Tony F Dordogne

[quote user="Russethouse"]  Sadly if claiming and checking claimants becomes  more stringent as it is almost bound to, the same group may still have a significant amount of worry, Conservative cooalition or not.[/quote] Trust me on this, unless the DWP abolish DLA/CA/AA, all the people who have applied for reinstatement have been checked, double checked, had our papers scrutinised by medics and those who also claim IB have been treble checked as part of the last HMG review.  Legally, now we've been reinstated, unless the benefits are abolished completely, many of the claimants who were awarded for life before moving to EEA, will be on the benefit for life.   And unless the ECJ/EU rolls over completely on exportable health benefits and that would upset the Germans and French, that is about as likely as Gordon Brown winning a snap general election should one be called today (and I know he's not leading what used to be the Labour Party any more) as the basic floor of EU social security legislation would have been destroyed. Unfortunately, some of our little band of fighters didn't live long enough to get the benefit reinstated tho they previously had it for life, the only good thing is that their next of kin/estate will get the backdated money. 

[quote user="ebaynut"] All this needed all along was a change of government in the UK. As soon as the Conservatives are back in charge, everything is being dealt with correctly.  Labour, the party of the people, indeed yes, their people. For any government to make a group who are on sickness benefits go through all this worry and work beggers belief, thank goodness Brown has finally gone forever.  [/quote] Sorry ebaynut, it had nothing to do with the change of Government at all, it was already happening BEFORE the change of Government and was put in place by Jonathan Shaw, the previous Minister at the DWP after a number of complex legal moves after which HMG realised that they couldn't delay any further, the first tranche of people were paid out BEFORE the general election. And it's still not over, there are still outstanding Tribunal decisions about the period from original disallowance to 18 October 2007 and also a reference back to the ECJ about the Mobility Element of DLA which still needs to be clarified.  So far it's sort of a 'one third' victory, when the other two pieces are in place - and some of the other personal silly arguments used by the DWP on top of the previous reasons for refusal to stop reinstating benefiots - then I wont care which government did what, people will have what they are legally entitled to.

A further update, decisions are being made and payments made backdated to October 2007, with interest, and with the benefit being reinstated.  There are several happy bunnies around at the moment!

We've had two Carrefour open up close to us recently, one very local in a rebranded ex-Champion store and one an ex-InterMarche in the next smallish town.  The one a way away often sends us money off vouchers, get extra points vouchers and when we transferred our InterMarche card to Carrefour, got a cheque for over €34 plus lots of other money off vouchers.  Interestingly, the local store doesn't. The cheques for the points we have accumulated come bi-monthly.

[quote user="Rtony"]Thanks Quillan, I've looked at Aeromed and they seem ok. My only fear is selecting one of the hundreds of firms online, paying the cash and they turn out to be phoney. Having seen Watchdog, some dodgy firms put approved by Bupa, NHS, Home Office etc and they're not. I could do with a recommendation from somebody that's used a medical repatriation service. Do you know of any? Thanks again, Tony[/quote] I've been involved in the repatriation of a seriously injured person to the UK and it was all done through a company recommended by the British Consulate in Paris. Seems like a good idea to make sure that you have insurance for this sort of event, the insurance company take care of the whole thing then - or they should - which is what happened to the person I was involved with, via the Embassy contacts.  And, if you're not resident in France do you have an EHIC card so you can offset some of the costs when you get back to the UK? And no, in my experience from my own involvement and from others who have needed medical repatriation, it's down to you to organise tho the Embassy may be able to help you locally if they have a Consulate or a vice Consul in your local area.

[quote user="Bugsy"]Interesting, if predictable views on this thread. I firmly believe that, certainly in the UK, racism grew dramatically at the exact same time that legislation was introduced telling the populous that it was against the law to express anything that could be seen as racist. Has it worked, no, of course it hasn't, it just succeeded in turning a nation of very tolerant people into something much worse.[/quote] Racism has always flourished in the UK and it's nothing to do with the law.  Anti-French/Walloon during the Protestant refugee period (riots in the City of London, in the 16th/17th centuries), anti-Jews in the East End of London from the mid-Victorian period through the 1930s (Blackshirts etc), no Blacks Irish or Dogs in the 1950s, anti-Uganda Asians in the 1970s, general racism in London against Afro-Caribbeans and Asians post-war which continues until today.  And that also included the Labour voting white working classes, who could be a racist as their right wing neighbours in the East End of London in militant strongholds like the docks, the can drivers of London and the major car manufacturers. Pleased to say that in my family we have campaigned/fought against racism since the 1930s as did my partner's family after they were subjected to many years of anti-Asian racism and that was before the race relations legislation was ever introduced. The difference now is that the extreme right are being as vocal as they were before the legislation was introduced and it seems until the recent general election they were gathering more followers as they did in the 1930s and 1950/60s and there is the rise of the middle classes bringing in legislation to back up what many of those of a more direct and militant frame of mind have been doing for some years.  Tho of course the right now also has the protection of the human rights legislation so they get to say their bit in public, which is right and proper as is my right to oppose what they say. We have met several people since moving to France who told us they moved from the UK because they didn't want to live in a country with so many immigrants.  One couple came from rural Wales and the other from Dundee, not sure whether they had the same incidences of immigration as we had in East London, that wouldn't even have been a factor that ever motivated me to move to France, didn't even cross my mind that moving from multi-ethnic UK to multi-ethnic France was all that different actually. As for the discussions on the burqa, I think the French have got it right, it's an ethnicity/cultural issue not a religious issue and wholly agree with no religious symbolism in state schools.  

We still have a Britline account after 5 years here AND we have another account at our local CA.  Both still work perfectly for us.  We used Britline solely before our move and when we first moved here but made sure we opened the local account within the first 3 months of being here.

Well, they don't sound like worms, they sound like some sort of larvae.  A pic would help greatly.

Thanks for that Ernie, so 'Aftermarket parts' is just old fashioned replacement parts then.  So why not call them replacement parts - just a rhetorical question really!

[quote user="Swissie"] After the wars of religion in both our countries in the 16th and 17th Century - GB decide to reunite its people with tolerance, whereas FRance decided to solve the problems by becoming secular. Personally I wish we could have the best of both, secularity and tolerance.[/quote] The Bill of Rights in England (1689) confirmed the Anglican Church as the State Church and did nothing for religious tolerance as the Bill still ensures that the heir to the throne of the UK is a Protestant and that remains in effect today.  After the Bill Catholics and Non-Conformists continued to be discriminated against in the UK, the major trading influence in the UK, East India Company doing so openly until the 19th century.  This also held good for various offices of State, even Tony Blair felt unable to become a Catholic whilst still the PM. France continued to be an established Catholic State until the Church and State were disestablished in 1905.  The Revolution overturned the previous French legal and state sytem of discrimination against religious minorites and Protestantes were allowed their estates back, were allowed to worship openly and were also allowed to serve in state organisations like the army and the French administrations.  Although the 'supremacy' of the Catholic Church was confirmed by Napoleon in the Concorde of 1810, other religions - the Eglise Reformee and Jews - had their rights of worship fixed in French law. France was never a secular state until 1905 and arguably, still truly isn't because of the influence of the Catholic Church - remember the way that Sarkosy snuggled up to the Church after he was elected President?.  

Sorry, I'm not into cars and the terminology at all. Is 'aftermarket parts' the same as second hand, as bought from the scrap dealers?

Just been chasing up a couple of IB claims that are being 'reviewed' as part of the last Government's review process.  Spoke to the IB people in Newcastle who told me that there is a 'delay' in processing the reviews - those covered by the bi-lingual IB N 50 France forms - that they don't know how long the delay in reviewing them will be, that they are being processed in 'datal' order before being sent to the Medical Assessors. The Medical Assessors will decide whether to continue payment without change, to ask for a medical examination or to withdraw the benefit.  The process will take about 6 months in all, so they say. Whils the case reviews go through this process, benefit will continue to be paid.

Enquiries to the DWP/ExpoTeam from a number of people involved in the reinstatement campaign have indicated that the claims have been batched and are going to the Decision Makers attached to the ExpoTeam. News today that another one of the people on the new site has been reinstated back to October 2007 - which we knew was the first of the trigger dates - so it actually appears that at last the DWP are getting moving as the Minister said they should. Great news, mov ement at last and people getting what they are - and have always been - legally entitled to!

Had the help crew/ground force round today to help with the garden - can't cut the grass cos of my broken wrist, so needed help.  Our own fresh salad out the grow boxes, cherries off the tree, alpine strawberries, last years epinard in the salmon en croute, loads of things growing away nicely in the garden and chums loved it!

[quote user="Pommier"]As I understand it, previously holders of an E121 because of Incapacity Benefit received 100% health cover, wheras OAP E121s and E106s only gave up to 70% health cover. I wonder how the new form will diferentiate between the levels of cover (or will everyone be covered only to 70%)?[/quote] Sorry Pommier and Jimmy, it's not true that people on IB with an E121 get 100%.  That depends on whether the French authorities, ie your GP, signs off on your medical condition being bad enough to qualify for 100% and for CPAM to agree with it. Jimmy, it's not free at all, whether 70% or 100%, it's paid for by the UK government.  And if you have top up insurance, apart from the odd euro for the state and GP and the 50 cents on medication, by and large we pay the same as the French do up front and should get it back from CPAM and your top up deal.

Excellent news. Somebody has contacted me this morning who was hit by the past presence test/failure to appeal ruling and they have been reinstated and will receive backdated payments to October 2007 which the DWP are calling it "the extra payment" for which there are some caveats on this payment, like you can't get it twice. ... And they (DWP) are also confirming that they are implementing the decision in ECJ C215/99, Jausch -v- Pensionsversicherungsanstalt, so that people who moved to Europe PRIOR to 8 March 2001 are NOT covered by this change so it appears that the battle for those people may continue, we await more clarification on this point. The backdating of payment from the date of disallowance to the ECJ 18 October 2007 is still the subject of a Tribunal hearing which is tied into the hearings of 3 March and we still don't know whether the Judges are going to declare them test/lead cases (as the DWP originally told us they are but in reality they're not) tho there are further submission being made to the Tribunal this week from the claimants about whether the cases should even continue as the DWP are already reinstating people. More detail from the people concerned on the Facebook site for those interested: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=566679482#!/group.php?gid=117479494959353&ref=mf

Blimey, they're going to have to motor to get everybody paid out by the end of May, that's the week after next. Finished the new web contact site, it's here : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117479494959353&ref=mf You have to join Facebook but you can put in very basic details to get on the site. I'm still working on the mailing list, unfortunately the broken wrist is proving more problematic than first thought and I'm having to visit the various cabinet for echo, scans and radio, all of which is taking time, on top of the leukeamia thing playing up! Still, as somebody keeps saying, we will get there!

Site is just about ready - Facebook site but closed so we can chat and I'll be sorting the emailing list out tomorrow morning , had to actually deal with some health issues over the past few days instead of just writing about them and I didn't realise that having a broken wrist can be such a pain in the bone. More to follow tomorrow.  

Apart from continuing to post information on here, a couple of us are going to set up a new site for other exchanges of information - which may be too personal to air in public - and an email contact list so people can communicate outside of this Forum - nothing against this Forum at all as many of you know but some personal things and tactics are best not discussed in public. If anybody who hasn't contacted me already wants to take part, please send me a private email and I'll add you to the list. Mods permitting I'll also post the new web address when I've finished organising it. The fight continues, the 'disenfranchised' 300 plus are still fighting and I hope to post a message explaining the remaining test case argument in the next 24 hours - it is VERY important to those of us still awaiting a decision.  

Other Forum members should be aware that Jemma has been the spokesperson for the campaign Forum owners whilst their internet connection has been down for the past few weeks.  And it's interesting that this is the first of Gemma's posts and it's on this issue. As one of the original claimants for reinstatement, long before other actually made their claims and with other people from this Forum, we were at the forefront of this campaign before others came onto the scene and some of us did a lot of the background legal and campaigning work and made suggestions and introductions that allowed other people to take the front seats. I have nothing else to add to this other than the fact that I haven't yet been reinstated yet but will continue to find out what is happening and will pass that information - all of it - on to others where it is appropriate, I was one of the people working on the judicial review which was held over so others could take their test cases forward and I also agreed not to make a fuss to get my case heard so they could take the lead and lead on the publicity. I have no axe to grind other than attempts being made to bully myself and others into silence and having seen the appalling emails that other people have been sent, I'm pleased to have been banned from the other forum. That's my last comment on the other Forum, now I can get back to helping others get reinstated without having to look over my shoulder all the time.

OK, the other campaign forum has been closed down so here's the current position.  One of the lead cases - which is the case which attracted all the attention in the Anglophone newspapers in France - was won by the claimant as a result of an administrative error in the way the DWP dealt with his case tho the claimant and his carer didn't want that made public because it didn't apply to the other 300 plus claimants who were told this was a test case! But for those 300 plus people it IS an important thing to know and why they didn't want others, like Forum members here, to know about it, defies understanding.   The decisions of the Lower Level Tribunals are not published in their entirety so can understand that to some extent but not to tell anybody outside the campaign forum that they have won after making so much fuss and getting so much publicity seems perverse. Because of that decision, it is now debatable whether that was a test case and there is an ongoing discussion between the Tribunal Service and the various legal teams involved with the other Tribunal cases as to whether those cases heard on 3/4 March are in fact test cases because they do not reflect the circumstances of the other claims for reinstatement, the 300 plus other people who were bundled into this fiasco against their will !!!!! Really really complicated. In the meantime, the decision of the Minister, Jonathan Shaw (now an ex-MP) IS being implemented by the ExpoTeam and they have sent bundles of papers out to claimants which, once returned, are being passed to Decision Makers, who are still being told to ignore the previously used 26 week rule and the failure to appeal criteria, which should mean that the 300 plus people WILL get their benefit reinstated.  I spoke to the manager at the ExpoTeam yesterday and this IS definately the case so once the papers are returned to the DWP, they are being processed. So it could be that the legal decsions are being sort of sidelined and the Minister's direct instructions are being followed.   

Update - and if I say anything about the decision already made either I'll be thrown out of the campaign forum or the site will be closed down.  Apparently because people using this site have not done what the other site owners have asked them to do (they have stated this publicly on the other forum  today), this site cannot share the information on the other site.  I have a different view of campaigning because I think that whether people are activists or not, sharing information is what is important but apparently the other forum owners see things differently. So, today I have spoken to the DWP/ExpoTeam and the ICE officer dealing with my complaint.  DWP/ExpoTeam are slowly working through all the claims for reinstatement and are putting them through the Decision Makers following the Minister's February statement which is still being implemented. The ICE position is more interesting.  They do not know that one of the test cases has been undesignated as a test case and they cannot yet say what will happen if the other test cases are dealt with in a similar manner other than it would seem to open the door to a flood of complaints and the possibility of 300 plus cases at the lower tribunal that the test cases should have disposed of. When the ExpoTeam and ICE reply to my emails, I will post the responses here.

Steve, I would send an email to the Archives Departementales for the Commune and ask them if they have any details.   Also see whether there are any local histories - Maison de la Presse is a good place to start - about WW2, surprising how much local history has been wroitten down already and as others have said, ask around, look for the olds in the village, round here they love to tell you about the war.

It's delivered to every home in the Commune tho whether it ever gets through the Aussie couple who have a number of gites this way and never appear in the Commune or the US woman who comes every three of four years but has never paid tax on her earnings here when her gite is booked throughout the season remains to be seen! But they are delivered and I made sure as a member of the Conseil that all the Anglophones know that they have to comply.

Our local Commune Bulletin has just come out telling all gite etc owners that they have to register at the Mairie by 1st July.  Will be in teresting to see which of the 11 who poreviously didn't register for tax professionale actually follow the regs this time but I think they all know that the Consiel is looking at this seriously now.