Ron Avery

Pleased to hear that it all went well and that the NHS is not the pits that some would have us believe[Www].  Now you can plan the rest of your life and the move to France. Maybe leave it until the £ gets a bit stronger against the euro its hard going here at the moment.

Gluestick  I am surprised that despite your claims to high office you think that the UK is run by the Cabinet and not by the Civil Servants in the Treasury, its advisors and the boards of the big financial institutions.  Ministers get a number of options on a particular issue and advised as to the pros and cons of each and they make the decisions on which option to take, the options are not of their making or necessarily party political driven, whoever was in power today would get the same options. Are you seriously suggesting that had Cameron and his Eton dorm mates been in power the UK would be in a different position today? Do you really believe that Cameron or Osbourne would not have bailed out the banks? I agree with you that the credit crunch or downturn has become a media circus, but it helps pass the 24 hours of continuous news that these news channels have to fill, the BBC even have a downturn logo, how good of it[:@].  The cynics might even think that this level of news output is showing the DG and Government just how much the BBC needs funding to better serve the public, but I digress..... It does seems nowadays that the media are talking the UK economy down non-stop. Whose interests are served by this do you think?  Whose interests are served by highlighting every tom, dick and harry that loses his job creating a crisis of fear amongst UK workers when in normal times people lose their jobs every day?  Do you hear the French media harping on daily about the crisis?  For most of the French the crisis matters not a jot probably due to the low uptake of credit in any of its forms.  It seems to me that the rest of Europe is getting gets on with its lives and letting the actions being taken by their governments and those of the other EU nations take their course hoping and believing that in time this money being ploughed into the economies will create consumer confidence, encourage investment and more importantly demand which will in turn allow industry to produce, invest and create jobs.

[quote user="ErnieY"] This is a step to far and I too fail to see how it will stop uninsured drivers taking to the road. Calm down dear!!! If all cars not SORN'd have to be insured then none can be uninsured,  this gets at those who park up off road on private land and so avoid getting done for no insurance unless caught on the road. There can be several legitimate reasons for a car to be uninsured.   Yes of course there are and as many illegal ones. Say you are going on holiday for a month or 2 or 3 or whatever, and your insurance runs out just at the same time as you are due to leave. If the tax remained valid then it would not even need SORN'ing so why should you have to pay for that dead period when you won't even be in the country let alone driving the car. This argument does really not stack up, if you insure your car and go abroad on holiday not taking it with you cannot suspend whilst its not being used,   The only people that this scenario would affect is anyone who makes a career out of timing their insurance renewal to coincide with their holiday abroad just to save a few pennies. Say the car suffers a major breakdown or is accident damaged and the insurance expires whilst it is in dock being repaired. If the MOT happened to run out too under current procedures you wouldn't be able to re-insure even if you wanted to. Under these proposalsd the car can be SORN'd and exempt from the proposals. I could probably think of more but it's bo****ks and actually has made me quite angry [:@] [/quote] And the bit you took out.  "I actually have a car SORN'ed in UK which is not going to see the road for the forseesable future so what possible reason can there be for me to have to insure it which incidentally, as a non UK resident, I couldn't do anyway, and if I don't are they going to break into the garage where it is stored and steal and crush it.  Now I have seen the article (Thanks for the link Gary, bit surprised that you are reading that paper Socialist Worker sold out?? [:D], it really does not affect many in France who have SORN'd cars as they are exempt mores the pity!!  "The new offence of keeping an uninsured car will not apply to any motorist who has filled out a form - known as a Statutory Off Road Notification - confirming that the vehicle is not being driven".

There are lot of reasons.WB  Unlike in France where as you probably know but Dog may not, you have to have insurance even if a vehicle is not in use, in the UK as mentioned there are off road vehicles that do not go on the public road, plus many vehicles in preservation and or restoration. What I find intriging is how those who have UK plated cars on the road in France, maybe even insured and CT'd but SORN'd in the UK to avoid paying road tax, are going to get out of this one.  Could this see the end of those old UK registered and blank windscreened holiday cars?

Statutory Off Road Notification  http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/UntaxedVehicle/DG_4022058 All cars have to have continuous road tax in the UK unless they are covered by a SORN.

I thought I heard on the UK TV that there is a proposal that all cars in the UK whether on the road or not will have to be insured, the same as in theory happens in France.  If that is the case one wonders how this will be checked, will all SORN'd  cars have to show insurance to stay SORN'd?  It could also mean that there is a rash of French registrations of UK cars as all those SORN'd cars already here suddenly get exported to France and insured.[Www]

As I have said above, it can be done if you have a PRIVATE pension that is taxed in France, it of course does not work if you are on a pension taxed in the UK that is already above your free pay.

[quote user="cooperlola"]There's a special form, Ron (it changes each year).  Mine is at home on my desk so can't get the number in short order but no doubt somebody else knows.[/quote] If you have to do a self assessment which I still have to after 6 years away from the UK, there is no need for any other form.  Provided that your savings interest is below your freepay you just get the tax paid back.  You don't have to declare your UK private pension on your SA as that is already taxed in France.  This process is as instructed by the non residents tax office at Bootle and has worked OK for the last 5 years.

"Apparently now to pay gross involves them (banks etc) in lots of work brough about  by HMG and most banks and societies as I say are starting to pay net."  Many banks and building societies have for many years refused to pay gross interest to those who live outside of the UK, most of us as Coops posted earlier, have to claim it back and have done since moving to France.  If you have no UK income other than a French declared private pension best way to do it, is to do a UK self assessment tax return.

[quote user="Ab"] I was driving home in the dark and on a corner hit an animal or log . Do I get under the policy, a pick-up truck to remove car and claim for a 5 day loan of car which appears to be on offer in the policy as I am covered from home and not greater than 50k.m. from home???  Not unless it is specified in the policy. These things are normally only on offer if you ring the helpline at the time, not after the event. However, the repairer may provide a car whilst your car is repaired or you look for another one if your car is a write off.  Your green paper and schedule should have a number to ring in the case of accident you should do that or best bet if your French is no good is to go and see your local insurance agent,  fill in a constat amiable as this was an accident, the constat is a statement of what happened and that is sent to your insurer who will decide blame, and see what happens.  The Agent or company will probably arrange for a truck to collect the car and take it to a local body shop or garage where it will be examined by an insurance assessor as to the likely repair cost. If the damge is more than the value of the car they may write it off in which case you are paid that value, if not, the car is repaired by an authorised repairer. Will this affect no claims and can any repair be claimed as it was an accident.. As there was no other vehicle involved you may have to take the blame for this accident and your premiums will increase over the next few years its like losing your no clams bonus but over a much longer period of time. The car has been serviced since new for 7 years by Citroen garage. thanks for any advice as I am under a bit of pressure as my wife fell 2 days before xmas and has a compressed fracture of the vertabrae. The list goes on !!!! thanks for any advice. [/quote]

The maths on this does not appear to make sense.  If the OP has French generated euros and is going to the UK to get the benefit of the strong euro to buy a new LHD car in £s apart from really restricting the choice of what is available and how long it will take to be delivered, a comparable model in France would surely be the same euro price or cheaper, easier to register and get warranty and servicing on.  Are UK new car prices really that much lower than for a comparable model in France given the slight recovery in the £ against the euro and the promotions that are being made by the French car producers?

Glad you think that the wholesale slaughter of women and children is just popping of a few Hammas supporters[:@]

So have you Coops re the nipples thread!![:D]

[quote user="Bugbear"]Well as someone who will freely admit to having much sympathy for the plight of Israel at the start of this conflict I have now all but changed my mind completely. What the Israeli military are currently doing is just obscene and completely out of proportion to that required to deal with the situation. Have they really got so much clout that the rest of the world simply refuses to step in and stop the madness that this has become. The whole thing is just crazy............................. [/quote] Gary I totally  agree with you.  Its obvious to me and many others that the Jews are using the gap between their lame duck pal Bush departing and Obama taking power to carry out this offensive and to do as much damage to the Palestinian state as they possibly can. What people seem to forget is that Hammas like it or not is the party of government of Gazza and this is an invasion of a foreign country aided and abetted by the US. I have never heard such bullshit or contradictory statements from a national spokesperson since Rumsfeld left office as have emerged from the Israeli army in the last few days, if they want the truth to be shown why ban the world's press? The truth is they don't care what suffering they inflict on the people of Gaza as long as it stops a few rockets being fired into Southern Israel.  The hatred of the US and the Jewish community now being built up amongst the Arab states and many others appalled by the total disregard for human life of the Israeli commanders will be with us for many years and the repurcussions may well come back to bite Israel and the US when they are least expecting it.  The only hope is that on day one Obama picks up the phone to Jerusalem and says stop it right now or we cut off your arms supplies.  If Obama backs Israel's actions there is no chance for peace in the Middle East.

[quote user="Boiling a frog"] Go to another insurance coy. We insured our cars with a letter from our UK insurers saying we had maximum no claims bonus. [/quote] We have had this debate before it used to be 13 years accident free driving to get the 50% or so off now it seems that its who you go to and who you speak to.  CA (Pacifica) and Groupama are happy to take a UK no claims bonus of 3 + years and give you the full 50% off.  But the cost of the premium is not everything, find out about replacement cars, excesses and how quick you get your bonus back in the event of a blameworthy accident, that can make a big difference if you do have an accident.  With some insurers it can take 10 or more years to get your premiums back to what they were prior to your prang that is why I moved to Pacifica. What they are more interested in here is accident free driving rather than claim free, so try telling AXA its an attestaion of being accident free or go to another insurer.  Surprised that AXA are so picky they seem to insure every non-CT'd brit reg'd car I 've seen in the last year or so!!

Why is it called TOTAL when the owner and half the mods live in the UK?  I suppose you could ask the same question about another popular but far better Forum[:D]

[quote user="cooperlola"]Drat, Ron, why not a live link to this forum of which you speak?[:D]  Sounds perfect to me (although your imagery is somewhat disturbing[:-))].)[/quote] Its very exclusive group Deb, I'll PM you the details, you have to have a maternity bra to hand in case you are tempted at any time. I think many of the members missing from here are over there chatting away now[:P].

Isn't the title on TF French matters a breach of the trades descriptions act, there are more posts about UK related matters on there in a day than Bugsie posts in a week on here.[:P] Just joined a wonderful Forum, more members than on TF and CF combined its called  I'd rather chew my own nipples off than buy the Daily Mail / Express Look like I'll be seeing a lot of the TF posters on there then [:P]

Just a thought, before buying this van I would check its UK road tax status.  go to here: http://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/ and follow enquiry If this van has been SORN'd in the UK as it probably has for a few years you might end up having to pay a large fine and back tax on it if you try and export it now. Might be best to get the owners to export it if its been SORN'd or get a witnessed and dated bill of sale.

There are a number of cases of people having got E 106s before leaving the UK and getting into the French healthcare system but then deciding that France is not for them full time and so go back or buy as a holiday home. There are also those who wing it on E 111 or EHICs and only join the French health care system when they have an accident and get hospitalised and get found out to have been here on a 2 year holiday.  Parsnips post may be true for a lot of tax defaulters the French tax offices have up to now an amazing tolerance for the "I didn't know I had to pay tax here" stories, but I really would not bet now that things are being tightened up by the links between the various health and financial systems and the big anti -fraud moves under way, on not being in serious trouble if the "misunderstanding of knowing I had to declare my tax here" goes back over a long period of time and involves a lot of money, the French quite gladly jail their own tax defrauders, so locking up a few "cheating anglais" should not come too hard.

[quote user="moonraker"]You can also go directly to the Lab without bypassing the district nurse.[/quote] Assuming that this poster is suggesting bypassing the nurse, what would that achieve?.   What would the lab be analyzing if its not been written in French for them to know?  Why do people suggest "ways round" what is a perfectly straightforward system? Although  different places work differently, "normal" route seems to be is GP ( who might take the blood( but if not  > prescription > call nurse > nurse takes blood as per prescription > nurse sends off blood > test results come back to you next day or soon after in the post.  You pay GP and Nurse at time of appointment and invoice from lab, which without French healthcare cover could be very expensive. One further point if the OP lives in France how can she still have a UK consultant.  If I were her I would go back to the UK and get this sorted out after her "holiday" in France.

So you can get IB then without having paid a penny in NI or having done a day's work, not that of course applies to the OP but it does question Mr Cat's statements about entitlement based on payments.

EDIT Provided this is not a van, if you get a Certificate of Conformity (C de C) then a visit to DRIRE is not necessary as they issue C de Cs.  If it is a van AFAIK you will have to visit DRIRE instead of getting a Cde C.from Iveco.

Not sure about that Kathy,   I'll check with my DWP source who does ESA interviews who was telling me recently  I thought, about the IB/ESA claimant who had done drugs since 15 and was now 23 and totally unable to do any sort of work due to his mental state.

[quote user="Gastines"] Having just had an e-mail from the Mods. about what is and what is not acceptable on the forum,does this mean I can now return to reading the Daily Mail without criticism? Regards. [/quote] What you can do Mr G is join facebook and the Anti Daily Mail Coalition.  Its a great group with like minded people a bit like AI who know that all Wail readers particularly from the immigrant populations[:P] like to be reminded that the Mail took its current political stance in 1933 from the the German right wing party of that era which it actively supported..