Thebiga

Hello to everyone.
I am very new to this forum as of right now! Please be gentle with me as its my first post and were all pretty down at the moment. It looks as though are french dream could be nearly over after five years. We bought a Gite complex with our inlaws and all the red tape of france and the lack of money has finally worn us down.
We know that it will probably take an age to sell this place and it would be good for someone but inlaw problems have finally knocked the last nail in the old coffin really, so we are thinking about going back to the uk and starting another chapter in our families lives.
We know that so much will have to be done on moving back and I have read a few posts but what will we be able to claim short term on going back. Before anyone jumps down my throat we are not benefit scroungers in any way but it will take time to find jobs etc and have never claimed any benefit apart from tax credit when we were in the uk for about 12 months before we came out here. I finished my job and we had a young child and my wife decided that she would work less hours as with the government giving us back tax that we already paid. Anyway I have Multiple Sclerosis and are a bit worried about how long it may take me to get back into the health system as I have certain medication I have to have.
Any ideas atall please are very wellcome, Thankyou.

Wub

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Understandably, you sound a bit down with it all but before you do anything, you need to think carefully about what's best for you and your family.

How are you going to get home? Do you have any savings to tide you over for the short term? Do you have any family who could let you stay with them short term while you sort things out?

Going home (as much as you want to), isn't just about hopping on a plane or driving to Calais for the ferry - you need somewhere to go and a bit of money to tide you over for immediate expenses.

Once you've sorted the logistics of this, everything should fall into place with a bit of luck.

We're all citizen of Europe now which means that you can ask for help with benefits and health care anywhere in the union - including both France and the UK.

Thebiga

Thanks Wub, We are looking a fair way away yet as we would need to sell this place and its going to take someone with a fair chunk of money to come along, so as I said its a fair way off yet.
We have thought about the best thing for our family and we have to young girls in school and its a tough decision which is not made lightly by any means. We have talked to the girls, Well the eldest as the youngest is to young to know what it means. She is happy to give up what we have here as its not such a hard choice for her as her best friend moved away recently which would have made things harder.
We do have some money given by a family member and do not want to just end up living off it here as we know that is what will happen if we stay here. We do not have any prospects of a job here in france apart from the holiday business we have here now. We cannot afford to do anything further than we have already on the place as we do not want to eat into this money we have. We know roughly what we will get sometime from the sale of here and what at this moment will get us in the uk and in what area and its not a area we have ever been to before so its all change probably.
The inlaws will stay out here in france when we sell so we will be on our own family wise in the uk so we know its going to be tough.
Only one good tghing came out of my MS was that it paid off our mortgage and afforded us the chance of this new life in france and weve had 5 years and have loved it lifestyle wise but the red tape is a nightmare and everthing is so much more expensive here unless you like AA meetings!
Thats the long and the short of it really and its still a tough decision to make, This was going to be our new life but we now seem to see a new chapter about to begin.

Wub

Hmmm, sounds as if you need to do some careful thinking about things. Wouldn't it be better to stay in France, given the relaxed lifestyle? I don't know anything about MS, except that isn't stress to be avoided as it can exacerbate the condition?

Sorry if I'm way off the mark here - but how will you manage with job hunting, housing, schooling and all the other million and one things that have to sorted if you're not well enough? And, given all of that, is there any way that you could down-size with the money you have and wait for the sale of the gites later on. In the current climate, it could take a very long time indeed, as you rightly point out.

Thing is, if you go home to the UK, you need to declare all assets and if they're over 6000 pounds (I think), then you won't be entitled to any help except for the children.

Either way, you will have to use your assets to move back and then take it from there - which is only fair really. You can't expect the state to assist if you have the finances to help yourself....

Thebiga

Thanks Wub, Your pretty spot on about stress and MS that is why we got out of the jobs we had as they were just all time stress. This was the life style we thought would be nice and relaxed and it was but it has become more and more stressful when you have no guaranteed income and the french red tape is a nightmare. Also the partial breakdown of feelings etc with the inlaws who own the other part of here.
Everyones MS is different and I am lucky that mine is not as bad as some and a lot of the things that would need sorting out my wife would do as she is amazing.
We do not have enough money and no where near to downsize and wait for the business to sell so thats out the window. We know that what we are looking at money wise will buy us a nice house, for us anyway. But in a part of the uk cheaper than where we left from. We have looked at what the local job centres are offering and it does give us hope that with our career background that we have a good chance of at least one of us working full time 'with luck'.
As I said that we have never been benefit scroungers (Enough uk ex-pats out here are) and we never want to get to that I just wondered what we may get? If its only for the children then fine thats ok, But if we are entitled to something to help us out to start with then why not. We paid into the system for long enough before we came out here and paid into this one also and you have to have private insurance to top you up here if you want medical care covered which is a must for us.

Wub

There's a brilliant site on line called moneysavingexpert. If you check it out, it will give you all the information you need regarding what you're entitled to.

Directgov is another site to look at as it has all the latest information on tax and benefits and is very user friendly.

I believe that there are other sites to do with the NHS but I have no direct experience of looking for information on health issues - best just to search around I would think. As for medication, I understand that prescription charges are very affordable back home and if you have an ongoing condition, they are often free. Again, best to check out the sites already mentioned.

Stress is certainly a big problem these days and I have had colleagues who have suffered serious illness as a direct result of too much pressure - work pressure in particular. Its such a shame that your bid for an alternative, stress free lifestyle didn't work out.