Expat pensions are giving a cold reception to lobbyists trying to stir up protests against the British government cutting their winter fuel allowance.
Over 200,000 state pensioners are set to lose the allowance which is worth between £200 and £300 a year from 2015.
However, an online petition turning up the heat against the proposal on a government web site has attracted just 15,000 signatures.
At least 100,000 signatures are needed before the matter goes before MPs for debate.
The government explains winter fuel payments are a non-contributory benefit and not a right state pensioners have paid for.
The aim is to help pensioners pay for extra heating in cold weather.
Payments scrapped
However, the European Court compelled the government to pay the benefit to around 460,000 expat state pensioners living in the European Union and Switzerland.
To reduce the winter fuel payment bill, the government then decided to only pay pensioners living in countries with a colder average winter temperature than the UK.
This effectively scraps payments to about 206,000 expat state pensioners in France, Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Gibraltar –the favourite retirement destinations for many expat pensioners.
Meanwhile, another online petition calling for better parliamentary representation for expats has mustered only 2,500 signatures.
The petition organiser, Sarah Smith, says: “I am urging the government to allow expats their own members of parliament.
“France has already done this with 11 MPs and a minister representing 2 million French expats.
Benefit cheats
“This move would allow British expats to vote for their own MP to look after their interests, like the state pension and rights to claim benefits.”
She explains the present system is unfair to expats, many of whom pay tax and own property in the UK, but have no representation in Parliament.
State pension and benefit payments continue to be a thorny issue for the government and expats.
Many popular retirement destinations do not index-link state pension payments, which means the pension is frozen at the level of the first payment for life.
Expats complain that inflation makes this payment almost worthless for individuals.
Meanwhile, the government claims many expats, mainly living in Spain, are benefit cheats continuing to claim payments long after leaving the country.
Now, the government has set up special investigation units in expat hotspots like Alicante and Marbella to track down offenders and reclaim cash paid to fraudsters.
I would like to say that I support your call for the vote and any other issue that should be yours by right and I am an ex-pat living in Canada who gets no annual increases (indexing) of my pension because the government see fit to freeze me out along with over half a million others with no justification for doing so. I would ask that you support our claim for a fully indexed pension as we should all work together for the benefit of all.
We all paid our contributions and taxes and deserve the same treatment in retirement irrespective of our location..
It is really quite disturbing to see what I can only describe as the apathy of so many people who are not only already adversley affected by government discriminatory policy but those who could well be in the very near future. Do those expats living in countries covered by the EEA not realise that if the UK opts to leave the EU their pensions might be frozen like the 4% who live mainly in the Commonwealth Countries of Australia, Canada and South Afrıca and about 100 other countries around the globe?
The State Retirement Pension, as the article points out, is frozen at the level at which it first becomes payable in the host country and, for some, who retired on the then full pension of, say, GBP45 per week the failure of the UK to index link is now denying them a pension of GBP110.15 per week. As George Morley has said we frozen pensioners support your call for the vote, expat parliamentary representation and the other issues but we have been battling for over 60 years on frozen pensions and, unless we all support each other and get behind the campaigns, the chances of success are minimal.