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[size=85:eq06oir1]source UKMW NEWS

Some people really know how to wind the public up

BRITAIN’S crazy benefits system is exposed today by a Roma gypsy who is using £60,000 in handouts to create a lavish home.


Scrap metal dealer Ion Lazar plans to pay for the house with generous child bene?t and tax credits funded by taxpayers. Handouts have made him so rich he pays tradesmen in cash to build the property in Romania for his wife and three children.
He said: “It’s coming in bene?ts. It’s like free money, thank you England.” The situation was last night labelled a “national scandal” and an insult to hard-working families after ?gures showed £30million in child bene?t was sent from Britain to 20,400 families in other European countries in 2012-13.

Outrage over child benefit and tax credits has seen David Cameron call for a four-year ban on migrants claiming benefits. Mr Lazar, 36, is able to claim benefits because his part-time wage as a self-employed scrap metal collector in London is so low he pays no tax. He says his children are a passport to £1,700 a month in welfare.
In a Channel 5 documentary this week he boasts how British taxpayers are funding lavish improvements to the family home in the gypsy village of Argetoaia in southern Romania. In the programme he says: “I know the benefit I can make very easily in England.

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How can this be true - the average wage in the uk outside of London is £950 a month afer tax so how coud this man get £1700 a month on benefits.

The ILF fund was cut by this government last year, although ILF won its case in court and the government were told they could not scrap it, they did through the back door. Please watch this film it will show what the cutting of this fund will mean to disabled people. To have been awarded ILF you do have to be profoundly disabled.

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Please watch this video, what the government have to say

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I had something similar here on the Isle Of Man, I employ 4 Polish workers who get paid more than me, the older one applied for a mortgage and was turned down for assistance to purchase now on the island you can get up to £25K of the cost to help you purchase the only draw back is you have to be resident on the island for a minimum of 5 years.
he was short about £100.00 per month in wagers to get the house so he lost it now this is where it gets stupid the Government is quite happy to give him a 25k discount of a house if he is here for the minimum of 5 years but as he did not get the house he can not even go on the council housing list for another 5 years, I said to the Gov you are quite happy to give a foreign person the money but not let him have a gov house I said to them that if you can give a discount then you should let him have a gov house.

when I applied for mine I was told I was to old, so went to BG enjoyed it so much and I am looking forward to the move over but as Bernie said it you lose the NHS entitlement then me and Bernie and the rest of you should get a fund together so we can all have Helicopter lessons so if we are sick we can fly over to the nearest airport to get back to the UK.

Merry Christmas to all and lets all be fit and well for the New Year.

The Work and Pensions Secretary vowed 'to root out the unscrupulous minority' who are stealing from taxpayers and Mr Duncan Smith promises the British people to investigate politicians and bankers and the fat cats who are robbing the British taxpayers

An end to madness of winter fuel cash for expats on the Costa del Sol: As bill reaches £130million, the law WILL be changed

EXCLUSIVE: New rules curbing handouts to start from September
Pensioners living in Spain, Cyprus, Portugal and France will lose cash
But people in 25 countries will still be eligible for help with heating bills
Iain Duncan Smith condemns 'absurd and offensive' use of public money



Expat pensioners living in the hottest parts of Europe like the Costa del Sol are finally going to lose taxpayer-funded help with their heating bills, it can be revealed.

Britain is spending £22million-a-year on winter fuel allowances for people living elsewhere in Europe, despite more than a third living in sunnier climes.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith today condemns the 'absurd' handouts and vows to change the rules which have cost the UK taxpayer £130million in a decade.

People living in Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Malta, Gibraltar and France will lose out, but the taxpayer still faces a bill for pensioners in 25 countries including Poland, Bulgaria and Finland.
The winter fuel allowance is worth at least £200 for the over-62s, rising to £300 for the over-80s.

Official guidance says it is supposed 'to help pay your heating bills' and is designed as a flat sum for all pensioners to put towards the costs of keeping warm during the icy winter months.

But EU rules mean it can be paid to expats if they can show they have a 'genuine link with the UK', and the money does not necessarily have to be spent on energy bills.

As a result thousands of people living in warm European countries are able to receive the money, and spend it how they like.

In 2002-03, just 8,000 people in 16 countries claimed at a total cost of £1million.

But huge growth in take-up and EU expansion means that in 2013-14 a total of 135,285 people in 30 countries received £133million.

It includes 50,000 people in Spain, 30,000 in France, 3,300 in Portugal, 8,000 in Cyprus and 2,000 in Greece.

Now ministers plan to introduce a new 'temperature test' to stop payments being made to countries where the average annual temperature is higher than the warmest region of the UK – the South West at 5.6C (42F).

People in Portugal, Spain, Greece, France, Malta and Cyprus will all lose the right to claim from September 2015. The Department for Work and Pensions today confirmed pensioners in Gibraltar will also miss out.

But the handouts will still be available to people in 25 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.


If the rules had been in place last winter it would have cut the bill from £23million to just £7million.

Mr Duncan Smith told MailOnline: 'Winter fuel payments exist to help Britain's pensioners keep themselves warm.

'It's absurd and offensive that taxpayers are funding these payments for people who have retired to the Mediterranean and enjoy warmer weather.'

Legislation to introduce the temperature test has now been laid in Parliament and will come into force for next week, 2015-16.

Mr Duncan Smith added: 'The European Union has frustrated our attempts to address this issue in the past, but with our new temperature-based eligibility criteria we're able to satisfy EU rules as well as prevent this obscene waste of taxpayers' money.'

The average temperature in Spain in December and January is 13C, almost double the average in the South West of England.

David Cameron vowed at the last election to protect the winter fuel allowance from cuts, despite complaints that the payments were not needed by wealthy pensioners.

However, both the Lib Dems and Labour have said it is wrong to pay the money to rich pensioners who do not need it.

Labour leader Ed Miliband used a speech earlier this month to set out his plan for 'common sense spending reductions, not slash and burn'.

He said: 'We have already set out ways in which we can save money [including] an end to the winter fuel allowance for the wealthiest pensioners.'

Lib Dem Deputy PM Nick Clegg has also warned the system is unfair. He said last year: 'The fact that we're asking people on low incomes to pay through their taxes to basically pay the fuel bills of people who don't need to heat their homes because they live in sunny parts of Europe and maybe didn't even work here before they retired, I think that lifts the lid on a wider problem in our welfare system.'


Not being funny, and I have no opinion on fuel allowance at all, but if it comes down to 'need', did David (£30 million in the bank) Cameron NEED to claim DLA for his now deceased son, or obtain a wheelchair for him, from a charity? No, thought not......


What's your thoughts on the winter fuel payments for expats???


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So let me get this right, Smith is going to stop paying this money to people who are entitled to it by having paid National Insurance into the UK coffers? meanwhile he and his Nasty party are going to allow those who have not paid in a penny to continue to claim Taxpayers money and child benefit for kids who have never even been to the UK. Typical Nasty party look after the world first and stuff the people born in the uk who paid into the system! I hope this nonsense is challenged.

Personally I think it's about time.

Just reading on another forum where people are still sunning themselves on a beach in Spain whilst still being eligible for winter heating allowance.

Quote :

Alicante area place called Orihuela Costa
Much better weather in Winter my family sat on the beach on Christmas Day this year and said it was hot.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, as with a lot of benefits they should only be paid to people who actually live in Great Britain, failing that instigate a tighter temperature control payment system.

Long overdue, your pension is your right if you've worked for it but anything else should only be allowed if you live in the UK full time.The money saved could go to a better use.This should have been done YEARS ago..You want to live in the sun when you retire,, YOU pay for it, don't expect the UK taxpayer to do it..

I don't know where some of you people are coming from on this. Right lets make sense of what is. If people live in a hot climate over the winter then the winter fuel allowance should be stopped no questions on that. But are you aware that there are many OAP's that live in BG because they cannot afford to live in the UK, and yes they should get this allowance as they have paid into this club and like me are probably still paying. :Headbang:We still put a lot of money into the UK governments coffers and yet we get nowt out. Its a bit like the OAP they now call it a benefit is it b-----ks it is our right to have. Paid into the club for over 50 years. Now we pay for all in sundry rant over

After reading the comments I do have to say that it is about time but really like a few comments child benefit should not be paid outside the UK but if you think of it another way we could claim child benefit ourselves if we moved to Bulgaria from the UK. slight draw back even my youngest Peter has Just turned 19 yesterday and I stopped claiming for him as soon as he closed the school gate behind him well that is what he told me, who knows it could have been a teacher who pushed him.

the good news is the winter allowance is still payable in BG, and like it has been pointed out it is cheaper living in BG and yes this is one of the reasons I am thinking of upping sticks full time in a view more years, although if BG moves to the Euro then the benefit is likely to go but on a goodish note the house could be worth something.

stiff upper lip and a big enough shovel for the snow and I will be happy, and on that note, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone.

Obviously I appreciate that part of is just sales hype, but what about the ''300 days of sunshine'' that BG supposedly gets, I don't hear anyone complaining when not having to have their heating turned on for most of the year as we do in the UK, obviously also not forgetting that the £200+ allowance is probably/possibly more than some people pay in total for the winter fuel.

Also as people are saying, the cost of living in BG is much lower than in the UK so if people insist on receiving the UK fuel allowance then maybe it should also be reduced to be on par with the difference in the cost of living between the two countries.

But I doubt if most recipient will agree simply because they see it as a right and some people have even said it's a system they paid into which is just not true.

The UK government introduced the scheme to help UK residents during the longer colder months of winter, not to further line the pockets of people who have chosen to leave the UK and live in a different country.

However, the controversy lies in the fact our government did not think the scheme through properly when putting pen to paper and it's no good them stating figures from years ago which are just a fraction of what they are today, the fact still lies with the fact they did not think it through properly.

As the title of the thread says 'BRITAIN’S crazy benefits system is exposed'

living in Bg with minus temps for a lot of the winter.....paid into the system all my working life...I still am a UK Taxpayer, as my income (pension) is taxed at source which is the UK....so yes Im entitled to it IMHO

and as for the £200 being more than we spend on heating here..... :Roll laugh: I wish
I pay approx 600lv for wood..2200lv for oil...and there is still water to heat on top of that....not all things are cheaper living in Bg !!

varnagirl wrote:

living in Bg with minus temps for a lot of the winter.....paid into the system all my working life...I still am a UK Taxpayer, as my income (pension) is taxed at source which is the UK....so yes Im entitled to it IMHO

and as for the £200 being more than we spend on heating here..... :Roll laugh: I wish
I pay approx 600lv for wood..2200lv for oil...and there is still water to heat on top of that....not all things are cheaper living in Bg !!

Here here VG could not agree more

I also agree with VG she is completely right, I have also paid into the system and still pay tax on my pension so why shouldn't we get it? there are plenty out there who get it and shouldn't and I also agree with VG over the cost of keeping warm here it's considerably higher than the Uk.

varnagirl wrote:

living in Bg with minus temps for a lot of the winter.....paid into the system all my working life...I still am a UK Taxpayer, as my income (pension) is taxed at source which is the UK....so yes Im entitled to it IMHO

and as for the £200 being more than we spend on heating here..... :Roll laugh: I wish
I pay approx 600lv for wood..2200lv for oil...and there is still water to heat on top of that....not all things are cheaper living in Bg !!

Can I just start with saying whilst I appreciate what people are saying and I for one regardless of which country I may be in will continue to take/receive all and anything the UK government wants to throw at me.

But this particular discussion with regards to the heating allowance, is something that was introduced only a few years ago and I have yet to find any department that deals with people who contribute towards it, so when people say they have paid into it, then that is not strictly accurate.
Also without nitpicking, I never stated that people or even some people only pay £200 for their fuel consumption.

The only reason none UK residents are eligible for the payment is simply because as per usual with past and present governments they never give enough thought to what will or may happen in the future, not too mention the wording of documents and making sure they close loop-holes at the outset, much the same as with regards to the discussions to EU members receiving JSA, Housing or/and Child benefits just for entering the UK.

My point is, if you don't live in the/a country then you should not be entitled to that countries additional payments schemes.