Glad to see Brian you still manage to make a mountain out of a mole hill !!
If you read the form correctly , the witness does not have to have known you for two years , as they are just witnessing your declaration and signing to the fact that they have seen either passport , driving license , etc with your photo on it , and record the details of said document !
In addition , if you phone the international pension centre , they very helpfully offer to either e-mail you , or post a copy of the form in what ever language you like . So I just took the French copy to my Marie , so he could understand , exactly what was required , and had the option of signing either the French or English forms . No drama , no hassle , even for us non - super fluent French speaking people!
You write awfully well for a 9 or 10 year old. Well done you!
You are right Irene. My last wife died here in France in early 2007. She had no property in France. I did register her death with the British Embassy at Paris. I was not an executor of her English will nor a beneficiary as we both had families from before and kept out affairs quite separate apart from one joint account. I did however write to DWP and her pensions people and inform them of her death, However neither would communicate with me as I was not an Executor. DWP kept paying her pension into our joint bank account and I returned it after about four or five months after I eventually got a letter from them. She did have her own bank account here but it was only used for tiny things and there was just 23 euros left in it at her death. The Executors never bothered to collect it as the costs of a French notaire etc would have been much more. I had no idea of UK death benefits until much later and when eventually I did hear of them by chance I applied to be given much less than normal as I had applied late. I think that the Embassy should have a bereavement pack giving notice of such things. Some fiends of mine's father died in France and it took four years to unfreeze the bank account in France!
I suppose they could put lots of information on it- like a criminal record, sexual orientation, your shopping preferences and why not just swipe your arm like an Oyster card to pay for things? If your overdraft facility is exceeded an alarm sounds and the whole of Waitrose or Tesco stares at you. You buy a drink and then it tells you if you've had too much! Just imagine the potential in the wrong hands. You could all be ordered to self destruct like lemmings.
Nor entirely unreasonable
Quite right about the allowance, however that was prior to the matter going forward to show that a) these allowances were being drawn in both countries or in Ireland (likewise the UK) for countries without a reciprocal agreement, the benefits were claimed with the stated intent of bring those children to the country in which the claim was made. Unfortunately, some clowns in the respective civil services have never set up a means of ceasing payment unless it is found to be criminally fraudulent, for instance for non-existent children. That is what the Court's review looked at and now says that countries are entitled to set time limits before claims can be made.
The dole story is a media hype. The cost of travelling between two countries to sign on for dole is mostly prohibitively expensive but is known but very uncommon exactly because it is prohibitively expensive. The UK has reinstated weekly signing on to that end and I imagine Ireland has too. The regulations on job seeking also inhibit the ability to run such scams. However, certain newspaper proprietors love those stories...
This year is the first time I have had one, I suppose it is because there are two of us at the same address now.
No way would I work for such a company. Horrifying.
I suppose that they would say it saves lost cards, but the weak link in all security systems is the human one. Bank Managers families being held whilst they have to open up etc.
Morecambe Bay shrimps my favourite!
They became harder to find after they built a new sewage outfall though.
In the States a company has "asked" its workers to have transponders injected. This was shown on the BBC this week. It enables you to enter the building, enter your own office, get coffee, use the copier etc. It doesn't specify if you need one to go to the loo or use the soap. It sounds absolutely frightful. I though this was all going to be done by iris recognition but that seems to be losing momentum now. I am pleased I was born when I was.
It is not an EU ruling, it the way countries applied their own regulations within the EEA framework (not EU) but the outcome is an uneven distribution of benefits and supplements that have become all the more fluid with disparate national regulations. The UK and Ireland are quite similar for historic and practical reasons but have made real pig's ear of it. A recent ECJ review, not ruling, recently confirmed it would be perfectly reasonable for the UK (therefore also Ireland) to apply a period of contribution before benefits can be drawn with only the exception of those required in an emergency, such as after an accident caused whilst working for a public body. Most countries apply either two or three years before benefits can be drawn and as for children's allowance, it happens but is the exception rather than rule, mostly through administrative incompetence. There are entire academic articles written about the topic, it becomes a farce at times.
DWP = Department for Work and Pensions.
Sorry, but there are reciprocal communications by treaty on such matters between France and the UK, therefore in this case it is not entirely necessary.
To be fair to the DWP (and you may say that is not necessary) when I acted as chairman of the trustees of a number of pension schemes we were always advised that, as part of good administration, there should be a system to check from time to time that recipients are alive. The principle here is the same and as we are non residents there is no reason why our deaths should be registered in the UK so if the receiving bank account remains open, e.g. as a joint account, the pension could go on being paid indefinitely to someone not entitled.
Just been to the mairie to do mine. I left them a translation, for which they we grateful, but wanted to know why other people who do not speak French use sign language? Interesting? Does anybody think we should put the word around that there are extra benefits for sign language users?
I remember as a kid having one of these John Bull Printing sets which got good usage for a number of things like Club Memberships - as the Clubs were invariably using them as well!
Being of a strange mind I did remember watching a film where POW's carved crests out of cut potatoes. I tried this but the spuds were too wet, and the end result wouldn't have fooled the Bank of England! Wonder what I was attempting at the time?
I DO remember having a childish bash at copying the old Five Pound note of giant size, but they must have got wind of it as they changed the whole thing shortly after!
Was there something deep in my soul?
Indeed did I miss making my real mark in life (or even marque)?
I invested in one of those children's make your own rubber stamp kit (about £5). You can make your own organisation up! How about "British Universal Legal Licence Sorting Headquarters International Team"? That should give some work training experience box ticker something to work out. Give a false email address or better DWP Newcastle.
I'll pop that one in my album of great UK contradictions. One of my daughters nearly had her passport renewal turned down because the stamp was illegible and when I tore the woman I was talking to pieces verbally, the phone was probably steaming at her end, she finally said that it would be alright, it is just that everything has to be stamped 'properly'!
I phoned them up and was told that you don't have to get someone's stamp.
Haha, Brain this comes out if you live too much under the radar ;-) Take your firewall of your computer and share the entire C- & D- drive with the minster of security....
Hi Brian.
My email is wdmauce@gmail.com .
thanks for taking the time.
Kind Regards Maurice
Kind Regards Maurice