How French Winter Sunshine Penalises Expat Pensioners

British state pensions living in France have got hot under the collar about missing out on last year’s winter fuel allowance.

They are miffed as expat pensioners living in Italy picked up the payment – worth between £100 and £300 – while they were denied the cash.

They were even more confused because the payment is temperature based and France was colder last winter than Italy.

Now, the riddle has been answered.

State pensioners in France were told they were living somewhere that was too hot because the French temperature test includes five overseas departments that all have tropical climates.

Tropical temperatures

The five overseas departments were included because they are governed directly from Paris and therefore, by some quirk of law, are considered part of the European Union.

However, they all have an average winter temperature of more than 26 Centigrade, which sends the French average winter temperature chart soaring compared to Italy, which has no overseas provinces.

The five sunshine destinations are:

• Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean

• Reunion and Mayotte – islands in the Indian Ocean

• French Guinea – in South America

The temperatures were added into the calculations for mainland France and the Mediterranean isle of Corsica, and the mean temperature exceeded the UK average of 5.6 Centigrade that triggered the winter fuel allowance payment.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “The overseas departments were included in the calculations as they are considered a part of France and the EU – so Britons who live in those places are entitles to claim the winter fuel allowance.”

DWP figures show 18,500 British expat state pensioners live in France and were denied the winter fuel allowance payment last year.

Another 33,000 pensioners picked up the winter payments in Spain. Overall, the DWP reckons to pay out around £2 million a week in winter fuel benefits to expats living in warmer countries than Britain.

Plan to axe benefit

Although temperatures in the north of the country compared to those in Britain, the average in the south was 14 Centigrade.

Chancellor George Osborne plans to axe the benefit as part of a government review of benefits.

He hopes to save around £30 million a year by removing 120,000 expat state pensioners from the benefits system.

Only expat state pensioners who lived in Britain when they turned 60 years old have the right to claim the winter fuel allowance.

The heated debate has resulted in an online petition calling for the government to rethink the policy. So far, the petition protect has collected almost 3,000 signatures.

Sign the petition