for-second-homes.html

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/03/mp-expenses-claims-200000-pounds-heat-second-homes

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-claim-up-to-6000-to-heat-second-homes-8919527.html?origin=internalSearch

 

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?