There's an expat website called TotalFrance. They asked me whether I knew anyone who had gone back to the UK and what resources we had called upon to cope with the ongoing problem.
And my answer? Like everyone else today, we have to make a choice. Nowhere's perfect. Is it better for me and 'him indoors' to return to the land of grey skies, chewing-gum-encrusted pavements and general air of self-deprecating depression? Or should we stay here and benefit from the 'free' sunshine, clean air and joie de vivre of the French?
But, I hear you say, what about money? Well, yes. We can't escape that, but would we be any better off back home? Probably not, and we no longer have a home back there. Keep checking your bank balance on the web - it's no good burying your head in the sand - and follow tips on how to survive financially as an expat senior citizen in France:
1. In the winter, collect free firewood wherever you see it - along the river banks, woods etc.
2. On your annual French tax return, claim for any eco-work you've had done on the house. Last year, amazingly, I received a cheque from the French Centre des Impots for 2,000 euros!
3. If disaster strikes and your spouse passes away, you can claim 1 year's bereavement allowance from the UK.
4. If you're over 65 and your income is less than 1,100 euros p.m. for a couple, claim means-tested ASPA from French social security - look it up on the web.
5. Buy the return leg of trips back home from a UK website in pounds.
6. Go to big supermarkets like Intermarche on days when they offer discounts and get a store card. On average, I receive c.5 euros off my bill every trip.
Above all, keep weighing up the balances and wait for next year's sunshine - something you can definitely rely on here!
Showing posts with label expat benefits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label expat benefits. Show all posts
8th March 2009
A British couple from Pas de Calais are threatening legal action against the UK government if certain benefits (e.g. DLA, attendance allowance, carer's allowance) are not restored to expats in France. All this raises the much wider question of all British rights available to expats. The whole thing is an unknown zone, pushed under the carpet by the UK in the hope it will go away. It won't.
I, myself, paid N.I. contributions for over 30 years, but it goes to fund payments for the present population. This is clearly unfair. What you don't need is for someone to deny one's hoped-for security blanket in old age just when you need it - simply because the current economic climate can't afford it. There are hundreds of expats in the former Commonwealth countries who don't receive the annual State pension increase in April, whereas those in Europe or the U.S.(!) do. Additionally, all expats (including me) are denied the extra benefits that are available to UK pensioners, e.g. top-up pension credit, winter fuel allowance etc. - for WFA, you had to have applied whilst still in the UK.
There seems no logic to any of it. UK pensioners who have paid into the system all their working lives, should receive the benefits no matter what.
I say: change the system in a graduated way so that NI contributions go into a guaranteed 'insurance' pot for when an individual reaches retirement age - whatever the future national economical situation might be.
I, myself, paid N.I. contributions for over 30 years, but it goes to fund payments for the present population. This is clearly unfair. What you don't need is for someone to deny one's hoped-for security blanket in old age just when you need it - simply because the current economic climate can't afford it. There are hundreds of expats in the former Commonwealth countries who don't receive the annual State pension increase in April, whereas those in Europe or the U.S.(!) do. Additionally, all expats (including me) are denied the extra benefits that are available to UK pensioners, e.g. top-up pension credit, winter fuel allowance etc. - for WFA, you had to have applied whilst still in the UK.
There seems no logic to any of it. UK pensioners who have paid into the system all their working lives, should receive the benefits no matter what.
I say: change the system in a graduated way so that NI contributions go into a guaranteed 'insurance' pot for when an individual reaches retirement age - whatever the future national economical situation might be.
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