EuroTr@sh Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 ALBF, you keep saying France has turned into one big retirement home for Brits don't you. Re a thread about claiming a French pension after you've left France, I was having a quick goggle to try and verify that Brexit hasn't mucked up pension coordination and I didn't find the answer but I did come across this so I thought you might like to see it in writing. Not that it's surprising in itself, but - seven times! https://www.cleiss.fr/brexit/index.html Les flux entre la France et le Royaume-Uni Des disparités apparaissent au niveau des pensions de retraite et de réversion. En effet, quasiment 7 fois plus de pensionnés des régimes britanniques vivent en France par rapport au nombre de pensionnés des régimes français résidant au Royaume-Uni. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 Obvious reason really, there's plenty of work in the UK for young French people. Plus retired UK people can sell their UK homes, buy cheaply in France and live nicely on the equity. French sell up they could just about afford a garage or garden shed in the UK. ? ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTr@sh Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 Yes I don't disagree, twice or three times or even four times as many wouldn't have surprise me at all but I was astonished by SEVEN TIMES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 Well it was Sarky who said many years ago that France gave the UK it's young talent and France gets all the UK's pensionners in return. But yeah, France is becoming a retirement home for people from all over the world. No doubt about that. I often wonder what the hospitals are like in the Dordogne. Do they need more hospitals/doctors to cope ? Who is going to pay for them ? Serious points. I get why people want to retire to France and I very much get why young French folk are attarcted to the UK or such places. My kids will not stay in France. They will be out of here as soon as they can fly. Why would they stay ? But all this retirement is not sustainable for France is it ? France can't afford. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTr@sh Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 2 hours ago, alittlebitfrench said: But all this retirement is not sustainable for France is it ? France can't afford. Of course if they are on S1s which most are (a lot wouldn't dream of coming if they had to pay for their own healthcare) the UK pays. And if France has any sense it charges full price and a bit more to cover costs. Might be a nice little earner! Other side of the coin, paying for them all to be mended in France must cost the UK far more than if they had stayed in the UK and crumbled to dust quietly while they waited for an appointment. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 (edited) 45 minutes ago, EuroTr@sh said: Of course if they are on S1s Yes but S1's don't pay for the building of hospitals, equipment and their upkeep. They don't pay for nuclear reators to fuel them. They don't pay for all the public services like sanitation and public transport that support them. They don't pay for the training of nurses and doctors. Need I go on. ? So yeah, France as a retirement home for Brits ain't going to work. Do you remember all those brits before Brexit buying all their food from the UK and having it delivered to France by vans ? All that VAT and profits going to the UK Government and not the French government that supports them. Edited February 15, 2022 by alittlebitfrench Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTr@sh Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 1 hour ago, alittlebitfrench said: Yes but S1's don't pay for the building of hospitals, equipment and their upkeep. They don't pay for nuclear reators to fuel them. They don't pay for all the public services like sanitation and public transport that support them. They don't pay for the training of nurses and doctors. Need I go on. ? Well that's what I meant when I said 'add a bit on to cover costs'. I have no idea whether they do or not. Nor do I know what the position on UK pensions and social charges is, for post Brexit immigrants from the UK. In fact don't know much about being retired at all, they keep moving the goalposts to stop me finding out, but I just thought 'this'll get me old mucker ALBF going' LOL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noisette Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 12 hours ago, NickP said: Obvious reason really, there's plenty of work in the UK for young French people. Plus retired UK people can sell their UK homes, buy cheaply in France and live nicely on the equity. French sell up they could just about afford a garage or garden shed in the UK. ? ? Hmmm....'live nicely on the equity'? Not for long. I would have thought that quite a few, like us, calculated the probability of being able to live modestly but comfortably on a couple of UK State pensions + a bit of privée. Effectively scuppered by whichever bar steward changed the goalposts for women's retirement age by 7 years. Not everyone here sold a property in London, you know ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noisette Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 The hospitals and other facilities would be there anyway, wouldn't they? They're not built specifically to cope with the influx of Brit pensioners. Not wishing to be politically incorrect (God forbid), but when you see the list of incomers to France applying for French nationality, in the Journal Officiel, you'd be even more surprised by the proportion of Arabs, Africans, Portugese and every other nationality under the sun compared to Brits. Even if a high proportion of the applicants are here to work, it's not necessarily true of their entourages. De toute façon, now the cost of living has rocketed here, both the Brits and the French are seeking out cheaper climes! What goes around, comes around. We'll all be looking to move to Morocco ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harnser Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 21 hours ago, EuroTr@sh said: Of course if they are on S1s which most are (a lot wouldn't dream of coming if they had to pay for their own healthcare) the UK pays. And if France has any sense it charges full price and a bit more to cover costs. Might be a nice little earner! Other side of the coin, paying for them all to be mended in France must cost the UK far more than if they had stayed in the UK and crumbled to dust quietly while they waited for an appointment. At some time in the past 12 years, the NHS used to give the french health service a substantial cash bung every year, per retired UK pensioner living in France with an S1 whether they used the french health service or not. The NHS then obviously realised that they were paying through the nose to keep UK pensioners in health care so reverted to ad hoc payments on demand from the French health service for treatment of UK pensioners. I can't give any dates but that is basically what happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 Personally I have never quite understood, or sympathised, with those who have come to live in France and subsequently found it too expensive. Now I may 'be a goody two shoes' but my wife and I factored in as many things that could go wrong as those that could be a success. Even down to such things as expenditure on magazines and other 'small' outlay. When we came, for example, the exchange rate was 1.56 to the pound but we understood that it could well change, and not for the better!! In other words we prepared for a bad scenario rather than with our heads in the clouds. Having thought of the worst possible things that could happen we then had a choice, could we afford it or not! I like to think we got it spot on. We did have capitol from a sale of a house, savings and a decent pension; that helped!!! Had we not then then it is likely we wouldn't have made the transition, and that was 22 years ago. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harnser Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 I did a spreadsheet before we made our mind up which showed that even if the £/€ exchange rate was parity we could still survive and pay our way over here. The rate then 12 1/2 years ago was 1.16 as I recall. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 20 hours ago, Ken said: Personally I have never quite understood, or sympathised, with those who have come to live in France and subsequently found it too expensive. I have never undertood why some many Brits have to move to rural areas where life is so much more expensive. And then complain they are skint. There is this British idea that if you live in the country you can have a cheaper lifesyle. That is complete nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noisette Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 Really? You honestly believe that life in a rural area is more expensive than, say, Paris? I'd have thought that the only extra costs might be for transport and even that is offset by Metro/tram/bus costs. If 'growing your own' is something you enjoy doing, then the availability of land in France is still a big draw for some. How can it possibly be cheaper to live in a town or city and have to buy all your fruit, veg and eggs? As for the 'paysans', I lived part-time with a French family and trust me, their living costs were tiny, with the exception of carburant but that came under the heading of business costs anyway. There's a sort of network in the countryside, a give-and-take sharing which I find hard to imagine happening in urban areas. But, as always, it's down to personal choice. There are those who enjoy being in the 'earn lots of money/spend lots of money loop and those who don't. Live and let live ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 2 hours ago, Noisette said: Really? You honestly believe that life in a rural area is more expensive than, say, Paris? Not central Paris...of course but certainly in the burbs of Paris. Food, Petrol, heating and everything else. It is, more expesive. My OH inherited her family house in rural France. The area is wonderful. It is a dream place in the sun escape to the country type thing. And only 50 mins from Lyon. You can't beat it for rural living. Beautiful area. We have done the maths. Sell our house and move rural to a free house....and have chickens. Big chunk of money in the bank account. Loverly. I wish the maths would work. But, we would be worse off over time. It would be economic suicide. It would be terrible. So if we can't do it with a free house, nor can those living in Milton Keynes. Just saying. People are moving out of desperate beautiful towns and villages around us into Tours. The population of Tours is exploding. Tours is no exception. If you could afford to live rural, everyone would be doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 If you have another couple of babies then the allowances would make it very viable. Just look at the familles nombreuses living in LaFrance Profonde.?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noisette Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 (edited) Nope....I don't buy it. ****Generalisation alert **** ? The eastern/south eastern side of France is dearer in every way than the western /north western side. And the north. I can quite believe that it wouldn't work out in the long term for you, ALBF, but you're young! We were talking about Brits retiring...... And don't forget the gîtes! Everyone knows that you can top up your income by renting out an old barn to unsuspecting parisiens through the summer months ? Edited February 17, 2022 by Noisette 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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