IN April 2022 pension supposed to increase by 3.1% Just checked this months payment rate £ to € 1.16 actually got €1.138 and due to poor rates I am €20 a month worse of over the last 8 months showing a small loss…
Any one do better using UK bank a/c and private transfer
April 2023 it goes up to £204 per week or £10600 per year.
It really goes up?
Can you live on that amount?
I certainly can not and came here to France knowing this and making sure that I would be working a little even though I am truely old.
With age comes illness.
Well I can, and it never ceases to amaze me, but then we have virtually no expenditure like fancy meals out, no days out at all really and admittedly really only one of us to feed. I feel really hard done by if I have to drive more than the 8 kms to the shops and back a couple of times a week so very little cost in terms of running the car. The second car is now laid up for the winter and the annual minimum legal insurance is not expensive.
@Yorky1 If I had exchanged some pounds when it was 1.16 I would have got at least 1.15 for it. That is via Worldwide who make no charge and, now that I have dealt with them for a few years, only take 1 centime or less in commission.
I don’t worry about how well I was doing last year or the year before, I concentrate on the now and, as long as I can pay our way, I am content on that score.
The only way you would do better is if you can afford to leave the money in the UK building up until the bank rates are in your favour. Otherwise the pension service rate is about as good as it gets on a monthly basis.
The minimum wage in France is approx €20,000 gross, €15,000 net. The UK standard pension translates to about €15,000 gross.
Income tax is lower here, at the bottom end anyway. I have never paid that but once a mistake was made with one of my UK pensions and the UK took £100 off, twice. I did get it back though but only because I am not a UK tax payer.
Original comment deleted as I really can’t be bothered to engage in conversations with trolls…
That is beautiful. And quite Buddhist! (Not the stick-gold-leaf-on-a-statue ‘Buddhist’ but the true original.)
In keeping with my all faiths policy, I wish you, Fran, Jules and Opie a very Happy Boxing Day / St Stephen’s Day!
Just looking at the British Charity report from last year, where they provided over €330k grants
The BCF provided financial support to 167 people making up 114 households, during the year. There seems to be a tendency for the average age of beneficiaries to move downwards; a recent review showed that the largest single group, 27% of the total, was in the age range of 51-60. Some 55% of the beneficiaries were under 60.
The difficulty to find work, for those orientated towards customers in the British community, has been accentuated as uncertainty has reduced the inclination to undertake house renovation or construction. In many cases, the level of the British residents’ French language ability is insufficient for them to attract French clients.
In other respects, the beneficiaries’ characteristics remain little changed: their geographical concentration remains in the spread of western France from Normandy through Brittany to the South West; many of the pensioners live alone and the added isolation coming from the Covid-19 restrictions has accentuated their solitude; continuing weakness in the rural housing market has meant that many of those who could envisage returning to the UK are prevented from doing so by the loss they would have to accept on the sale of their home.
Thank you Susannah, and the same to you and yours. Incidentally I don’t hold with any supernatural beliefs or religions, but if I was forced to choose I think Buddhism comes closest to the ideal, though I would never accept all of its teachings.