On the other hand, there were a few banks even in the High Victorian age who fancied themselves as proto-Goldman Sachs's, and who took several industrial outfits, notably in South Wales, down with them :
I thought that governments were meant to be reducing administration! Who is going to process these thousands of pieces of paper? Thousands are being spent on stamps/letters/sorting etc. Why can't people have a sort of card to deal with their pensions with suitable codes, encryption etc? Kafka isn't even in it! What with tax returns on two sides of the Channel, Declarations of this that and the next ting, Attestations of whatever I just can't imagine how any productive activity actually takes place. The Renaissance would never have happened with this lot about. No wonder hundreds of thousands of immigrants are needed to fill the buildings where these activities are undertaken; they are always located in some dreary windswept constituency of a petrified politician. To prove my point I attach a photo of The International Pension Centre where these pieces of paper are sent.
*tremble, ye Earthlings*
The problem here is that they are going to some people, sometimes rather than everybody, routinely. My fear for you would be that they will take so long checking that they will delay whoever has to be proven alive. I kind of scent method in their madness with them realising people will wait, although once the form is received outside the eight weeks you are back in but what is not clear is whether there is any kind of penalty such as the unsigned for weeks beyond the eight being lost. Waiting for a spouse's form that never comes could easily lure people into that trap. Beware of tricks and deceit, remember who is the lord and master of the DWP!
Going back to the earliest part of my father's career he qualified as a mechanical engineer and was hugely interested in fast cars and motor cycles (talking of the late 20's and early 30's). Ordinary people started to aspire to such things and industries expanded to fulfill the demand. Buyers could not afford to buy outright so they took loans (then called hire purchase agreements). My father was involved in helping businesses to expand to meet the demand and helping people to afford such things. The industry became huge. In the war he diverted to making aeroplanes, these being rather necessary, and luckily the car factories could be rapidly transformed into aeroplane factories. After the war the industry diversified into provision of finance for other types of companies and farmers. The pressure to improve agricultural production in terms of quality and quantity was immense. Such was his banking life and I would submit that such banking services did help to rebuild British industries after the war (providing jobs) and to help finance what became the consumer boom which our generation expected and enjoyed. This was all before banks got involved in trading in futures and products so complex that no body could understand them. There was no pressure to sell unwanted or illegal products to consumers, and achieve sales targets in competition with your fellow workers. I can't remember but even as I director of a large City bank I think my father earned less than about £15k. There was a car on top (reclaimed two days after he died). When he died he left virtually nothing. However in my opinion and at that time there were people in banking who did make solid contributions and were not greedy and that's why I dislike uninformed generalisations!
David, not wishing to be too pedantic but just how did Bank Managers 'get off their bots and make real contributions to society'?
However I do agree that respect for almost all positions and titles these days has all but disappeared - but what came first I wonder? Bad or useless people in jobs, or a general lack of respect? I think that probably the former created the latter.
Doreen, my wife got hers last week, but mine has also not yet arrived. I might telephone the DWP in the UK, but I am sure they will say 'its in the post' - what else can they say?
Our Mairie has no English speakers either, and neither did our previous one, but no problem getting the correct(?) official stamp and signature. I often wonder if these things ever get checked, but am pretty sure they do not.
I feel the need to make a quick comment, whilst declaring a personal interest. My father was a bank manager of a City of London bank but he died 60 years ago (There were hundreds at his funeral but I was not there being high on a mountain without electricity or telephone so I was unaware of his death). He had worked his way up. In those days a bank manager was in fact pretty well respected and a local bank manager was seen as a pillar of society (rollover Mr Mainwaring). People used to put their best suits on before they went to see their manager. Respect for many professions has reduced over the years (like my own). It's very easy to be cynical and constantly criticise others but few they are who actually get off their bots and make real contributions to society.
Along with assassins, pirates, pimps, stockbrokers, barristers and estate agents...
I see Ad-men, Used car Salesmen and Double-Glazing and other salespeople remain lumped together and absent!
Brian, the Answer is - Yes!
I laugh at the thought of a banker being a person of good standing!
I just took mine to the mairie, together with my own translation, the secretary stamped and initialed it and I posted it back to DWP.
Pension still keeps coming..........
Brian, mine was dated 4 January as well, so they must have sent out a huge batch. I notice that a lot of the official letters from DWP etc seem to arrive via Holland! I think there must be some cheapo postal scheme that the UK Govt have negotiated - saves them money but stuffs everybody else! What's the betting they adopt the same scheme for postal votes, to ensure that expat votes don't arrive in time? But anyway, who would you want to vote for (maybe anyone who promises not to have an EU referendum)?
Mine is dated 04 January, I received it on 22 January and they want to have it back within eight weeks. So, that was three weeks to begin with (but why?) then can somebody be certain that it arrives when they are there? Ill, away or whatever, people are older and not working so why shouldn't they be away or month or more? For safety's sakes it needs to go off to them two weeks ahead of the eight running out. That leaves three in which to do it safely. It strikes me that they are playing a nasty little game of some kind. Iain Drunken Smut on the face of decency with another one of his Machiavellian plots, all of which have gone awry thus far, is making the coalition he is part of less and less attractive to people who might have voted for his party. Are all politicians really that bad?
Answers on the head of a pin please.
I've just done mine too, and got my dentist to witness it for me. I hope that the fonctionnaires in Newcastle can understand that Chirurgien-Dentiste is a dentist! I've decided to reply by email, and also send it by post, in the fond hope that one or other arrives safely.
This must be another scheme invented by Ian Drunken-S*** to bash UK expats. I think that Brian is absolutely spot-on.
And I thought the French were the ones for paperwork and stamps, the post it note on a letter from the Marie’s office was stamped !
I have never felt so discriminated against since I became a UK retiree legally living here in France.
I have had to take the French health authorities to the European Commission regarding their refusal to let me return to the UK for medical treatment I could not find here in France. I took this up not as an issue solely regarding myself, but on behalf of all retirees as the grounds for refusal were that I was a British retiree within the French system. They did not understand the correct EU Regulations and to date, although we were promised that the French authorities would come to an agreement with the DoH, nothing has come of this, which means that any one of us retirees could be denied access to medical treatment in UK which we cannot find in France.
Following up on this it now seems that the whole of the system of cross-border healthcare is in disarray.
We now have the WFP fiasco as well. What have we done wrong? Well nothing in our eyes except get older, unavoidable and move within the EU.
Ah, but perhaps not bureaucratically alive.... Doh!!
I'm concerned that so many are taking this lightly. I feel that it is the tip of a huge and insidious iceberg. I love France and as a graduate in French and English do not have many problems in general. However, these documents are framed in the most complex and often ambiguous fashion and for many of us, alone and really struggling financially and with the resulting worries, they are yet another anxiety.
Recently, I discovered that my Carte Vitale had been de-activated with no prior warning, with an eventual excuse of "technical problems". It was returned after 3 months, still with no explanation or apology. I'm an honest, hard-up , lonely pensioner who is still passionate about justice and responsibility.I feel pulled down by the constant attack on my freedom and my rights, having worked all my life in England.George Orwell underestimated the dangers in "1984".
Barbara.
According to the notes accompanying mine, the list of approved witnesses SHOULD be a professional person, and not MUST be. There is a difference. besides, I don't know any such professionals here, living in a community of seven houses, five of which (including mine) are occupied. I shall get a neighbour of long standing to sign as a witness - he won't possess a rubber stamp.
If they wish to quibble, and they write back, I shall point out to them that by virtue of them having replied, I must make the valid assumption that they acknowledge that I am still alive.