Don’t stop our fuel cash, it’s vital in snowy Crete
WORK and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith says: ‘It’s absurd and offensive that taxpayers are funding winter fuel payments for people who have retired to the Mediterranean and enjoy warmer weather.’ He should be here in Crete now. In 2013, I wrote to the Chancellor George Osborne expressing my concern over the proposal to dispense with the winter fuel payment for British citizens living in ‘hot climates’, and received the reply that ‘the Government intends to bring in an eligibility criterion based on the country of residence . . . with payments going only to eligible people living in European Economic Area countries with colder climates’. Over the past two weeks, temperatures in the UK have been higher than here on Crete, and our forecast for the next seven days is for the temperature to drop to 0c with a wind-chill factor making it feel like -6°. We’re experiencing severe storms — you only have to follow on the British television news the difficult rescues from the freighters carrying illegal immigrants and from the Greek ferry fire to appreciate their severity. We’ve had very heavy snow, floods, landslides and the heaviest (prolonged) rain we’ve experienced in our ten years of living on Crete. Cretan houses aren’t designed for the rain we’re experiencing, and the level of humidity in the houses needs constant heating to prevent moisture running down the stone walls as well as to safeguard our health. In my letter to Mr Osborne, I invited him to visit Crete in the winter so he could experience our weather first hand. Sadly, he would probably be unable to travel safely around the island at the moment. Mr Duncan Smith should be aware that the temperature in the UK reached 15c the other day, while here it struggled to reach 7c. How can he say that payments to expats are ‘absurd’ or that ‘winter fuel payments exist to help Britain’s pensioners keep warm’ when the facts prove we’re equally deserving? KEITH and KATHY ROBINSON,
Spili, Crete.