This message has been sent to all members of the
Select Committee for Work & Pensions.
Pensioners Debout! [Stand up!] France.
Look at the end to see what you can do. This 'tail piece' was not included to the Select Committee members.
The Winter Fuel
payment in Europe
The Manipulation of WFP and Temperature statistics by the DWP .
The Manipulation of WFP and Temperature statistics by the DWP .
NOTE!
---A resumé of a much larger briefing paper to be
viewed here
http://www.lefourquet.net/WFP-RBpaper-V4.pdf (if the link fails please copy and paste the address to the left in your browser)
http://www.lefourquet.net/WFP-RBpaper-V4.pdf (if the link fails please copy and paste the address to the left in your browser)
July 2011 - Following a European Union Court
of Justice (CJEU)* judgement which in train confirmed that ‘old-age
benefits’ for eligible British Citizens should be paid
across the EU, Iain Duncan-Smith said.
“We will fight these ridiculous EU rules. The
Winter Fuel Payment is about helping British
pensioners with heating costs and it is ludicrous that
we could have to pay more pensioners living in hot countries.”
June 2013 – George Osborne said “…. from the autumn of 2015, we will link
the winter fuel payment to a temperature test; people
in hot countries will no
longer get it”
July 2013 the DWP said “The
WFP-Temperature Link proposal
lists 7 countries (Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain) that will become out of
scope for payment of WFP."
The DWP has consulted the Met Office but not the Climatic
Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia from where the
temperature data originated. The DWP has used this data
supplied by the Met Office to fit its policy. The paper
(available via the above link) details this history
thoroughly.
An FoI request to
request a view of the actual
correspondence between the DWP and the Met
Office, has been partially refused, though a copy of the
Met Office report to the DWP has been received and can be
read here - http://www.lefourquet.net/Report_to_DWP.pdf
[It is 70 pages in size]. (if the link fails - paste address
into a browser)
The Met Office has independently disclosed that they used the CRU data and “ the report provided two temperatures, one to include the French départements d'outre mer (DOMs), and one without. The average winter temperature for France (including the DOM's) is 7.0°C; without DOMs, it is 4.9°C.
The Met Office has independently disclosed that they used the CRU data and “ the report provided two temperatures, one to include the French départements d'outre mer (DOMs), and one without. The average winter temperature for France (including the DOM's) is 7.0°C; without DOMs, it is 4.9°C.
The above report
details temperature data for the SW region of England and computes an
average winter daily temperature of 5.6 degrees C. This temperature the
DWP used as a standard to compare with temperatures of
countries in Europe.
The chart below gives
these comparisons
But in order to
formulate France as a ‘hot’ country, the DWP
report incorporates the Nov-March temperatures for the
tropical French DOMs
(Overseas Departments) - i.e French Guyana, Martinique, Réunion, and Guadeloupe [officially
listed as Outermost
Regions of the EU]
into the figures for mainland France.
[Similar measures are used for Spain and Portugal.
This was done solely for political reasons – no other.
There is no professional geographer who would classify the DOMs as geographically part of France.
The data published by CRU (available to us) is not in agreement with the Met Office/DWP Report -
e.g for Italy the CRU gives 7.54 degrees C- The Met Office/DWP gives 5.7.- BOTH are above the 5.6 in the DWP report for SW England. Yet the DWP has classified Italy as 'not hot'. Statistics have been chosen to fit a policy.
This was done solely for political reasons – no other.
There is no professional geographer who would classify the DOMs as geographically part of France.
The data published by CRU (available to us) is not in agreement with the Met Office/DWP Report -
e.g for Italy the CRU gives 7.54 degrees C- The Met Office/DWP gives 5.7.- BOTH are above the 5.6 in the DWP report for SW England. Yet the DWP has classified Italy as 'not hot'. Statistics have been chosen to fit a policy.
To
the left is the isotherm
distribution for Europe (January) . The whole of mainland France lies within the same
isotherm distribution range as Britain and so does much of Spain and Italy.
The Outer Hebrides and Belfast lie on the same
isotherm as Lyon.Oddly, both Italy, and Ireland (marginally on the CRU data) have, warmer winter temperatures than SW England yet the DWP do not classify these countries as ‘hot’. Data -for Ireland CRU - 5.64 : Met/DWP 5.5
Why has the DWP classified France and Spain as ‘hot’ and Italy (and Ireland?) as ‘not hot’?
With Ireland, the data (from CRU or the MET?) may be related to the delicate political situation. To exclude Britons in Southern Ireland (eg Donegal) whilst retaining those in Northern Ireland would be politically unacceptable. But there again -- to somehow define Italy as 'not hot' on these confusing set of statistics is a mystery.
Spain 33,815 - France 18,155 - the two highest in Continental Europe. The data is manipulated to save money, without consideration of the citizen.
Whilst Ireland has 7155 , Cyprus 5420, Portugal 2080, Italy 1425. Greece 1,405, Germany 1220, Malta 1110 ---- All other countries
are below 400 each.
Aged British Citizens
in straightened financial circumstances, who happen to have chosen to legally
reside in other countries of the European Economic
Area, recently delighted to
have this extra help, would once again be deprived, unless
this disgraceful affair is exposed. These ageing
Britons have no political voice, and if it were not
for the concern of a very few of the more able of us,
the matter would remain hidden.
Brian
Cave (lefourquet@orange.fr)
(with acknowledgements to R. Boaden) www.votes-for-expat-brits.com
http://pensionersdebout.blogspot.com
WHAT YOU
CAN DO ----[This version
is sent to all activists.]
Dame Anne Begg MP
(Chair)
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"Dear xxxx, I am not one of your constituents* but I have no other way of stating my views. You will have received information on the manipulation of data by the DWP concerning the suspension of the WFP for people in continental Europe --- Here state your circumstances. If you are hard up say so. State the climate where you live. etc etc."
2. *If you still have an MP, write also to him/her. You
can also claim attention from the MP of the constituency where you
were last living in the UK.
3. Get people to sign this petition [ http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55085 ] Few people realise the importance of this.
4. Circulate this message.
3. Get people to sign this petition [ http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55085 ] Few people realise the importance of this.
4. Circulate this message.
