mandycats

Actually Ron Avery there is no need to be rude and take a tone with me.  I have worked in that area for some time and i still have many friends who work within the benifits (actually more the fraud side) agency.  I know that certain groups of people do not work for 5 years in the country of settlement before getting housing, unemployement and all the other benefits a european citizens are allowed to claim.  As for the rest of it, watch the tv!  They are still replaying old programmes with the cheap cost of living, desperate need for builders/electricians etc.   If i had a euro for every builder i bumped into i'd be a rich person.  So many of them have gone back and even more arrive everyday!  A victim of the recession in the uk, thinking that they will find work and loaded retired brits in need of work doing!  I think your right parsnips about the new influx that will arrive soon!  still it all adds to the fun.        

It cant be right.  How else do the polish get all those benefits then?  They certainly havent worked in the uk for 5 years or more.  I thought it was along the lines of the 3 months with no income then you were entitled.  Recently a neighbour gained RMI they have only been out of work for 4 months after they moved to france.  I guess alot of people come to france thinking there is abundant work, cheap houses and low living costs... sadly this just insn't the case anymore.  (thinking about it they had RMI from feb 08 so perhaps the legislation changed after that).      

If they have children (of any age under 16) they are entitled to RMI (revenue minimum de insertion).  This is available from the assistant social (via the marie -as someone has already pointed out). This is irrespective of if you have paid into the french system or not and is nothing to do with unemployment benefits.   Signing an application will also entitle them to assisted health cover, various allowances for the childrens school dinners etc.  Then there is also access to assistance with setting up a small business or finding a job (or both!). They will need to take to the meeting all their documents including last tax returns from uk, dates when they last earned money (uk and france) and all their certificates (birth etc).  Also they should take along a copy of each of their last bills including water/taxes/electric/school diners etc. and any proof of searching for work (regection letters etc). This will be followed up by a home visit to assertain the living conditions and if seen appropriate they will be given the allowance pretty quickly (unusually for the french).  The french love families and will do what they can to help when  children are involved. I hope this information is of some help to your friends and i wish them well for the future. We all make bad choices at times and it may be with hindsight things could have been done differently - but we are all wiser after the event!        

Hi Jon good advise, however accountants usually advise you to do things that require their services. A micro bic is a small business and you pay cotistations on a fixed amount for year 1, year 2 is based on year 1 takings etc.  This can be very expensive and if you have a good year, followed by a bad year then you can find yourself in trouble  (this is how most french businesses fail). This sytem does not require an accountant so is often not recommended by accountants!  There is a new regime starting in January 2009 called 'autoentrepreneur' and it will allow you to pay a percentage of your actual turnover.  You can then pay this on a month by month basis or 3 monthly.  This is not necessarily cheaper than the micro-bic but it does allow you to 'pay as you go' and at least if you dont earn anything then you dont pay anything! It won't suit everyone.  It doesnt suit us for example, we have an on-line car parts business and our turnover is high but our profit is low by comparison.  Pop into your local tourist information office and ask where your local business advice centre is.  They are the perfect sourse of impartial advice and often are privy to little bits of help and assistance that prove invaluable.  The above is based on our personal experiences.  I sincerely wish you the best in your enterprise and i hope you find a good solution.            

Thank you very much for your help.

Hi Clair, can a business use the cheque emploi system then?  I was told it was only for private individuals hoping to hire a domestic assistant (gardener - not landscape- cleaner, babysitter etc).  We have a micro bic(commercant) and we would love to be able to employ some assitance in the new year but there is no way we can afford the cotis!  The way i understand cheque emploi is that you paid (just an example and probably not accurate) for example 10 euros per hour,  that is given directly via the cheque to the employee.  What actually is taken from your bank account is 12 euros, but at the end of the year you can re-claim half that back ie 6 euros against your tax liability. I am not great at understanding all these rules and i would appreciate your help in clarifying this if you can.  Thank you.  

Hi, i'm absolutely no judge of champagne (prefer a drop of the red myself) but on a whim i purchased some caramel liquer from super U and added a drop of their 79cents fizzy - oooooh just lovely!  Its very sweet and fizzy, just right for those who dont like the dryness of champagne.  Its rather alchoholic aswell which is a bonus!

Hi, glad i could be of some help.  As with the first paragraph it was just that you said you were registered as unemployed i just assumed that you meant you were receiving payments.  Sorry for the assumption!  Good luck with your enterprise and dont let the paperwork get you down!    

Hi i feel compleded to reply as it is a common misconception.  Of course they will say you CAN work, however all benefits are reduced by the amount you earn. What often happens is that they suspend your payments pending conformation of your hours worked and as CESU is basically an informal contract to work you can be seen to have WORK this has a very real impact on your ACCRE payments.  This is a total pain in the butt i'm afraid and will take alot of time going to and fro the offices to explain everything (often twice).  This also impacts on your year end tax bill. Another very important thing they wont tell you is that your first year under ACCRE is for the year in which you start your business and terminates on 31st December of that year!  It is NOT an actual year of your business operating.  If you are thinking of starting a business get on with it quick as we spent along time planning our car parts business and we started in october 2007.  We actually only had 3 months ACCRE allowance.  ACCRE doesnt cover the URSAF payments either so make sure that you have enough to cover your pension and conjoint payments from the beginning.  Conjoint workers are not covered by ACCRE so as you both are working the business you will have to pay for you both. I hope this helps and of course this is how things applied to our situation and other departments may have slightly differing rules. 

Hi we are in Cher right at the bottom  where it joins Creuse, Allier and Indre.

Thanks for all your replies. Could somone pm me with the phone number of the reclamation yard?  i like the sound of the raised beds and i shall be stalking the garden for somewhere to put one!   How do you go about pricing beams?  i dont wish to be offered 10 euro a piece and find they are worth 100!  I have never had to get rid of anything like this and a couple of the beams are huge handsawn jobs around 1850ish in age, although not in perfect condition  (as you can imagine) it would be nice to find them a proper home.  Could you also enlighten me to AI? sorry i dont know what that is! Thanks again.  

Does anyone know what on earth i can do with a load of very old beams we had to pull out of our barn?  We had 2 large platforms over each side of what was a cow shed and a tall free standing wooden construction (to store more straw bales on i guess).  I was thinking of maybe asking a reclamation yard if they wanted them but i dont know the french!  Can someone help?

Hi sara77, dont worry so much!  We all have our feelings and its easy on a forum to say something that is taken the wrong way-so forgive us!  We are a youngish struggling family we only have one child and a new business which is eating up the money!  from our personal situation our original income of just over 1,000 euro per month was nowhere near enough and i'm not one to go out and by clothes (my husband actually nags ME to go and buy some, but i hate shopping! ) i would have thought that given no major disasters 1500 would be just fine.  Its really no different to the uk except that there are very limited places to buy cheap things.  no cheap clothing stores - at least not in our area - think pricewise about m&s price level.  That really does push clothes and shoes prices up for kids. (but if hubby is in uk then great!).  Speaking from personal experience what i found really hard was the feeling of being so alone in a foreign country.  Its not that we dont have english people about -its just that when my husband worked away in germany for months at a time, it was always then that things went wrong!  Its really hard being alone and foreign.  However i'm just a real wimp and i was so pleased my husband returned here to set up a car parts business.  Things are loads better for us now and i truly hope that you find living here a fulfilling experience.  Good luck i'm sure we all wish you well. Amanda http://www.catalytiques.com

What a lovely and warm hearted thing you have done.  I've read some terrible things today so you have single handedly restored my faith in humanity. she is a very lucky little puss.

So so sorry to hear of your sad loss.  Thinking of you at this hard time.