General Chat

You know when I retire, if I am allowed to retire, I doubt that there will be such thing as fuel allowance, free bus passes, free TV licence, free prescriptions etc. So I think you should count yourselves lucky you get what you do. It was your choice to move abroad not the governments.

I too have worked all my life but will probably get nothing.

Mine is in my account this morning, i got a letter on Friday saying i would be receiving it within the next month.

I always seem to get it quite early , my surname begins with A

Alan.
You are absolutely right & it´s very unfair.
I can see the same thing happening to ex pats who live in European countries if Britain votes to leave the EU.
Meanwhile, immigrants get immediate financial support & those of us who have worked & paid into the system for 40 odd years don´t get the pension rights we were promised.
I realise that I am probably no worse off than other ex pats, but it would have been polite to have told us.
There will, I´m sure, be many ex pat pensioners who are unaware & will be expecting the payment to go into their bank accounts this month.

Also the allowance doesn't seem to be targeted. Everyone gets it I think Eg MIL who is in a nursing home.

Andy

Wisechild, speaking of discrimination UK pensioners living in Commonwealth, and ex-Commonwealth countries don't receive any pension increases.

The rate I was paid two years ago when I first received the UK pension will remain at that rate for ever and a day. The only thing that varies it is the exchange rate. As the exchange rate has fallen, my uk pension in Australian dollar value has increased, conversely, as the Australian pension is calculated either on income or assets, my Oz pension has decreased :-(

From what I can gather, ex pat pensioners in Spain, Portugul, Gibralter, Malta & other places are not going to get it from this year.
Don´t know about anyone else, but I have not been officially informed of this.
Electricity prices in Spain have increased 75% in the last 8 years. We also pay 21% VAT on the total bill.
Our 2 bedroom flat is all electric & the annual bills work out at over 100 euros per month. There is no natural gas on the island so no alternative available.
Can´t understand how the government can discriminate against one section of pensioners, especially when they qualified for the payment before they emigrated.
It´s cold & damp here in winter too.

Joan

how much does your heating cost you annually?

We pay $652 (ca. £320) annually for electricity, which includes light and appliances etc, but also heating for half of our house.

We also pay approximately $900 (ca £400-425) annually for natural gas for heating the other half and hot water.


We have a small house, of around 1200 sq ft, on two levels, well insulated, and are in the mildest part of the whole country. We did a major renovation in the late 1970s, hence the two forms of heating ................ natural gas in the old half and electric baseboards in the new half.

Pensioners in Oz get a percentage (can't remember how much) off their power bills, all year round.

just be thankful that you DO get a winter fuel allowance ................ you live in one of the very few countries, if not the only one, where pensioners do get such an allowance.

Millions live in much colder places and get no help at all.

Thanks :-)

not yet........

Dermot you ain't helping :-P

..........not so long ago...... :-(

'In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago'.

:-D

Heating bills are due to rise so fingers crossed it's not too long.

Sue

Glad you asked as I thought I may have missed it.

Checking back, last year OH's came in on the 19 Nov - nothing yet.

Sounds a bit like the deal is contracted out to (the cheapest) private company :-0
- which of course, could be a different one each year :-(

Friend's surname starts with 'M' :-D

Thanks, last year we received ours early November I think.

A friend has had notification of his. Apparently it will be in his account at the end of next week. :-D