How bad has it been in Spain

Dear All,

lest you have forgotten why you are there and not here.

Here in the sunny south-east the sun came out yesterday for a whole day,

The daffodils pushed up higher and we thought about shedding some clobber.

We have had so far, three months of winter mysery with alternate freezing and soaking, perpetual colds and many dead, the colds wax and wane but never go.

Handkerchiefs are left for emergency and the ubiqutous loo roll is ever to hand, dotted about everywhere.

We pray that the daffs have got it right and some relief is on its way.

But can't help musing on those of you who think you are entitled to winter fuel allowance because one day YOU SAW SOME FROST ON YOUR CAR WINDSCREEN.

What a nerve.

Regards

Norman

 Norman,

I really feel for you that you feel the need to post argumentative,inflamatory threads in the hope that someone will bite.

Is your life that empty?surely not!

I am unfortunately in my office catching up from this week but your posts do make me chuckle.....it has broke the tedium...thank you.

Btw,i wish i was out in the 20 degrees and blue sky if that answers the question...........enjoy the Daffs...i hear they taste nice with a little salt!

 Norman,

People are entitled to the winter allowance because they have paid their taxes all their working lives, as well you know 

Dear All,

having spent a life time paying PAYE, in early retirement I tried a little self employment and discovered the wonders of tax avoidance - joyous indeed, if I had started on that route I would have been rich at the end.

The winter fuel allowance is a mystery to me, I don't know why I get the same as those on the English Riveria or those in the wilds of Scotland or indeed in the Scottish Gulf Stream. It is basically a nonsense, but to pay it to those in Spain is completely ridiculous.

If it is some sort of tax rebate unrelated to its name, then it should be scrapped, if it is an extreme weather payment to the elderly then it should be graded accordingly, after all we have centuries of weather records to play with so it should not be too hard to work out.

But there again much of officialdom is a mystery to me.

Regards

Norman

 Life is a nonsense Norman 

"How bad has it been in Spain?"

Not bad at all, thank you!

The weather this winter has been particularly mild, indeed this last week has seen temperatures in excess of 18 or 19 degrees, which for February on the Costa Del Sol is higher than average!

Not much rain either!

So far, since Winter began, we've had about two weeks of rain... the rest of the time the sun has been shining in all it's glory!

poor norman sands, nobody should go through life wit that big a chip on the shoulder. he will never grow up, or is he in his second childhood?

Not being of an age to claim the winter fuel allowance, it has no effect on me one way or the other. However as patman says those that have paid their taxes all their working lives, are as entitled to the allowance as anywhere else.

There are places in the UK that are milder than others, is there a distinction made there? There are also many people in the UK claiming other benefits, despite never having paid into the system, do I hear you having a go at them... of course not. so why pick on the ExPats?.

Spain like everywhere else has differing climates, yes it has indeed been a milder winter than last year, however for those who have chosen a life further inland or living up high, then it can still be damn cold, we are still regularly getting night temperatures at -1ºC, so why should those who are entitled, not be in receipt of the WFA?

I live in the Lorca valley and almost without exception  have woken up to very heavy frosts every day since the New Year began. Must admit in my wildest dreams would never have realised just how cold it is here mornings and evenings consequently all my Mediterranean plants have been decimated.

As for NS he's a man of many guises dependent upon which side of the bed he arises. But to me admitting tax avoidance is a far worse crime than admitting to being in receipt of WFA... wherever one should desire to live.

I totaly agree that if you have paid your taxes all pensioners must enjoy the same benefits surely, how absurd to say if you live in Spain you are not entitled.

I do think however it might be a good idea to change the name of the benefit to 'extreme weather payment'  although many enjoy mild winters, during the summer months with temperatures in the high 30's many pensioners are paying for expensive air conditioning.

Floella

I think tax avoidance is ok it's tax evasion thats a crime.

s

normansands, Perhaps if you don,t want the winter fuel allowence you could donate it to charity!

Pintor

Norman just lights the touchpaper and stands well back.

s

Dependent upon how 'legal' the tax avoidance is it simply a play on words TeamGB.    Being self employed brings few 'tax' advantages unless of course the work is CinH

In case nobody's noticed, Britain is in a financial crisis with the biggest public spending cuts in living memory.  And yet we still give out indisciminately £250 to people of retirement age who were in the UK during a specific week in September once in the last however many years.  Irrespective of their income level.  Higher rate taxpayers get it too. 

If you follow the logic of the gimme brigade, you scrap the September residence requirement and make it a transportable allowance for everyone over 60.  If you apply common sense, you scrap the £250 payment altogether.  Remember you have the cold weather payment for people on pension credit or income support which only kicks in when the temperature falls below a certain level.  And guess what?  They reference recorded temperatures in places from John O'Groats to Lands End.  But they don't record temperatures in Fuengirola or Benidorm!

Dear All,

please, please do not show your ignorance by trying to defend our tax system, however you may dream you will never become Philip Green.

the PAYE brigade have been subsidising you for the whole of your working lives and it is in fact a scandal.

our two teenage multi-millionaires in Downing street are directly attacking my pension, our library, our schools our bus service and many etc.s at the same time as they are whineing that they cannot manage under the new expenses regime.

BUT WHO ARE BEING LEFT OUT OF THE CUTS - PHILIP GREEN, THE TAX AVOIDANCE INDUSTRY AND EVERY ROYAL AND OTHER BIG NOB IN THE COUNTRY AND ABROAD.

 GET REAL PEOPLE.

Regards

Norman

jek, pensioners who relocate outside the GB give up their rights not only to Pension credits and all that entails but numerous other benefits as well. So we should be thanked for saving the UK millions not condemed for a mere paltry £2.04 a week . However think it should be taxable.

Have to thank NS for this topic though as it has brought the blood rushing back through my fingers thus warming them up this cold but sunny February day in Spain.

quote  

Have to thank NS for this topic though as it has brought the blood rushing back through my fingers thus warming them up this cold but sunny February day in Spain.

Dont know where you are but its 20 degrees here in San bartolome

Read Floella's posts Fred, she said at 11:51
I live in the Lorca valley and almost without exception  have woken up to very heavy frosts every day since the New Year began.  

This Norman chap is certainly a nutter with a sad life, if he hates Spain and all it stands for so much why does he hang around on Spanish forums,  may of us have lost far more than him but do we contantly witter on, no.  It seems to me the ones the moan so much about Spain are those stuck back in good old blighty, strange really, havnt they got anything better to do.

Bet that will stir a few up on this hot sunny day in the Costa Blanca, however I will be buring my winter fuel allowance on the log fire tonight when it drops down to 10 deg.

Floella, the basis of a progressive tax system is that it should redistribute from those who can afford it to those who need it.  The Robin Hood principle of taxation. In the current climate, my view is that no-one needs it and it should be scrapped.  The genuinely needy are covered by cold weather payments which could be increased from the savings generated by scrapping WFA if necessary.  Expats in Spain are not needy and are in the same category as those higher rate taxpayers who were whingeing about losing child benefit.  Little sympathy from anyone outside their group.