British Old Age Pensioners and their emigration to August 2012

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The Index has a list of other references to postings on OAPS  MIGRATION 

The rise in the number of British Old Age State Pensioners [BOAPs] in Europe beyond the UK continues. Other changes occur world-wide.

It is to be expected that British politicians should be interested in the subject of the emigration of British Pensioners.  There is a large ‘constituency’ of British Citizens abroad, of whose needs and aspirations most MPs and the Government appear to be unaware.

The latest statistics for AUGUST 2012 are published.

to view the statistics follow the link.< here.

[To view the graph and the table below in a larger format click on them - to return press 'esc' on the computer]

Graph for some larger countries in Europe from 1973 is:----

The total global number of  BOAPs is 12,798,530

The total number abroad is                  1,203,690  which is 9.40% of the total

 i.e. nearly 1 in 10 pensioners live outside the UK

The total number who live in Europe [EU+EEA+*see note] beyond the UK is 455,950

which is 3.56% of the total. i.e. over 3 in a 100  live in the EU/EEA beyond the UK. i.e over one third of the pensioners abroad live in the EU/EEA.

* note – including  a few in Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia which might well join the EU, to which some BOAPs are emigrating.

Changes in Demography.

The percentage of those living abroad (about 9.4% plus) has increased very little in the past two years.  But  there are significant movements in some regions.

In Europe during the year August  to August 2011-2012 the yearly increase has slackened but not stopped, The percentage of BOAPs in the  EU/EEA (in relation to the total global number of BOAPs) is more or less static. But the actual number has increased by 4380!  France has seen the greatest inflow of British Pensioners.

Note:- Switzerland and the Netherlands have the fastest growing % number of  BOAPs.

Australia and Canada and S.Africa

The chart here (n.b. of numbers between  May 2011 and August 2012 – fifteen months)  indicates a shrinkage of  numbers. The drop is particularly higher in Canada.  One might well argue with good reason that the frozen pensions which apply to these countries has some affect.

Jamaica and Pakistan  The BOAPs number has also dropped.  Jamaica does not  have a frozen pension regime.  Possibly the ‘Windrush’ generation, many of whom may have retired ‘back home’ has exhausted itself , and the next generation has not the desire to retire to that island. 

A similar argument might apply to Pakistan, but the troubles in Pakistan might also be a deterrent.

India and New Zealand.

Both of these countries have ‘frozen pensions’ yet their BOAPs number are rising.  Both are countries ‘on the up’, successful.  N.Z. is the most ‘English/British’ of countries beyond Europe.  Both countries have English as a current language.  
[Notes on table :- blue background = EU/EEA  -- *star = pensions NOT frozen.}

Beyond Thatcher - British Citizens of the World

To go to the Index and Start - click here

The death of Margaret Thatcher has given me thought.  I remember well the day she came to power.  On that day I spoke to the teaching staff for whom I was responsible about the way she might affect all our futures. 

1.  This week in April 2013, I am not alone in considering that a major jolt is again needed in the House of Commons.   The words of a Labour Member [Mr. Barry Sheerman] on the Wednesday debate in the House of Commons (10^th April) particularly struck a chord with me.  A copy of part of his speech from Hansard is below (at the end)  .

The whole debate can be followed via    http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/chan138.pdf

2. This week also I received a web-site link from the organisation concerned with pensioners abroad who suffer from frozen pensions – This is an uncomfortable issue for Government.  It reflects a lack of concern for pensioners whose only fault is to decide to live with their children outside of the UK. They are British Citizens!

   http://pensionjustice.org/frozen-out/

3.  Then again I myself will this year join the ranks of those pensioners and other citizens who have no political representation.   I want to take part in the political processes. The British Government denies me this right! It is not just!  www.votes-for-expat-brits.com

4.  Then again this same week The Citizen (French English language paper) gives a survey of the attitude of the French political scene through its extra-territorial députés.

This can be viewed here …

http://www.connexionfrance.com/French-MPs-for-French-expats-11858-news-article.html

The British abroad are a special ‘constituency’ with hopes and fears to which the National Government should respond.  The British Government denies it to them.
5. Lastly - the petition on the Government petition site should be supported-  link   http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43238

-----------------------

The world today has changed beyond measure since Thatcher and is increasingly so doing. We no longer live in isolated countries each existing in small parcels of land and fighting each other for the self-glorification of their leaders as Monarchs, and Despots.

We live in a world where citizens interact on the global stage.   We are all world citizens, continental citizens and national citizens.

Britain needs a leader with an understanding of these wider concepts.. 

Someone who values the citizens wherever they may live.

Someone who understands the place of Britain in Europe and in the World.

Someone who enables all citizens to be proud of the national leadership and makes them proud to take part in the political discussions which affect them at every level, local, national, continental and in world issues.

***************************

".....

6pm  Wednesday 10^th April 2013 --  House of Commons

Mr Barry Sheerman  (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)   …………….[end of his speech]…

We are again overdue a radical change in how we regard our parliamentary democracy. We need a voice in this Chamber—I do not know which party it will come from—that says that there are some deep inequities in our society. There are serious problems, different from those that Mrs Thatcher faced in 1979 and in the years of her prime ministership, but very deep. My right hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mr Field) touched on some of them. There is the tragic decline of our great cities, many of them in the north and the midlands. That has happened all over the developed world—in the United States, we should look at what is happening in Detroit and Pittsburgh. There is something deeply wrong with how our societies are developing, and that is to do with a complex change in international capitalism, as Labour Members would call it, and the international structure of economics.

Something fundamental is happening that we have become a bit complacent about in all parts of this House. We will need somebody with the originality of Thatcher to get us to wake up to what is going on. If we are honest—I make this a constant theme in my speeches; I am sorry—most of us will admit that tiny numbers of people in our constituencies are actively involved in politics. We are in a democracy where only 65% voted at the last election and 6 million people did not even register to vote. The state of our parliamentary democracy is deplorable. We will need someone with a vision, perhaps based on a very different political view, who will say, “If we value this democracy we have got to shake it up.”

I have spoken today because I got to admire and quite like Mrs Thatcher, who, as some of my colleagues have said, could be very pleasant indeed. She would give someone a real roasting from the Dispatch Box if they made a comment, but out there in the corridor she would be very kind. That is the truth of the woman. She was phenomenal. She did things that I deplored; she did things I thought were wonderful. There is a balance, and over time we will judge how good it was. We are facing a challenge to our democracy, and we need a Thatcher-like—not the same as Thatcher—radical change that will again wake us up to the fact that our country faces challenges to which, at present, we have no answers."

Shopping in France -

This is an updated version of the analysis begun in March 2012. 

Last Updated JUNE 2015

 To go to the index click here

From time to time since March 2012 I publish an analysis of Supermarket costs in Tescos (Milton Keynes) compared to Intermarché (Gourdon,  Lot, France)
March  2012 View it here....
July 2012 View  here...
December 2012 View here.

March 2013 View here
July 2013 View here
April 2014 View here
June 2015 View here




The lists are not 'weekly shopping' lists and they need sensible interpretation. There are some curious items - q.v. coffee. The studious person will find other oddities - that is why it must be read with caution.  But it remains a guide.

But in the fact that the lists are identical they give some indication of how prices are going.

                                                                 

                

  If  you click on the table you can see it more clearly - press 'esc' to return.                      

Note - between 2013 and 2014 there has been a huge drop in costs in the UK. In France prices were generally stable. Since 2014-2015 The value of the £ has increased but also has inflation in France.

Note that inflation rates in orange are calculated on the local currency. Otherwise the exchange rate influences the calculation.   Nevertheless for British people living in France relying on income from the UK the exchange rate is a hugely important factor. The last column gives this figure.

N.B. The figures for March 2013 show a remarkable hike in prices in France.  To say it again - overall prices for the last three months to March 2013  caused the British RETIRED resident, whose income is derived entirely from the UK, an inflation of 17%.
Between 2013 and 2014 the prices in the UK fell remarkably but remained stable in France.
It  remains clear that the Euro is still in 2015 overvalued against the £.

EMIGRATION of British State Pensioners

To go to the beginning and to the  INDEX click here

The statistics on the world wide distribution of British State Pensioners has been published for  
MAY 2012 (on March 1st 2013).
See the original tabulation here -click
Certain information has been selected and tabulated below.  This publication follows various other postings of a similar nature on this site. See notably http://pensionersdebout.blogspot.fr/2011/11/british-pensioners-leave-britain-yet.html
The Index to this site lists others equally relevant.

The above table selects certain countries and the migration of British pensioners is listed and sorted according to the figures in the right hand column.  This column gives the PERCENTAGE change in migration in the LAST YEAR 2011-2012
The countries which hold the largest NUMBER are in order
Australia , Canada, USA, Ireland, then Spain and France.
In the last year five countries have seen a decrease - Four of those have frozen pensions.
Two significant countries with frozen pensions have seen increases - India and New Zealand.
The Netherlands and Switzerland have seen the highest %  change in the last year.
Spain, France and Ireland have experienced the greatest increase in actual numbers over the decade.
Pakistan and Jamaica show a remarkable % drop over the decade, but the number in Pakistan is relatively low.
The factors which influence this migration are quite varied.  Financial, Family, and Cultural and Social conditions must play a part but differ from country to country and from individual to individual.
About 9.4 % of all State Pensioners now live beyond the UK.  If all the countries of the World are included there were in May 2012 -about 1,202,620 State Pensioners resident abroad.
These pensioners are mostly subject to decisions of the British Government (if not the resident citizens! of Britain.)
Those in Europe will have a ghastly shock if Britain pulled out of the European Union. All 450,000 of them, including the smaller countries.
Those in the further Commonwealth have long suffered the problems of frozen pensions and probably that is why the numbers in some of these countries is declining.
All should have a democratic voice in the decisions of Parliament which affect them.
To do so they should be aware of the petition given below and sign up!
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43238

Pensioners across Europe ----

To go to the Index and start -click here

Pensioners across Europe  -  Latest February 2013

A.   

 Our good friends in Cyprus -  The Cyprus Expat  Online Journal have sent me the news that the European Commission is taking the Netherlands to the European Court of Justice on the matter of discrimination against their Pensioners who choose to move abroad.

In the case of a Dutch pensioner who might in their working life have lived in Maastritch (That famous city, the home of ‘European unity’!) they only have to move house within a hour or so of walking distance East or West to live in Germany or Belgium.  If they did so then under Dutch Law they could loose a certain Old Age Benefit ( a bit like the Winter Fuel Payment!).  Of course many retired Dutch choose to live in France – for the same reasons as ourselves – MORE SPACE – Holland is full.

The Dutch Government are treating their pensioners in the same manner as the British Government treats the British Pensioner Abroad – with disdain. 

Oddly and interestingly the Dutch Government does allow their expatriate Citizens to vote.

You can read all about it on the Cyprus site here. 

Cyprus Expat Article

B.   

The French expatriates in London are learning about our condition of life here in France and a journalist has interviewed me.  It is written in French and published in the ‘petit journal’ online paper.  There is said to be about 400,000 French people in S.E England.  There are c. 56,900 British Pensioners in France and probably about 250,00 British people altogether.  [These statistics are hard to verify - the number of pensioners is correct]

View the French-London article here.

 A French discussion on the Political Representation of  the British