Number of retired British expats receiving winter fuel payments drops by two thirds since crackdown

Since cracking down on winter fuel payments, the British government has saved £16 million.

New data released by the UK government has shown that just 42,015 British expat retirees living in the EU received winter fuel payments in the last fiscal year – a decrease of more than two-thirds in the space of a year…

In the fiscal year 2014/2015, some 137,845 British expats of pensionable age living in the EU received the payment, but a government crackdown on the benefit has reduced that number drastically.

In what was considered a minor ongoing scandal, elderly Brits who had retired to sunnier climes were still receiving annual winter fuel payments of more than £200 (£300 for those aged over 80) despite many living in regions of the continent far warmer than the UK.

Hence, former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith vowed to end this seemingly wasteful practice by introducing a new ‘temperature test’ that ranked the average annual temperatures of all four corners of Europe.

Those Brits found to be living in countries that were, on average, warmer than the warmest region of the UK (the southwest of England), duly had their payments stopped. Since the scheme began the British taxpayer has been saved an annual bill of £16 million, with payments falling from £24.5 million to just £8.1 million.

As a rule of thumb, this new ruling meant the end of payments to Brits who have retired to Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus and Gibraltar.

Interestingly, Brits who have retired to Italy still receive their winter fuel allowance because the country’s snowy and mountainous northern region drags down its average annual temperature – despite summers in the south regularly topping 40ºC.