Living abroad? Know someone who is?
Just recorded an interview with Denis MacShane MP, about how Brits abroad are treated...and whether the British government should do more, especially during a recession. You can hear a bit of it by clicking on Start.
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The cute thing is that the although the interview is for this Saturday's iPM, it will be broadcast on rem.fm tomorrow. The station will ask its listeners whether Mr MacShane is right to be worried that in a downturn, anti-foreigner feeling against Brits on the continent could rise.
iPM has done a fair bit on this already - you can read more here - if you have a view, please click on Comments.
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Comments
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I'm living abroad.
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Eddie - A relative of mine, Aunt Maud, for years had longed to go abroad, She pined to breathe the ampler air of Schnitzelbad or Plage-sur-Mer. She often felt that she would choke if she remained in Basingstoke. Alas! She could not ever rouse responsive feelings in her spouse, Who, when the subject was discussed, displayed no signs of wanderlust “The Air of Basingstoke,” said he, “Is plenty good enough for me.”
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The mods have objected to my using a word that is spelt with the eighth, followed by the twenty-first, the fourteenth and the nineteenth.
(I like the new system that tells me below the vanished-post gap that there has been a problem, in this case with that single word.)
My point was that maybe if the BBC did not refer to expatriate Britons as Brits, which carries an atmosphere of lager-lout with it, these people might meet with less antagonism.
I then listed mildly denigratory names for nations, such as Yanks, Nips, Frogs and the one they didn't like, and suggested that if the BBC used those they would rightly be regarded as being mildly offensive -- and sure enough, the BBC mods found one of them offensive enough for them to refuse the post.
Thank you for making my point for me, mods.
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I'm shocked at this whole story! If it were April 1st I'd think it was a PM April fool.
I'd kick up a real stink if any taxpayers money were to contribute for the ex-pat community.
As people have pointed out on the ipm thread:
'Did we hear them grumble when the exchange rate was in their favour?
I dare say many of them profited well when they sold their UK property's.
And as for one person whining on because they aren't entitled to the winter fuel allowance!
When they chose to emigrate they lose certain rights and privileges - if I had my way they'd lose the vote.
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Jonnie (4)
Merry Christmas!
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4.
Don't let the American ambassador hear you say that.
Where WOULD he go? Where COULD he go?
I mean, him in doors at home, there and here, at 1.
Who could they get to pray to St Alban's bone instead?
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4.
I agree entirely. If you choose to go and live in another country then thats fine but dont expect the British taxpayer to help you.
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"Living Abroad? Know someone who is?"
Not really, but I do know someone who knows someone who's just received a payment. 20 years after the fact:
Exxon Valdez spill payments reach claimants
http://www.adn.com/exxonvaldez/story/616622.html
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Merry Christmas Joe.
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Just what IS the problem with the Antis? I have worked in the UK for 49 years; paid my taxes, NHI, rates and everything else. I don't owe a penny to anyone. Why should I not be allowed to live abroad AND remain a British citizen with my UK pension - and Winter Fuel Payment? Why are the Antis so antagonistic? They have winter overseas, you know - and if I remained in England I would get it. If I was as uncharitable as the Antis, I would think they were envious.............
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lbeagle (10)I can see some of the points you're making. But you mention the Winter Fuel Payment, and that makes me want to ask why that payment should be the same irrespective of where the person lives. This payment is designed to help those who are paying the inflated fuel bills that we are all subject to here in the UK. I somehow doubt that fuel costs are the same across the globe, so why should the payment be the same?
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FF (11) the unit price of electricity and fuel oil is more expensive in France (leaving the exchange rate aside). Would you prefer me to move back to the UK and claim the WF Payment? What are you against?
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FF 11, Should we only get half of the payment because I'm an American?
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ibeagle (10)
I can't speak for FF but personally I'd have no problem about you claiming the winter fuel allowance if you lived in the UK - that's what it's there for.
The fact is that due to global circumstances the pound is weak.
If millions of expatriates now expect the government to subsidise that extra money it puts an unreasonable demand on the UK taxpayers.
As for France and energy prices - I'm not sure what the situation is but was under the impression that most of the generation was from Nuclear sources and that our own grid have to buy from France?
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At 3:00pm on 10 Dec 2008, awesomechris12345 wrote:
I agree entirely. If you choose to go and live in another country then thats fine but dont expect the British taxpayer to help you.
I disagree. For 43 years and 3 months I paid higher rate tax and NI contributions and got very little gor it. I now live in Spain as a legal resident and I am still fighting the UK system to get back the tax for the last tax year (which I am still paying through with-holding from my pension). I have just moved my health care here. I am legally entitled to still vote in the UK as I have a home there (yes paying full rates for nothing) and also to vote for a Euro MP but on the basis of the very poor representation the UK gives us I will switch my voting rights to Spain. If an individual or family have contributed and have an entitlement there chosen domicile doesn't matter.
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I've lived in the Republic of Ireland for one year. On the whole the UK tax office, child benifit, heath service etc. have been extreamly helpfull, providing support and information on things I needed to change - to the point where I feel compeled to write about it! On the other hand the Irish system is a shambles. You dont appreciate what you have untill you experiance something else.
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mark1drew,
I think you have missed the point.
Your situation obviously needs looking into.
This discussion should be about anti-foreigner feelings in a downturn - and if the UK should assist.
I think that's what awesomechris12345 was on about?
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Part of the problem of course is that the National Insurance contribution is presented as being something other than what it is. There is this theory that it is a contribution towards one's own pension, whereas of course it is merely an employment tax -- with the addition of those who are unemployed being allowed to pay this tax too.
Nobody wherever they may live is actually entitled to any of it, as far as I can make out, except by the grace and favour of whoever is in government at the time.
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Whether British people living in the EC had the prescience to arrange their financial affairs to weather disastrous downturns or not, the fact is they are no less deserving of consideration by their Government & fellow citizens than those still living in the UK. For, unless they have taken citizenship in their country of residence, their Government is the British Government. Many are still paying tax in the UK on part, if not all of their income, & have worked & contributed all their lives in the UK.
Even though I had difficulty campaigning for people here in the Dordogne to sign a No. 10 website petition, for the provision of an MP to serve the 'constituency' of the over 650,000 British people living in the EU, I do not take the position of 'Blow it, they weren't interested so serve them right'.
Indeed, I am puzzled by Johnny's gleeful schadenfreude. It seems that the attitude of some of my fellow citizens to the 'ex-pat' is a mixture of envy & misconception. The image of the well-heeled, grey haired, gold-bedecked 'I'm Alright Jack' downing pink gins by the pool is not one I've come across here in SW France. Only individuals, with a range of interesting histories.
And should any of those individuals fall foul of future, imagined French xenophobia, they should be fully supported by their Government.
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Very well put Mrs. Nostalgie. Your comments reflect my sentiments.
The turmoil in global economies has made me question where I would be better of living. Not only financially i.e. strong Euro V's GBP, but where my family and I would be better supported by our government if worst case scenario - we could not pay our mortgage and we lost our savings. There is no question in my mind that it would be the UK. I am now very relived to realise that the UK government does have and obligation towards me regardless of where I live. I've actually become quite proud to be British since leaving the country. Which is no mean thing coming from a Scott!
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I've never understood why anyone should get a pension greatter or less than anyone else's.
Don't tell me, you should get more than some unfortunate the other side of the tracks, 'cos you earnt more.
But the tax system should have equalised those incomes in the first place.
So why?
As for pleasant places to retire, I repeat the idea discussed on the Furrowed Brow yonks ago.
Why not get the local authorities (Brum, Leeds, LEics, etC) to build retirement villages on the coast.
That would ease urban conjestion, make visiting gran/pa a pleasure for one and all, and provide employment opportunities for locals and incomers alike.
Surely the same deal as here should apply in Spain etc.
In return for providing old age care the govt should take over the homes the expats have bought. Then, in time, they could be reallocated to the next would-be ex-pats.
A Spanish home deep in negative equity in return for complete old age cover, there. Who'd refuse?
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C_G 18, My wife (British) get a US pension because she is married to me. She never worked in the US and only visited there for a week over 20 years ago.
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