The toast as they sip their sangrias in the sun at the Malaga golf club must be David Cameron and George Osborne

:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.Winter fuel payments to British expatriates in Europe’s hottest countries have almost doubled in five years.

Pensioners in sun spots including Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, Greece and Gibraltar receive £13.4million a year to help with the cost of heating, compared with £6.9million in 2006.

The payments are vital to the elderly in Britain, where energy bills have reached an all-time high and the cold weather contributes to 26,000 deaths a year.

Handouts: Pensioners who have emigrated to warmer climes for their retirement are still receiving their winter fuel payments. It means that more than £13m a year is being paid abroad

Their counterparts in Spain enjoy mild winters – yet they have still received an astonishing £29.2million over the past five years. This was described as ‘farcical’ yesterday by experts who question whether those living in a hot foreign country deserve help with their heating bills.

The tax-free winter fuel payment, worth up to £300 a year, goes out to all British pensioners whether they live in Cornwall or the Costas, Manchester or Malta.

Struggle: The winter fuel payment, worth £300 a year is paid to all pensioners no matter where they live

Figures uncovered by the Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott show that from 2006  to 2011, 270,585 winter fuel payments totalling £52.9million have been made to pensioners in Gibraltar, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Malta and Cyprus. These are the eight hottest countries in the European Economic Area – the EU plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.

Lord Oakeshott added: ‘It is farcical to be spraying out winter fuel payment cheques all around the Mediterranean.

‘The toast as they sip their sangrias in the sun at the Malaga golf club must be David Cameron and George Osborne.’

Robert Oxley, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘This is an incredible amount of money to be exporting in benefits to the Costa del Sol. It was meant for pensioners struggling with the freezing temperatures back home, not expats enjoying life in the sun.’

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said: ‘Winter Fuel Payments are paid to UK pensioners abroad in order to comply with European law. They are only paid to pensioners who first qualified for the support while living in the UK.’ 

In another winter fuel anomaly, 500,000 of the richest pensioners in Britain itself are expected to receive the tax-free payment this winter. They still qualify for the money, paid to a total of 13million OAPs, despite being higher-rate taxpayers.

Lord Oakeshott is calling for the handout to be taxed to reduce the clear unfairness of wealthy families being paid a benefit they do not need.

If it were taxed, a parliamentary written answer from the Department for Work and Pensions reveals, it would give a £230million boost to the Exchequer.

Questions: Lord Oakeshott asked how it can be fair that 500,000 of society's richest people were benefiting from the handouts, while Nick Clegg has previously called on better-off pensioners to sacrifice their handouts

Other universal handouts, such as child benefit, are being axed for the better-off. From 2013, child benefit is being withdrawn from higher-rate taxpayers.

Lord Oakeshott said: ‘How can it be right or fair to give a tax-free handout every year to 500,000 of the richest people in society? That money could be far better spent on helping one million young unemployed people find a job, or low-paid families struggling to survive.’

Saga, the over-50s group, is championing a campaign named the Surviving Winter Appeal, saying those who do not rely on the handout to keep warm should donate the money to those who do.

Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said recently that better-off elderly people should make a ‘sacrifice’ to help the Government balance its books.

He said he believed the Government should cut back on the benefits currently given to all pensioners regardless of their wealth. ‘We should be asking millionaire pensioners to perhaps make a little sacrifice on their free TV licence or their free bus passes.’

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