Thinking of taking the plunge and moving - anyone got a lifebelt?

Hope they are right Anna Because Macron is the last chance saloon for France because we can all guess who the next president will be if he screws up.

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If you mean Le Pen, personally I think her big chance has been and gone. Unlike Corbyn who’s still very much hovering in the wings, she seems to have left the stage.
Macron has time on his side. He’s made big promises and it’ll be interesting to see how far he can deliver, but on current showing he looks like having more impact in a year than Flanby achieved in five. He’s sharp and he’s young and it’s all to play for. Obviously being pro-EU he’s not going to get good press in the UK media, especially since he said straight out this week that there was no truth whatsoever in their reports that he wanted to meet the Maybot to discuss a private France/UK trade deal, but I doubt that is bothering him much. Let’s see where we are in four years’ time.

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The trials and tribulations of my French friends here bear out what you say.
Any vacancy that the Pole d’Emploi inform you of is geared to the profile you’ve provided and if it’s outside of your previous experience then you’re not offered vacancies in that field. Yes, it’s good to have experience in a particular field, but that doesn’t mean you can’t branch out. My impression is of a system that’s rather inflexible for its users. One dimension of this that I have zero insight of is that of the employer wanting to fill vacancies.
One friend in particular is very good with dealing with people, but as his previous work experience has been in retail, all he gets offered are shop assistant jobs. However, his skills are more broadly applicable than that.

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Yes, like UKIP, curiously quiet. Both seem to have been roundly rejected by the electorate. Perhaps moves to the Right elsewhere - Trump - have put people off. Here’s hoping!

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Is a lifebelt the correct analogy? I have a lifebelt on my boat but it is basically the last thing that I would use at sea. The first and most important item is preparation. I keep the boat in good condition and unlike my modern car that only has its tyre pressures and oil level checked between services I regularly give the boat a thorough check over. I am a social sailor and never set out into bad weather, I check the forecast and if the conditions are unsuitable I do not go out. In France I consider a still, hot day with uninterrupted sunshine to be a good excuse to stay on land. When the forecast is OK I check that everything is in place and make sure that I have sufficient clothing, food and drinks for myself and anyone sailing with me. Safety equipment is not a problem. The boat is always equipped with the basics; life jackets, jack stays, safety harnesses, hats, suncream, tools and basic parts to repair the engine a VHF radio, PLB, GPS, local charts and pilotage books and a first aid kit. The lifebelt is there as well. Some of the equipment is there for comfort, some to give confidence, some to make adverse conditions less unsafe and a few as a last resort. The lifebelt is in that category. At one time or another I have used everything on the list except… the lifebelt and its partner the PLB which is a bit of electronic kit that automatically notifies the rescue services of an emergency, gives your position and guides them to you.
Moving to France can be compared to setting out to sea in a small boat. For a successful adventure it’s imperative that you do as much preparation and planning as possible and when you set out you make sure that you have as many bases covered as possible. If and when problems arrive they should be able to be dealt with with the resources that you have available and hopefully you will not have to call on outside agencies but if that becomes a necessity you have everything in place to do so.
Plan, prepare, learn French and set out on your adventure. Be positive and enjoy the journey. It’s always useful to know that you have a lifebelt to fall back on but it’s important when checking that it is still there to do everything possible to ensure that it stays where it is, unused.

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Your marriage is valid in France. As to a Carte Vitale get yourselves an S1 form from Newcastle and go along to your local health people in France. Things have changed I think its now called the PUMA ( not sure on this ) . Beware Mutual top up health insurance is not cheap so look around for the best deal
.

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We’re getting a bit off topic here - but the thinking is that it’s fairer all round if jobs are filled by people who have put thought into choosing that as a career, made a commitment and spent time getting qualifications in that field. “Branching out”, when there aren’t enough jobs to go round, tends to mean muscling in on somebody else’s patch because your own chosen career hasn’t worked out for you. But if all the unemployed rocket scientists branch out and take the cleaning jobs because the bottom has fallen out of the rocket industry, what are the cleaners supposed to do? it wouldn’t be fair would it, because probably one of reasons for deciding to be a cleaner is that you figure the world will always need cleaners, so why should you suffer for the rocket scientists’ poor career gamble.

For the employer it makes sense because they have to invest a lot in their staff, including funding their ongoing training, and a rocket scientist who takes a job as a cleaner because that’s the only job on offer, is more likely to decide two months down the line that he’s bored with cleaning and either he’ll do a half-assed job or he’ll be off to do something else, which makes him a poor investment for the employer. (And yes, cleaners do train and they do get qualifications - health and safety, what cleaning products to use on what surfaces, etc.) Perhaps in the UK there is a tendency to assume that people who have a high IQ and good qualifications and personal skills should automatically get first pick of all the jobs because they’re “better” candidates, but the other way of looking at is that people are different but they all deserve to be treated with equal respect as people. Saying a worker is “sérieux” is a great compliment and it’s what the French seem to respect most of all - conscientious, hard working and committed, and making the most of what abilities and skills you do have. Natural flair and brilliance is all very well but if you haven’t knuckled down and channelled into anything, you’re not “sérieux”.

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hello You wrote a very interesting reply, do you have any idea how much difference there is between Mutual and the companies like AXA health insurance ?
Many thanks

I lived in France until 2011 and then the difference was around 40€ a month for two people. Of course, as with everything it will depend on many factors. If you have all your insurances with the same mutuelle, ie car,property,health you are in a good position to negotiate discounts. These are not automatically given in most cases so you need to go in and barter with them.

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The difference between the way mutuelles and private health insurers calculate premiums is that private insurers take your medical history into account and mutuelles cannot. So if you have two people of the same age, sex, occupation etc but one has serious health conditions and the other has a clean bill of health, a mutuelle will quote identical premiums for both of them whereas a private company will load the premiums for the person with a poor medical history or may limit or even refuse cover.

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You’re right. Since (at the moment) you are (as a Brit) a member of the EEE (European Economic Space, in English) living in France you have a right to Social Insurance - which includes medical insurance.

I don’t want to be responsible for any misunderstanding, so I would prefer to simply give you the relevant French Public Services web-site. So, I suggest that you go here: Européen en France : assurance maladie - then click on “Retraité”.

What you must do will be spelled out further. Apparently, you must ask your British Pension Fund for an “S1-document” that they prepare and submit to the “Assurance Maladie” (AM) here in France. (I gather that your medical expenses in France are actually rebilled to the UK - and I certainly don’t know how that works.)

The French AM will then provide you with a Carte Vitale.

You should understand that the AM here in France does not have the same coverage as does your NHS in the UK. But, likely, you will also find that it is a lot quicker if you need serious medical attention.

On the web-site given, there is a “For further information” button, but that will ask you for your mail code - which means they will likely give you the address of the French administration (Assurance Maladie) that cares for you. I suspect that the entire process starts there.

I’m not a Brit, so I am simply relating above what I have read from the French site given …

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Erm, but the OP has already said she’s not retraitée.

That’s the sticking point. Unless she can find a job she will be classed as economically inactive, and inactifs don’t automatically qualify for social insurance throughout the EU. (The key word being “Economic” - if you’re not working or job-seeking, or by extension retired and drawing a pension earned through your economic activity in the past, then you’re not an active or paid-up member of the EEE.)

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If her husband gets the “S1-form” from the British NHS, then I think the coverage of his wife is automatic. (Under French law)

But, that point can only be addressed by the French Assurance Maladie.

The majority of people in France are fickle.

Give the guy another year? What he is doing presently to the Labor Code is magic - and not even the unions are complaining …

But

so he won’t get an S1 until 2025.

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You’ve brought up a good point. So, I went to the “CMU” site for a further explanation. Here it is in French below (*) and how my translation (**):
*La protection universelle maladie assure aux personnes qui exercent une activité professionnelle en France ou qui résident en France de façon stable et régulière, la prise en charge des frais de santé en cas de maladie ou de maternité, à titre personnel et de manière continue tout au long de la vie.
**Universal sickness protection ensures people who practice a profession in France or who reside in France in a stable and regular manner, and assumes the responsibility of health costs in the event of disease or of maternity, with personal capacity and in a continuous way throughout life.

It would seem to me that the word “universal” above is key, as well as the fact that one can prove long-term residence in France. Which, I think, means more than six months.

The point really is that if you’re economically active or retired then you automatically qualify for healthcare, but if you’re not then your entitlement is not automatic and is subject to meeting the residence criteria. “régulière” is translated as “regular” which is ambiguous but what it really means is “in accordance with the rules”, ie stable and legal residence.

The health scheme that used to be called CMU actually no longer exists as it was superseded by PUMA (Protection Universelle MAladie) on 1.1.16. The PUMA rules are very similar as regards eligibility. You can apply for PUMA after three months’ stable and legal residence in France.

Any more thoughts on that Anna? My feeling is that if you invest your capital in France when you arrive you will be able to join PUMA with few problems, even if that capital isn’t generating much interest. Perhaps there is a little more leeway in the rules now.

I honestly don’t know, the only way you tend to find out is when people post their experiences on forums, and I haven’t seen any recent posts about this. There used to be regular complaints about being refused CMU so maybe the lack of detailed posts is a good sign because it means nobody’s been refused lately. As I understand it there is now provision to take lifestyle factors (éléments de train de vie) into the equation when calculating PUMA cotisations so it seems logical to also take them into account when assessing eligiblity. The flaw with CMU was that someone could live in an expensive house with a Roller parked up the drive and a yacht in the harbour and loadsa money in the bank, but if they had no actual income stream then there was no mechanism for charging them healthcare contributions because cotisations used to be calculated purely on incomen nothing else was taken into account, So they weren’t allowed to join even though they would have willingly have paid, which was obviously silly. Then of course some of the canny ones worked it so that they had a revenue stream just a few euros above the eligibility threshold so that they paid virtually no contributions, and that created bad feeling. But hopefully both those issues will have been resolved under PUMA. But I haven’t seen it written down in so many words.

I applied to and was accepted into the healthcare system via PUMA. They need details of my income but I was never asked where my capital was invested. I was not relying on the interest on capital for my income but it is included in the overall figure.