benefits for over 60's in France

[frank]

Hi,

I'm just wondering, having reached 60 today, what advantages and/or benefits someone of my great age would now be entitled to living in France. If anyone reading this is as old as I am would you please let me know what they might be. Thanks.

PS. Would really appreciate some serious information but I've also found the following on the net which gives some of the plus's of being over 60.

1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

2. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.

3. No one expects you to run into a burning building.

4. People call at 9 PM and ask, 'Did I wake you?'

5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.

7. Things you buy now won't wear out.

8. You can eat dinner at 4 P.M.

9. You can live without sex but not without glasses.

10. You enjoy hearing about other peoples operations.

11. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.

12. You have a party and the neighbours don't even realise it.

13. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.

14. You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.

15. You sing along with elevator music.

16. Your eyes won't get much worse.

17. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

18. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.

19. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.

20. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.

21. You can't remember who sent you this list.

[andyh4]

Some SNCF tickets may be cheaper and you can buy a seniors card to widen the scope of those tickets that are offered at a discount (can be as much as 50% if you want to travel when no one else does). 

 

And in our commune you get a seniors bus pass for free trips on all bus journeys starting in the commune

 

 

 

- there are none - we have no bus services!!  [:D]

 

The first one is however serious.

[Loiseau]

A "carte senior" (senior railcard) is quite expensive (56 euros per year), so worth it if you are going to make a lot of rail journeys within a year and get 50% off by travelling off-peak.

But even if you don't buy one, you can get 25% reduction on off-peak rail travel by telling the ticket-office personnel that you are over 60 (and being able to prove it with a passport or similar).

Some museums offer reduced rates for "seniors", but by no means all.

Angela

[Clarkkent]

Frank, if you think that 60 is a great age then you must have been born middle-aged! The list you provide is for disabled octogenerians.

I am shown photographs of events at which I was present but I am never on them. I think that I am being stalked by a grey, bald stout-ish person that I don't know, because he keeps pushing his way into the photos. I know what I look like - I see myself often enough in mirrors - and I know that I can pass for 35.

And as for sex, I think young women these days are so burdened with work and family and child rearing that they are too weary to accept my entreaties for nights of passion that would exceed their wildest dreams. Poor things, they don't know what they're missing!

Do you know Roger McGough's poem, Let me die a young man's death?

Or when I'm 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

[Quillan]

I don't know, looking back over my life, I am not quite 60 yet, but close, I always think of two songs which sums it up.

When I was 17,
It was a very good year,
It was a very good year,
For small town girls,
and soft summer nights,
We'd hide from the lights,
On the village green,
When I was 17.

When I was 21,
It was a very good year,
It was a very good year,
For city girls,
Who lived up the stairs,
With all their erfumed hair,
And it came undone,
When I was 21

When I was 35,
It was a very good year,
It was a very good year,
For blue-blooded girls,
of independent means,
We'd ride in limousines,
Their chauffeurs would drive,
When I was 35.

But now the days are short,
I'm in the autumn of the year,
And now I think of my life as vintagewine,
from fine older kegs,
From the brim to the dregs,
It poured sweet and clear,
It was a very good year.

(Ervin Drake 1961)

AND

Yesterday when I was young
The taste of life was sweet like rain upon my tongue,
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
The way an evening breeze would tease a candle flame,
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I always built to last on weak and shifting sand,
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day
And only now I see how the years have run away
Yesterday when I was young
There were so many songs that waited to be sung,
So many wild pleasures that lay in store for me
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see,
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out and
I never stopped to think what life was all about,
And every conversation that I can recall
Concerned itself with me, and nothing else at all.
Yesterday the moon was blue
And every crazy day brought something new to do,
And I used my magic age as if it were a wand
And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond,
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
And every flame I lit so quickly, quickly died
The friends I made all seemed, somehow, to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end the play.
Yesterday when I was young
There were so many songs that waited to be sung,
So many wild pleasures lay in store for me
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see,
There are so many songs in me that won't be sung
Cause I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue
And the time has come for me to pay for yesterday
When I was young

(Shahnour Vaghenag Aznavourian aka Charles Aznavour 1974)

[tonyinfrance]

I'm a bit surprised there isn't a government or community website to clarify what benefits accrue at age 60 (and 65).  I got a free bus pass here in Brighton when I reached 60 and we have the country's best bus service so that's a cracking deal.  When my wife reached 60 she found she could not get one - the council have pushed the qualification from 60 to 61.

Free prescriptions - dead handy!  Free eye tests too I think. 

Must be lots of other stuff out there I don't know about and I imagine the same applies in France......

[NormanH]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyRF1CjOPQ8

[suein56]

[quote user="tonyinfrance"]Must be lots of other stuff out there I don't know about and I imagine the same applies in France......[/quote]

You imagine wrong ... in the UK it seems that you are regarded as old at 60 and in need of help; here in France you are still but a young thing who can perfectly well manage for themselves. I understand you might begin to get some help at 70 or is it 80?

The only exceptions which spring to mind are not paying taxe d'hab if you are over 60 and have a low income and getting a cheaper seat at the cinema, but that doesn't happen everywhere.

Sue

[cooperlola]

[quote user="suein56"]You imagine wrong ... in the UK it seems that you are regarded as old at 60 and in need of help; here in France you are still but a young thing who can perfectly well manage for themselves. I understand you might begin to get some help at 70 or is it 80?

The only exceptions which spring to mind are not paying taxe d'hab if you are over 60 and have a low income and getting a cheaper seat at the cinema, but that doesn't happen everywhere.

Sue
[/quote]Quite right, Sue.  And no free healthcare.  Best stay in the UK until you're within sight of UK state pensionable age, Frank.

[EmilyA]

When I asked at the swimming pool if there were any concessions for pensioners they looked at me in amazement. There never seem to be many older people swimming, not sure if that is cause or effect!

[YCCMB]

Here in blighty, where Mr Betty recently attained geriatric status (i.e. the same age as the OP: I, being a much younger person, have been milking this..) he is quite made up that he now no longer has to buy the visitors' parking permits we require to allow friends to park outside our house, so he ordered a new supply. Now all we need is for some friends to come round and want to stay for more than 6 hours..although parking restrictions only apply for 3 hours a day, and that's from 8-11 am. Still, a freebie is a freebie!![:)]

I think he's also on free prescriptions too, now. He certainly delayed picking up one of his repeat prescriptions until after the fateful day had passed.

[Cendrillon]

U.K. benefits

Free bus pass. Senior rail reductions with the card though you have to pay to get one. Free prescriptions. Often reductions for cinema, shows, and some other assorted benefits.

I wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad when a French bus driver asked me if I wanted a senior fare[:(] I said oui and decided that I must have looked as though I qualified.[:(]

SNCF senior train fares reduction, even without a card, is worth asking for and I have never been asked for proof of advanced age, I definitely must look the part.[:(

Edit: I have copied just the first two verse here to cheer myself up.[:)] I really must learn to spit!

 

Warning - When I Am

an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple

By Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman, I shall

wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go,

and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on

brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've

no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement

when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops

and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public

railings

and make up for the sobriety of

my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in

the rain

and pick the flowers in other

people's gardens

and learn to spit.

 

You can wear terrible shirts and

grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages

at a go

or only bread and pickles for a

week

and hoard pens and pencils and

beer nuts and things in boxes.

[Evianers]

[quote user="Loiseau"]A "carte senior" (senior railcard) is quite expensive (56 euros per year), so worth it if you are going to make a lot of rail journeys within a year and get 50% off by travelling off-peak.

But even if you don't buy one, you can get 25% reduction on off-peak rail travel by telling the ticket-office personnel that you are over 60 (and being able to prove it with a passport or similar).

Some museums offer reduced rates for "seniors", but by no means all.

Angela

[/quote]

Not half as expensive as in Swizzle. There a half price card costs, for one year CHF165 [was 150];

for two years it costs CHF300 and for three years CHF400. But then everyone knows the Swiss are RICH!!!

[idun]

[quote user="suein56"][quote user="tonyinfrance"]Must be lots of other stuff out there I don't know about and I imagine the same applies in France......[/quote]
You imagine wrong ... in the UK it seems that you are regarded as old at 60 and in need of help; here in France you are still but a young thing who can perfectly well manage for themselves. I understand you might begin to get some help at 70 or is it 80?

Sue
[/quote]

 

Really, a good friend of mine was looking for a job in France at the great age of 42. He could not get one. He is well qualified and a good looking smart fella. In the end, due to the death of his father, he bought his way into a company and wasn't going to get paid for the first year. I have lost touch since I left France, and I just hoped that they kept him on. Older folks, ie over 40 was always  a problem in France.