Originally Posted by Bealinehx

Don't be surprised if the Pound is driven much lower this week as the Chinese and Indians will use this device to invest in he UK at significantly lower costs.

Originally Posted by Gazza-d

I think the biggest threat at the moment is the Philippine government suggesting that they will pull out of the reciprical arrangement.

Originally Posted by Raffin

The PNB in London is showing 63 this morning. Ominously the BPI Europe in London is still showing Sunday's rate of 64.7.

Whatever George Osborne says today it's a good idea in my view to plan on the basis that the pound will remain at least around its present levels for some time. If things turn out better than the consensus expects - and there's been a number of those surprises lately - we will have a bonus.

It's a long time until until the Conservatives get a new leader. Interestingly, Boris Johnson is now making overtures to the Remainers and that may help.

Can I just move on to a different angle on this? This won't be relevant to all British Expats here, but for those of us on a fairly tight budget, possibly looking at our incomes around 10% down on a few months ago with the situation possibly persisting, what sensible economies can we make in our household budgets?

Live on sardines? Give up KFC for Jolibee? Buy 2 ply toilet roll rather than 3 ply? Or even just use the sprayer!

Joking apart, I will kick the ball off with a suggestion for those who do a fair bit of texting of mostly short messages every day. If you have a device connected to the internet you can use the free text site Send Free SMS | Unlimited Text Messages Worldwide. I've been using the service for some time. Not too difficult or slow to use, once you get the hang of it. I've checked it works quite a number of times and it always seems to - unlike a couple of others I tried. Saves having to buy cell load so often,too.

Originally Posted by Gazza-d

I think the biggest threat at the moment is the Philippine government suggesting that they will pull out of the reciprical arrangement.

Originally Posted by quiltman

If that happens then bang goes the annual increase!

Originally Posted by mikemike

Where did you see this suggestion?

Originally Posted by Gazza-d

I read it somewhere a couple of weeks ago, can't remember where. May have been in a Philippine news paper.

Originally Posted by Stokkevn

Or maybe this from BBC

For example, at the moment, UK nationals claiming their state pensions in other EU countries benefit from annual increases. The same is true of some other countries outside the EU with whom the UK has social security agreements. But in many other countries, UK pensioners do not receive increases each year, which means that inflation reduces their spending power. It is not certain that UK pensioners in the EU would continue to get their annual increases.
Similarly, some UK nationals living elsewhere in the EU are entitled to state healthcare funded by the UK government, which would be open to negotiation.

Originally Posted by InVinoVeritas

For what it's worth, this is my take on the situation:- http://britishexpats.com/forum/retir.../#post11985091

Originally Posted by mikemike

The 17 countries outside the EU that are on the list should have no reason to change. Some like the USA were on the list prior to the EU membership. Recent press article from British Ambassador in Manila suggested no changes are in the pipeline.