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lecroquemadame

Listed below are comments made by lecroquemadame between Tuesday, 18th November 2008 and Tuesday, 18th November 2008.

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Costa living going up? 7:49pm on 18 Nov 2008 We retired here to South East France 5 years ago. We had to pay into the French health system even although my husband was 60 and we had paid our national insurance contributions all our life in the UK. When he was 65 we qualified for health cover from the UK with the form E121 which made a big difference but only up to 70%, we have to make up the difference with private insurance which costs us 110€ a month. We do not qualify for the heating allowance even though the temperature drops below freezing in Winter because we were not in receipt of it before we left the UK. We have been living on my husband's occupational pension for the last 5 years but now we have lost 25% of our income due to the falling pound against the euro. Returning to the UK is not an option.
Ironically we are still UK tax payers as my husband was a teacher and our pension is taxed at source as all public service workers. The Uk is quite happy to take our tax but give us no assistance in return.

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