Expats in France look set to lose winter fuel allowance

EXPATS living in France are set to lose their entitlement to the winter fuel allowance after the chancellor introduced a 'temperature test' in his spending review.

George Osborne said: "From the autumn of 2015, we will link the winter fuel payment to a temperature test. People in hot countries will no longer get it. It is, after all, a payment for winter fuel."

This means all pensioners living in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Gibraltar and Cyprus, will no longer get the benefit as they have warmer winter weather.

The list of countries was drawn up by the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, which analysed which countries were warmer on average between November and March than the south west of England - the warmest part of the UK.

It used a data set from the last 29 years.

So while people living in the Alps or Pyrenees will no longer receive the payment, expats living in Sicily will.

A recent European court ruling expanded the entitlement to all people with significant links to the UK, including those who had left the UK before the introduction of the scheme.

And the proposed changes, which would require legislation, would offset the increased costs from this ruling, leaving the cost static, rather than cutting costs significantly.

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