UK Parliament home

This petition was submitted during the 2010 to 2015 Parliament

View other petitions from this Parliament

Closed Stop the Governments victimisation of pensioners living abroad who have contributed to the welfare state by withdrawing their winter fuel payment

Closed on

Many pensioners have decided to move abroad whilst still remaining UK citizens, All of these pensioners have contributed to the welfare state via taxes and national insurance throughout their working lives I believe withdrawing their winter fuel payment is unjust and so I therefore ask this Goverment to reconsider its position on penalising pensioers who have earnt this benefit

16,393 signatures

Show on a map

100,000

Petition progress

View all updates for this petition, with the most recent first.

  • Petition closed

  • Government responded to this petition

    As this e-petition has received more than 10 000 signatures, the relevant Government department have provided the following response:

    The Government remains committed to protecting key support for older people for the life of this Parliament, in line with Coalition Agreement.

    Winter Fuel Payments are non-contributory and were originally introduced to give older people in the UK the reassurance they can keep warm during cold weather. However, following a European Court judgment, Winter Fuel Payments are now also made to eligible people living outside the UK in another European Economic Area (EEA) Member State and Switzerland.

    To help return to the original policy intention, the Government intends to bring in an eligibility criterion, effective from winter 2015/16, based on country of residence with Winter Fuel Payments going only to eligible people living in EEA countries with colder climates.”

    This e-petition remains open to signatures and will be considered for debate by the Backbench Business Committee should it pass the 100 000 signature threshold.

  • Government will respond to this petition

    This petition got more than 10,000 signatures meaning that government will respond to it.

  • Petition published

    This petition can now be signed.

    If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.

    If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

    This petition will stay open until 28 June 2014.