speedking

Saw this on the news last night.

UK pensioners who have chosen to live in Spain are suffering because of the Euro exchange rate. Their £££ pension is now worth less €€€ and so they cannot buy as much (i.e. have to eat out once a week rather than three times ).

I don't have any sympathy because any exchange rate transaction is risky. Besides which if they are property owners, the relative value of their property will have increased in pounds to offset the increased living costs.

One of those interviewed said that they had all worked in the UK and paid their taxes and NI, well so have we, and I don't want it spent helping people who took a gamble.

I don't think they should be bailed out. I would be prepared to let them peg their future pension payments to the current Euro exchange rate though

SunnySideUp

Have a heart .... it's Xmas!!

They are out there due to the climate, which is kinder on them than over here.

BTW - the Spanish Housing Market has gone down the toilet as well as here - they couldn't sell to come back even if they wanted to!

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

Its the same with those working abroad tax-free. If they are paid £s into uk bank accounts, they are taking a massive hit on standard of living where they are. Mate says he is about £1k a month worse off in Singapore due to exchange rate.

Depends on individual contracts of course.

njkmrs

Just remind the whinging old ******* how much they save by not having to have the ferkin heating on all day like us .
Some people eh !!
Never satisfied ..

SunnySideUp

Beggar Off!!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/features/...d_gits_270.jpg

njkmrs

lol yep thats the ones .

EddScott

Some friends mentioned that many of the restaurants out there are struggling because the expats are having to cook for themselves as they can't afford to eat out every night anymore.

Scooby Snacks 23

And believe it or not, regardless of where they now reside, they get the winter fuel allowance too

Robert Rosario

They made the choice to go there, if they dont like it they can come home and freeze with the rest of us.

spireite

Yep what a bunch of tossers ,especially after a lot of them fought and gave their lives in WW2 , how dare they complain

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I don't have a lot of sympathy. We all have to make choices in our lives, and with those choices comes risk.

I think some risk is unforeseeable, and therefore when people run into problems then they can reasonably expect to ask for help. However, moving abroad inevitably involves risk. For anyone to think otherwise would be naive. They should have looked into this possibility before moving, or will just have to live with the circumstances they find themselves in....like the rest of us

DazW

iTrader: (1)

I doubt there's a large number of 80 year old veterans living abroad ...well not in Germany or Italy

& probably not too keen on France either

speedking

None of the people that gave their lives is living in Spain.

scarey

well my mother's french and my dad's english. they lived all their married lives in england and both worked all that time as well.

they decided to retire to france, alot to do with the climate, but also because being fossils now they wanted a slower pace of life than you get in berkshire.

they spend 6 months -one day in france and 6 months +1 day in england because of tax reasons. because both their pensions are paid in pounds they will be delaying going back to france because the percentage change in living costs means they now cant afford to go back "home".

Oh and dad needs two new knees, which he has to wait up to 180 days for here but would have done straight away in france.

they're not best pleased

cster

They say you can't eat bricks.
They can always return - not much in it for the government to bale 'em out and keep sending cheques overseas.
Wonder how many of them have picked up the local language?

scarey

they wont ask for handouts they're not the type.

both parents are fluent in french, although dad insists on speaking french with the most prominent english accent possible. they also chose the village cos it's full of french not ex-pats

CLSII

Wow I forgot how many bitter people there are on Scoobynet

njkmrs

I was only joking with my comment .Bless Em !!!!

Tough old times but thats life Im afraid wherever you are .

Only eat out once a week ,once a month aint too bad .!!!!!!

Id still swap this country for the sunshine ,no matter how low the exchange rate goes .When the timing is right .

nixxon

Cider for me! I can't stand bitter since I stopped smoking, and Lager's for Jessies!

cster

I like the sound of them

nixxon

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but it would seem that your parents are trying to minimise the tax they pay in France. I would hazard a guess that French taxation is far more onerous than British, which is why their infrastructure is superior to ours. This is why they can give your dad two new knees almost immediately, which is jolly decent of them, given his reluctance to pay for the priviledge of living in a civilised country.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I'd like to think that.

However I've just been informed that Alcoy (spain) is -3 degrees outside!

Whilst here its a toasty 7 degrees!

Bear that in mind there is no mains gas, and house insulation compromises of about 2cm of render and 2mm of emulsion

phil_wrx

iTrader: (2)

thousands of peeple try to work out paying less tax each year so why make them out to be any different?

i have friends that are self employed, earn twicw as much as me but pay a third of what i do in tax, its life get over it

dpb

Just banked my stepfathers fuel allowance fro him - lives in Pyrenees so i reckon hell need it
- Dont think he would have had his brain op. there without becoming french citizen

PeteBrant

Worth remebering that these people probably spent nigh on 50 years paying into the British tax system before complaining that they get the winter fuel allowance just like any other pensioner.

nixxon

Get over what? I'm not the whinger here. Good luck to them, but don't come crying to us about how unfair everything is when they can't afford to live in the sun for half the year.

j4ckos mate

good look to them, but they must take the rough with the smooth.


i bet none of them wrote to the treasury 2 years ago saying they dont need it all.

s70rjw

iTrader: (2)

You make your bed, and then you lie in it springs to mind........