There's a lot of press coverage - both in Spain and in the UK - about whether or not British expat pensioners should continue to receive the Winter Fuel Allowance. To my way of thinking, there's no contest - of course they should. What everyone seems to forget is that State pensions and allowances are not gifts to pensioners - it's what they've paid in for all their working lives through National Insurance contributions. Today's pensioners didn't have the option of leaving school and living off the State, so they worked from Day One.
Everywhere it seems, people complain about British expats who refuse to pay their dues to the Hacienda. We'd love to pay Income Tax in our adopted country, because we feel that would be the right thing to do, but as my husband Tony is a retired Civil Servant, his pension has to be paid in Sterling and taxed in the UK, so we have no options there.
Many people assume that because Civil Service pensions are non-contributory, pensioners get something for nothing, but that's not the case. Tony was a Civil Service employee from the day he left school and started his apprenticeship until he took early retirement at the age of 52, and every time he had a pay rise, part of it was kept back as a pension credit. We've got a pretty good pension, and a pretty good standard of living, but it wasn't handed to us on a plate.
The main argument against expats getting the Winter Fuel Allowance is that it's not needed in Spain, the land of Sun, Sea and Sangria. Obviously the people who put forward these arguments have never been here in January and February. As I write this, the gas fire is turned up full because the wind and rain in Spain isn't falling mainly on the plain today - it's here with us in Algorfa.
Electricity in the UK is expensive, but it's even more expensive here, and the Winter Fuel Allowance helps us to stay within budget. We left the UK because my joint problems and Tony's breathing issues meant that both of us were spending more time at the doctor's surgery than at home, and we were taking stupid amounts of medication. Spending winter in Spain means that both of us are much healthier, and we don't need industrial quantities of pain killers, inhalers and anti-inflammatory drugs to keep us going. We're probably saving the UK more on health services than they're paying us in Winter Fuel Allowance.
So to everyone who says we should give up the Winter Fuel Allowance, I say we've paid our dues - and continue to do so, as we're still paying Income Tax in the UK. Therefore, we're entitled to it - unlike people with fictitious wives and families who are bleeding the country dry with false benefit claims.
