Reports that a senior government source had intimated that winter fuel payments for pensioners in the EU are to be “investigated” by Whitehall.

Around 65,000 British expats aged over 60 in the EU claim payments worth up to £400 each winter to help with their heating bills. In winter 2008-09, these payments cost the British government around £13.8 million.

However, the annual pay out to expats equates to less than 1 per cent of the total winter fuel allowances paid by the Department of Work and Pensions.

Matthew Elliot, Chief Executive of the Tax Payers Alliance, commented: “Britain’s welfare system is unaffordable in our current economic climate, as we face a huge deficit. To help reduce this there need to be cuts in unnecessary benefits. It makes sense to start with non-essential things like payments to pensioners living in the clement Mediterranean to help them stay warm.”

Mike Rose, a British expat living in Thailand, agreed with Mr Elliot, saying: “I see the provision of winter fuel allowance for EU expats as yet another example of the UK treating paying expats like myself who live outside the EU differently. We simply need to face the facts: someone like my mother, 90 years old and living in the east Midlands, needs the allowance far more than someone living in the winter sun in Cyprus or even Thailand.”

Graham Cummings, a former expat in Spain who edits the information portal Expats in Spain, said however that he felt cuts would be unfair. “At a time when the exchange rate is really hurting pensioners living abroad, many retired people are already under severe pressure. Although the weather in summer is certainly much warmer in European countries such as Spain than in the UK, it is a fallacy to assume that there is no need for heating in the winter.

“In Spain, for example, because many places do not have piped gas, pensioners have to use bottles gas to try and keep warm. This type of heating is very expensive. If the new government puts an end to the winter fuel allowance, it will have an impact on the more vulnerable in society, who may not be able to keep warm during the colder months.”

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said that the Coalition had promised to “protect key benefits for older people”, and that they regarded the story as rumour.

Cuts to the winter fuel allowance for expats may be difficult or even impossible to implement, as under EU law Britain cannot discriminate against citizens who live elsewhere in the European Union.

Labour introduced the winter fuel allowance scheme shortly after their 1997 election victory. To date, around £100 million has been paid to expatriates.

via Fuel allowance for expat pensioners could be cut – Telegraph.