Votes for Expatriates?

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Below is an extract from Hansard sent to me by Mr. Harper, Parliamentary Secretary for Political and Constitutional Reform and also my representative in Partliament.  It appears, if opaquely, to be promising that a bill will be presented in Parliament giving votes to us - expatriates.

Do not hold your breath in waiting.  Yet this indicates a move forwards.  As I observed elsewhere on this site (please search via the Index)  the UK is almost alone in refusing to enfranchise the British Citizen in the EU for life!  

At present it ceases after 15 years.  I have had a several exchanges with Mr. Harper on this matter.

You may note that unless the law is changed we who live beyond the shores of the UK will be less favoured than prisoners in the jails of the UK, some of whom will undoubtedly get the vote soon.

If you feel you can add pressure for pushing this change forward, I give you Mr. Harper's address below.  I urge any correspondents to be always courteous.  It is too easy to allow angry impatience to colour one's words.

Mr. Mark Harper House of Commons London, SW1A 0AA

Mr Harpers email address is:-  psmarkharper@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk

It is important that you make known your feeling that we British deserve recognition. The French in the UK have votes... and the  Spanish.... Poles.... Italians....  ....   ....

We are overlooked in so many matters.. If we had the vote then we may be more considered.

By the way, the voting on the referendum about the Alternative Voting system is on May 5th.  This is open to all expatriates who have left the UK less than 15 years ago.

Click on the extract below to view full size. To return, click 'esc'

The Winter Fuel Payment at February 2011

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What is the attitude of the Conservatives?

I received this email from a reader...  It speaks for itself.  Mr X retired to France before 1998 and because he did not receive the WFP at that time, he does not get it now.

"I have just re-read your e-mail of the 16th January and wonder if there have been any further developments on the petition to the EU on the Winter Fuel Allowance.

As you know I feel very strongly about this, even more so as I am now nearly 86 and on Oxygen 24/24. This, coupled with the fact that I have walking difficulties, means that I am virtually housebound and our heating is on from 7am till midnight."

The 'petition' is that placed before the EU by Mr, Burrage Legal Advisor to the British Expatriates in Spain.  He replies to me as below.

"Hello Brian,

 The wheels in Brussels often move very slowly and I am still awaiting a response from the Committee on Petitions and such responses can take up to 2 years or more.

 You will be the first to learn of that final response. Also it will be posted onto our website.

 I believe I have previously forwarded a reply I received from William Hague when leader of the opposition in 2001. I suspect that if we remind him of his pledge, he will defend himself by declaring that (a) He is no longer the leader of his party and (b) We do not have a conservative government, but a coalition."

The letter from William Hague is below.   You may like to write to him and give him your views?

Click on the partial image of the letter to view the full image. To return click on the return arrow on your screen.

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. 

New Directive on Cross-Border Healthcare

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 January 2011.

There are unfortunate differences between the Draft of this Directive published in 2008 and the latest version published very recently in 2011. The new Directive will be operative in 2013.

The devil in the detail is the definition of ‘State of Affiliation’. I quote it here in full. All the heavy print has been added in the recent version and seriously undermines the position of the expatriate in France.

"Member State of affiliation" means the Member State where the patient is an insured person or the Member State where the patient resides if this Member State is not the same as the former.

Where, due to the application of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 and Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 respectively, the health insurance body in the Member State of residence of the patient is responsible for the provision of benefits in accordance with the legislation of that state, then that Member State is regarded as the Member State of affiliation for the purposes of this Directive;

This is bad news for British expatriates in France. It means that for this particular Directive then the Social Security of France is supposed to be our effective healthcare cost provider.

The situation becomes ridiculous! I explain step by step – this is for OAPS retired to France.
1. The UK is our State of Social Security Insurance.
2. If we visit the UK we get full health cover costs for medical treatment.
3. The UK provides us with an EHIC (European Health Insurance Card). If one journeyed to Spain then the UK covers us fully for health costs. In other countries it is likely to be variable. [The latter - A contentious point.]
4. The UK pays France for our health care…. The % amount is on the whole questionable. Up to now it has been at the French rate to a French insured person- usually about 80%, but a complicated calculation.

5. If British resident OAPs visit France on holiday and get treatment on the back of the EHIC, they are likely to be charged as though they were a French insured person.

6. If British resident OAPs visit France specifically for health care – then under this Directive they get treatment at the cost at which it would be provided in the UK! i.e 100% of approved costs.
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In my view this absurdity comes about because no-one in the British parliament or Civil Service has any interest at all in the British citizens resident in Europe.
There are inherent inconsistencies in the new Directive to which, I suspect, no British official or politician has given any thought at all. Which British official has the responsibility of vetting these things? None I fear. What MEP even understands that for which they vote?

However I await replies to my representations to the EU parliamentary committee on petitions.
This posting could need revision in due course.

Voting in the EU

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A reader has passed on to me the following  important analysis of  the legal voting positions of Citizens across the EU.  
It was derived from the following IRISH site...
http://www.globalirish.ie/2010/emigrant-voting-rights-a-study-of-eu-nations/

This Chart of the Legal position on voting throughout Europe is linked below.

It demonstrates so well the bad political position of British Citizens in Europe.

Only Irish citizens are treated worse.  Thus the above reference!
The Danish  perhaps also get a raw deal.

Even Greece who allows no voting facility for nationals in the wider EU has advisory committees to look after their interests.
The British after 15 years have no vote at all. The Irish have no vote- ever.
This matter should be of great concern to every British and Irish Citizen in Europe

Click here to view the CHART.