Attendance Allowance

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The letter below was sent by a widow (The name is not given because all correspondence receives anonymity on this site). 

If one reads behind the words, we see an elderly couple trying to achieve some peace in France in their last years.  The husband is ill and needs constant care.  His wife wants to help.  In the UK they had some extra cash from an Attendance Allowance.  Immediately they left, this allowance was stopped.  Probably they did not even think that such stoppage was possible.  They knew that within the EU all movement  should be without hindrance.  They probably thought that the care and support for which the UK has responsibility under EU law would follow them.  It didn't and it still doesn't (consider Healthcare!).  The UK has a responsibility for the social care of all its retired citizens across Europe, but is reluctant to accept it.  

The situation in this case (AA benefits) is that only by being taken through the European Court of Justice has the UK been forced to show a responsibility towards its aged citizens.  The ECJ judgement was made in October 2007.  The UK has been forced to pay arrears of such benefits but STILL they will not pay back to the point of departure, but only to the date of the judgement.

Roger Gale MP is the only politician (as far as I know) who is fighting for the correct attitude on the part of the Government.  Does any other politician care?

At this time no politician has the specific responsibility to stand up for the interests and welfare of the British Citizen in Europe. 

Dear Sir,
I found your blog on the internet after looking up exportability of benefits.  I am just writing to ask if you have any knowledge whether anybody has successfully won an appeal to have their Attendance Allowance reinstated from before 2007? When my husband and I move to France in 2005 they immediately stopped his AA. They have just paid from Oct 2007 until he died in April 2008, but will not pay what he was entitled to (and that they stopped) from when we moved to France.  

I am sorry to email out of the blue but I really don't know where else to enquire for help and I know my husband would have wanted them to pay for what he was legally entitled to. I don't know whether to just give up fighting them now.
Kindest Regards,

I replied telling the lady of the history, and also informed Mr. Gale.