I have lived in France for two years and last November was granted an HMRC S1 for one year. I have terminal cancer and need my Carte vital to continue when my S1 expires but HMRC are being bastards and telling me they can not extend it even though my circumstances have not changed and I do not live in the UK and will never return (Aline anyhow). Please help
@Bazza1962 welcome to the forum.
I must ask - are you a UK Pensioner? How come you only got your HMRC S1 a year after you arrived - why such a wait ??
Whatever…
I suggest you speak with your local folk at CPAM (Caisse Primaire Assurance Maladie).
They will put your mind at rest about what happens if/should/when… re your S1 expiry date.
I think you will simply be transfered to French affiliation (with CV) although you might have to pay a small cotisation (or you might not have to pay anything…)
Whatever… cancer treatments are fully funded by the State - so you will not be left high and dry.
I may not be using the correct wording… but, I trust the meaning is clear… do not panic - all will be well.
Go and speak with CPAM, as I have said… face to face is always best.
Also, speak with your Family Doctor… keep him/her in the loop about your fears.
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So sorry about your diagnosis, that must have been an appalling shock.
A terminal cancer diagnosis is considered as an automatic ALD, so your costs will be covered 100%. So if you were affiliated to the French health service before the S1 came into being then you should still be in the health service if it ends.
Were you granted your S1 because of your diagnosis? As if so there must be some way to put pressure on the DWP (it is them who make decisions on this not HMRC). Presumably you are in touch with the international health team in Newcastle? I do hope you get some answers without stress.
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I’m 57. I paid for all medicines for the first year. GP is very rural and useless. CPAM very unhelpful and we have no language skills. I got my S1 so I could get my Carte vital and just thought when the S1 expired air could renew it. I did ask at the time why just a year. DWP have nothing to do with under pensionable age S1 applications hence dealings only with HMRC
Oh dear - you’ve had a tough time… I’m tempted to wonder if I could have managed in a rural location with no language skills…
Perhaps you know someone who can go with you to help translate … when you speak with CPAM. It is quite possible that what you consider “unhelpful” is due to your lack of French language. You could be completely misunderstanding what they have said. 
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That’s awful! If you have lived here legally then after 3 months surely you would have been entitled to join the health service on your own standing. It would mean paying cotisations, which is what we did. And cost 8% of our income above 10,000€.
The last thing you meed right now is stress over this. As Stella says it would help so much if you have a friend who is a french speaker who could go with you to CPAM to discuss this?
Or have you been in touch with the english speaking cancer support charity to see if they have someone locally who could help?
I would second your suggestion to contact Cancer Support France. Me and hubby received invaluable help from them even though hubby didn’t have cancer (although his condition was terminal). The person who helped us was very knowledgeable of the help/benefits available and was bilingual. They can also refer you to English speaking counsellors if you wish.
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Healthcare,
It’s encouraging but ambiguous, I have lived here for 20 years but unable to get a carte de sejour because the Niort office is closed to business and has been for at least a year.
The article says if I have a carte vital which I have had for 19 years then I’m OK?
Can you clarify your article please.
Same situation as Iago. Have had a carte vital for 17 years. I have not yet heard that it willl become invalid after whatever may or may not happen to the UK’s relationship with Europe. But consider the possible consequences. The UK will not want thousands of expat pensioners returning to spend their last days on trolleys in corridors of already overstressed NHS hospitals. They won’t want the cost, chaos and scandal, so they will have to come to an arrangement with the EU eventually. Trouble is that the whole thing is such a tangled mess that it might take time and some of us could have have difficulties while they are sorting it out.
But it would be a strange irony that, having survived being bombed by the Luftwaffe as an infant I might die as a result of neglect by the British Government. As they say back home “You gotta laugh!”
Hi,
nice to know I’m not alone.
I tried over 12 times for carte de sejour at Niort. To be honest no British Government/politicians cares, they get their millions in pay so why should they be anything but charlatans, which they all are?
We are here sick or well living on a knife-edge, maybe the French will be more sympathetique, I hope so?
And of course this is all assuming that this is a Conservative Brexit we are talking about. Which at the current time can’t be guaranteed! It’s a long time in politics before we get to 31st October! We have the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling this week, the little matter of an act of Parliament preventing a no deal Brexit for Boris to try and navigate round if he survives the court hearing not to mention at any point the opposition could trigger a vote of no confidence and bring down the Government who are now way short of a majority. So nothing but nothing is assured or guaranteed at the current time! Oh not to mention there is likely to be an election to before Christmas which could be a complete game changer!
Just saying I wouldn’t make too many changes just yet! “Volatile” is the best way to describe things right now I’d say! Boris’s day is coming and it’s coming soon and I don’t think he is going to survive very long!!!
Here’s the latest hot air from UK gov’t about healthcare!
I just got an EHIC card last week - re-issue for myself, but I also got one for my husband who has never had an EHIC card before this.
Six months, right? So is that all I get for 48 years of social security contributions? It seems that robbing us of our winter fuel allowance was just the thin edge of a very large wedge!
Plus the fact that I still pay a chunk of UK income tax, which may not go to the NHS but does support the coffers more generally. Bloody Brexshit.
An EHIC or a French CEAM card? The only places the EHIC will be valid for after 31st October is Switzerland I think.
A personal irony is that after Brexit the UK will possibly be the only country where my EHIC card won’t work.
I have been sent a piece of Government information via Facebook that confirms that S1 pensioners will still be entitled to French healthcare for two years after Brexit and NHS availability during any return. I have also applied for a renewed EHIC card.
After three and a half years I still don’t know if I have been screwed, bored, or counter punched!