Pension help needed please

You really do have to keep thinking outside the square.

I will never listien to anyone ever again when they try to throw

cold water on my project ideas.

About ten years ago I brought the cup cakes to my deli in London

and I was the first to re launch the very decorative fairy cake. I was

promised that it would not work and told to give up on the idea.

So, I did and they took off with great success.

The french love cakes....colourful cakes, sweet as sweet can be and often

made with low cocoa fat choc.

Perhaps cupcakes in st emilion?

But getting back to it all.

Keep working....keep thinking....ideas will come.

Then the pennies will follow.

Just got a new idea.

Hi Annie,

Have you got a website or email? I need a patchwork quilt to give as a wedding present and reckon my sewing is too wonky to do it myself

"Does it really sound as though it's true Vic ?"

I dunno Doreen. I haven't got the time to Google everything I read to see if it's a hoax. I know what I think though & simply posted what I read & leave it to others to decide the veracity of it. I haven't Googled your response so I don't really know if that is true or if in fact you exist ;-D. Keep up the good work , you're doing a great job.

When we first made plans to live here in France permanently my wifes retirement age was 60 so four years after i started to receive mine, we calculated that 4 years wasnt such a hardship then bang up it went to 66 meaning i will be 72 before we are able to live comfortably on both pensions i'm 66 now so will have to struggle along on just my pension, when we went to an accountant to fill in our tax return we didnt know what to do so thought do it right first time and get professional help he was totally stunned when all this was explained, his reply as he speaks perfect English was why dont they up it to 99 then they wont have to pay out at all for your wife , my income is such that we are exempt tax habitation luckily i have a company pension which is equal to my retirement pension, the uk Gov are now removing the WFP for expats and there are rumours that the payment to the French health system by the uk is being lowered by 5% and for expats all none essential surgery will be done in the UK, at who's expense i ask, how do you get to and from the uk after surgery especially if you are incapacitated for a few days will they keep you in hospital or discharge you and expect you to be cared for in a hotel if no relatives available

It is now more complicated than that Carol. A non UK wife/partner - marriage is no longer required, simply evidence of co-habitation - may not always qualify for the 'partner' bit, especially if the DWP calculates they are entitled to pension from elsewhere, no matter how little. With gender non-discrimination the goalposts were moved. As for the reduction in the number of years which happened in April 2010, previously men reaching state pension age had been required to pay 44 years of NICs, while women needed to pay 39 years. It actually meant that, for instance, people who had studied until 22 or 23 years of age, who then retired at 65 or 60 respectively received only basic state pension. For future generations intending to study longer for professions it would have been disincentive to bothering to make sure they made the 'full' contribution. Indeed, many people who left the UK at that time decided not to return when they heard that and took their basic from the country they were then in.

To be clear I believe that the system in France is different in that a Muslim is allowed to have more than one wife and CAF benefit is paid for large families on the basis of number of children. I heard of one such who had I think 11 children (actually one of his wives was prosecuted for driving a car wearing a burka which is how it came out).

I was not talking about the UK at all or about pensions.

UK citizens do not get Child benefit if any parent earns over £60k and reduced benefit over £50k.

To get a pension in any country you have to work and pay taxes. The qualifying period in the UK was 42 years but I think was put down by the last government to 30 years. It is now being raised by the present government in addition to the retirement age. I don't think your partner would qualify even if you were married as he is the wrong sex. Women get a pension from their husbands if they don't qualify in their own right but I don't think men do. This is an historical thing as women were deemed to be housewives raising children.

Regards the new pension in the UK go to the SAGA website where you will find a comprehensive explanation by Roz Altman on how the new system works. Finally if your partner has worked in France he should have been paying into the French system. Continental pension are generally better than the UK ones, so he should fair better there.

Thank you very, very much Doreen!

It's all a bit of a mess really.... and it's weird how people I know here in the UK think one of two things - think - 'wow I wish I had the balls to pack up and go to another country and live 'the dream' or 'you are abandoning the UK and so don't deserve to have the things that we who are staying on this 'ship' get - ie. winter fuel, pensions, credits etc. etc.... I've been quite surprised by some of the comments I've had from people who are 'friends' and yet who still think that because I am moving to france, and no longer live in the UK, that I shouldn't get what they are going to get...

However, at 53 I now won't get my pension until I'm 67+ and the chances are that will have gone up again by the time I get there anyway.............

Exactly....

About the same in France plus the more children they have the more they get and also more than one wife is also OK. What? Really? Yes!

Perfectly put Brian.

I read this in the readers letters section of the online version of an English local rag. Please tell me it's not true!!

Dear Prime Minister I wish to ask you a Question:- "Is This True?" I refer to the Pension Reality Check. Are you aware of the following ? The British Government provides the following financial assistance:- BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER (bearing in mind they worked hard and paid their Income Tax and National Insurance contributions to the British Government all their working life) Weekly allowance: £106.00? IMMIGRANTS/REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN (No Income Tax and National Insurance contribution whatsoever) Weekly allowance: £250.00 BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER Weekly Spouse Allowance:£25.00? IMMIGRANTS/REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN Weekly Spouse Allowance:£225.00 BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER Additional Weekly Hardship Allowance: £0.00? IMMIGRANTS/REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN Additional Weekly Hardship Allowance: £100.00 A British old age pensioner is no less hard up than an illegal immigrant/refugee yet receives nothing BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER TOTAL YEARLY BENEFIT£6,000? IMMIGRANTS/REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN TOTAL YEARLY BENEFIT:£29,900 Please read all and then forward to all your contacts so that we can lobby for a decent state pension. After all, the average pensioner has paid taxes and contributed to the growth of this country for the last 40 to 60 years. Sad isn't it? Surely it's about time we put our own people first!



The so-called scroungers are media hype, they rely on individual cases and add a lot of people they believe would scrounge. The actual numbers are quite low in proportion to the population size. The unemployed are given negative image by the same media for not going out to find non-existent jobs, or move long distances away from homes and families to take whatever is available. However with pensions it is difficult to be a scrounger given the 30 years present requirement and the 36 it will become. As for weapons systems, plus computer systems and software specially developed that then don't work, a fair bit more than 30 billion goes down the drain each year.

If you pay in to what ever countries scheme you should take as much as possible back from the schemes.

if it is pensions or even benefits.

unfortunately there are to many scroungers in the UK currently taking billions out of the DWP coffers.

does not help when the UK government spend over £30 billion per year on a weapons system that will never be used.

Well before I left UK I sold a property which gave the gov 60.000 pounds in

capitol gains as a tax.

If I went back there now without much in the piggy bank...how much would they help me?

Retorical question.....not very much Is the answer...I believe.

But I do believe that there is help out there waiting for others....MAYBE with even

worse spelling than I.

No I am not angry because it was a strong person who drifted away from UK

and stood on her own 2 feet, and never in a dole queue.

It will always be a person like me who finds his or her way through these hard times;asking

questions and understanding the answers.

I am sure that all will work itself out for you annie.

UK STATE PENSION

this link will explain the future UK pension

I've had all of that info this year and got my first pension payment last month, basic, trouble is I paid well over seven years but a few under 30. I had a nice letter telling me how many thousands I owed to the last penny in order to get the 'full' pension. So, its a question of what people want or can afford, but not a generous pension by any means anyway.

I have just been in touch with Newcastle and have been informed by them,

to get a full UK pension you need to have paid in for 30 years for the basic pension £110 for the current scheme, when the new scheme comes into force in 2017, you have to pay in for 37 years to get the basic pension of £144. retirement age will be 67 years old. to qualify for a Uk pension you need to have at least 7 years contributions.

do not bother asking the DHSS at Newcastle about the new scheme as they have not been informed how it is going to work, apart from saying no one will be any worse off.

then when qualified you will get x/35 of the new pension, x/30 of the current pension.x being years paid in.

being unemployed gives you credits to a basic pension, paying class 2 NI's, ie being self employed (£2.70pw) also gives you credits to a basic state pension.

if you work for a company they will pay your class one contributions, allow you to additional benefits.

all you have to do to get a UK state pension is pay NI's of £2.70pw( paid twice yearly) for a minimum of seven years.

I meant in the sense of not looking for a 'job' :-)