Has anyone heard if there has been a ruling from Brussels about being able to claim for winter fuel allowance if you live abroad and you are over 60.

The rules as they stand state that you can only get the allowance if you were already claiming it in the UK before you left.

Have a look here Tony could be of help

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Thank you BGTRAVELLER . The information there gives the rules as they stand at present. It is my understanding that there is someone in Spain or Greece that is challenging the rules through the EU Commission.

Basically because we were under 60 when we came to BG we get nowt. What annoys, is that we still have to pay tax but get nothing from everything we paid in during our working lives. We still pay tax to pay for everybody else to live off our backs. Free prescriptions are also a thing of the past. I know I am back on my hobby horse again, but it seems that if you pay in and move abroad you get nothing. But if you go to the UK with nothing you get everything. It's just not fair :Hair:. So just where has all our money gone?

What baffles me is that with the high cost of living and the constant c**k ups the governments of the day make, then a lot of us would not move abroad. If the UK was such a great place to live then we would have stayed there.

It is still the same in the UK now as it was before and is what I call a 2 place.

2 Many taxes
2 many immigrants
2 many excuses
2 many people claiming benefits illegally
2 many do gooders
2 many people



I'm all for fairness and the present system (if you can call it one) isn't

Have a read of this Tony its the latest I can find

Thank you Ashley but having read them we are still stuffed.

Sorry but that's all I can see at the moment I will check on the EU site and if I see anything will get back here Bernie may have some advice?

Ive checked !! rule is still as it stands ..the only ones getting it that shouldn,t are the ones making out they still live in UK ,whilst residing here ...so as Tony says ...we,re stuffed .....

I didn't know that you could get this payment if you were out of the uk

yes, you can continue to recieve winter fuel payments in bulgaria as long as you already recieved it whilst in the uk. seems an unfair rule to me. :Snow window:

You have my sympathies tony - some rules and regulations seem to get in the way of claiming anything!!

I just wondered if there was any difinitive answer to this yet or have I missed it

varnagirl wrote:

Ive checked !! rule is still as it stands ..the only ones getting it that shouldn,t are the ones making out they still live in UK ,whilst residing here ...so as Tony says ...we,re stuffed .....

If people are claiming that they are still living in the UK, but in fact they are living in BG so they get the £200 heating allowance. That surly is FRAUD with a capital F

tonyb60 wrote:

Thank you BGTRAVELLER . The information there gives the rules as they stand at present. It is my understanding that there is someone in Spain or Greece that is challenging the rules through the EU Commission.

Basically because we were under 60 when we came to BG we get nowt. What annoys, is that we still have to pay tax but get nothing from everything we paid in during our working lives. We still pay tax to pay for everybody else to live off our backs. Free prescriptions are also a thing of the past. I know I am back on my hobby horse again, but it seems that if you pay in and move abroad you get nothing. But if you go to the UK with nothing you get everything. It's just not fair :Hair:. So just where has all our money gone?

What baffles me is that with the high cost of living and the constant c**k ups the governments of the day make, then a lot of us would not move abroad. If the UK was such a great place to live then we would have stayed there.

It is still the same in the UK now as it was before and is what I call a 2 place.

2 Many taxes
2 many immigrants
2 many excuses
2 many people claiming benefits illegally
2 many do gooders
2 many people



I'm all for fairness and the present system (if you can call it one) isn't

:Howdy:I suggest that you and your hobby horse should have stayed in the UK until you were 60 (you wouldn't have had to wait to long would you) then you might have got the heating allowance
It goes to prove that there are still some good reasons for not moving lock, stock and barrel. The UK still has something to offer

[size=150:18j53ddp]Claiming Winter Fuel Payment and moving abroad
If you live abroad, you may be able to continue receiving Winter Fuel Payments if both the following apply:

you qualified for a Winter Fuel Payment when you lived in the UK
you then moved to another European Economic Area (EEA) country or to Switzerland
If you live in another EEA country or Switzerland, you cannot receive a Winter Fuel Payment if any of the following apply:

you are under the qualifying age (born after 5 July 1950)
you did not qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment before leaving the UK
you permanently left the UK before 5 January 1998
you normally live outside the EEA or Switzerland
you normally live in the UK (but you can still receive payments as a UK resident)
you are in custody under sentence during the qualifying week (20 to 26 September 2010)
Find out more about the following subjects:


Claiming benefits in Europe

No way stuff the 250 would rather be happy where I am