In June 2013, when the idea of introducing temperature tests for Winter Fuel Payments to British expats was first introduced, I was invited to appear on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 as a result of writing this blog post. In the post, I argued that British expats - including my husband - should keep the WFP because they've paid into the UK tax system all their working lives, so it was an entitlement, not a benefit. Furthermore, as many expats will confirm, Spain in the winter can be a very cold place indeed.
Dr Ros Altmann, who advises Government bodies on pensions policies and is therefore much more informed on these matters than I am, also appeared on the show and called the Temperature test 'Eccentric, and the kind of thing you expected to read about on April 1.' She also pointed out what the incumbent covernment conveniently forget - when the WFP - then called the Winter Fuel Allowance - was introduced by the shiny New Labour Government in 1997/98, it was called an allowance so that it could be awarded tax free. In reality, it was a top up for the woefully inadequate State Pension, and although it was only £20 a year then - or £50 in certain circumstances - within a couple of years it was increased to £100 (£200 if you were over 80) and trumpeted as New Labour's way of tackling fuel poverty. Fuel poverty is defined as a situation where a household is spending more than 10% of their income on fuel.
If the WFP, WFA or whatever you want to call it had simply been added to the pension, it would have been taxable in some cases. Making it an allowance, and increasing it exponentially guaranteed headlines. So the WFP has always been something that successive governments have used to get media coverage, and it continues to cause controversy.
Iain Duncan Smith has gone on record as saying it is 'offensive' that people living in warm countries should get the WFP while British pensioners are freezing. Emotive words indeed. Personally, I find it offensive that these politicians who are banging the drum about expats in the sun clearly know nothing about the real weather conditions in Spain, and the other countries where expats face losing the WFP. I also find it offensive that they are completely missing the point here.
The UK's pensioners have worked all their lives, paying National Insurance and Income Tax on everything they earned. Now they are retired, if they have been prudent and provided themselves with an occupational or private pension, they are still paying Income Tax. So after paying taxes all their working lives, they are still paying taxes in retirement. And these are people who HAVE worked and paid into the system, not left school and gone straight onto benefits.
The amount the government would claw back by stopping WFP for expats who fail the temperature test is not enormous anyway, but because expats have been portrayed by the Daily Mail and its ilk as living it up on the Costas while British pensioners freeze to death, it's become a popular bandwagon for an increasingly unpopular government.
Most of the British expats I know moved here because they could no longer afford to live in the UK, or for health reasons. In our case, Tony and I find our health is so much better here, near the salt lakes of Torrevieja. It's the healthiest place in the world for people with joint problems and breathing difficulties, and as we have Asbestosis and Lupus respectively, we tick both those boxes.
Yes, we get our £300 WFP because Tony is over 80, but the flip side of the coin is that we are no longer costing the NHS a fortune. Back in the UK, we were in the doctor's surgery so often he was thinking of charging us rent, and we got through industrial quantities of painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs. These days, we just need certain disease modifiers and preventative drugs. It's not such a black and white scenario as Iain Duncan Smith would have you believe.
The bottom line is, as I said in the introduction, British expats are entitled to WFP because they have paid into the system, and for that reason it would be offensive - and probably against European law - to withdraw it. I have a better idea. Why not scrap all these so-called allowances and benefits, increase the State Pension and allow pensioners to enjoy their income tax free? Okay, I know it's never likely to happen, but the fact is, British pensioners are under provided for, and have been for a long, long time. According to this report, only Mexico has a lower state pension than the UK. Now that IS offensive!
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