EU answer due soon on fuel money ban

AN ANSWER is expected from the European Commission next week over the legality under EU law of the UK’s withdrawal of Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) from people in France from next winter.

An MEP for south-west France, Franck Proust, has asked the commission whether it is legal for the UK to take WFP away from British pensioners in France, while still giving it to those in other EU states. A deadline for a reply runs out in the next few days.

This comes as a bid by a British Conservative MP to have the regulations restricting the WFP to people in certain ‘cold’ countries annulled has now attracted support from 32 MPs.

The deadline for the bid, by Sir Roger Gale, to be able to trigger a British parliamentary debate ran out on February 9 when there were 20 signatures – however the extra ones bring the total to 5% of all MPs who have made a stand against the ‘temperature test’ rules.

They include 10 Conservatives and 10 Labour, eight Liberal Democrats, two SNP, one Green and one independent. You can see the MPs who have signed in support of ending the ban at MPs list.

Sir Roger has said he is still hopeful the government may change its mind before the winter - however in the mean time challenges may come via the EU.

The commission told Connexion it is still considering its position on the British regulations and cannot say when this will conclude. The answer to Mr Proust’s question should, however, shed light.

The commission’s then social affairs spokesman previously told Connexion (in July 2013) that the WFP is considered to be a normal old-age benefit, effectively a kind of pension, which should be paid to all those entitled to it even if they move to another member state.

Connexion has also now found that while the UK insisted on including France’s hot overseas departments in its calculation of the average winter temperature of France, it may not have done so for a country with comparable territories, Portugal.

While Portugal would still have lost the WFP in either case, it nonetheless raises the question of why the policy may not have been applied consistently.

In deciding which countries were ‘cold’, the DWP relied on Met Office figures for the EU countries which it compared to the temperature of south-west England (5.6C). Two temperatures each were provided for France, Spain and Portugal, which all have overseas areas that are considered to be part of the respective country and of the EU; in France’s case its overseas departments (Doms), in Portugal’s, Madeira and the Azores.

The DWP said it took the higher figure of 7C for France instead of the lower one of 4.9C because WFP could theoretically be claimed in the Doms (where data shows 30 UK pensioners live). The method used, which averaged up map grid boxes 18km/13km, caused Guiana, which is the size of the island of Ireland and has a winter temperature of about 26C, to have had a disproportionate effect.

However in response to a ‘Freedom of Information’ request, the DWP’s central FOI team told Connexion that it used 10.3C as Portugal’s temperature for comparisons, the figure which appeared in the Met Office data for the mainland, as opposed to 10.4C with the islands, which being geographically small had a lesser effect than the French Doms.

While agreeing that those were the two figures provided in the data, a DWP press spokesman, however, insisted that Portugal’s EU islands were factored in to make the comparison.

Connexion has asked the FOI team for clarification as this does not match released figures.

Photo: Sébastien Bertrand