Hi John Ingram
Welcome to notdeadyet !
It is still grey and dismal,weather wise John,
I personally dont find the crime as bad in the European countries where the parents are still in charge of their kids,and are still allowed to chastise them.
If you are coming back John I would make it quick there is a queue !
Can I ask why you left UK ?
and why you are comng back ?

Hi all, and thanks for the welcome. Yes, I have got wellies, I use them when fishing, and an umbrella .... for keeping the sun off!!! Why dd I leave? Well, I was only mid 20's then, in a dull and boring government job with no future and very little money, certainly not enough to ever contemplate getting married or anything like that. Where I lived (Wiltshire) there was just about no jobs. I saw an ad one day for overseas radio technicians, went for an interview and finished up in Swaziland, living the colonial life!!! All beer and tennis and enough money to live on. When that job came to an end I moved to South Africa, I was married by them and had inherited three kids. That's all a long time ago, i hve changed partners since then, last year to be exact and with things having improved there and got worse here moving back to Blighty has become a viable choice. Here we have no usable public transport, medical care is all private (that costs us 450 pounds a month for a start) and there are basicallly no public services. Regardless of your circumstances you will not get a pension here if you own your own home, even if you have paid all your taxes. If you are over 60 you may not be permanently employed by law and if you apply for a job, you will not get it if either a PDA (Previously Disadvantaged Individual) has applied or if there is a likelihood that one may apply who can either do the job or may be able to learn to do it!! We live behind barbed wire, burglar bars and locked gates with a burglar alarm activated connected to an armed response unit!! Where you are one can get a job, walk the street, call an ambulance or policeman and expect either to arrive!! We love our little holidays over there, we are so relaxed and don't even carry a gun!!!  There are some very strange aspects to the way things are there.... but that will wait for newt time.

Happy days, all.

John in South Africa

Hello Val, thanks for the wishes. We will be moving back to Wiltshire when we do come. We have only one thing holding us up at the moment and that is that we have Jacqui's mum with us... she is only 94!!!  She still does very well, walks and talks and all that but I don't see a way  to move evryone together anyway. If it was just us two it would be easy, sell up, pack up and ship the stuff and then just stay in our caravan here by the river until it arrives there. Then sell the van, get on the plane, stay a night or two with my brother, rent a house and move in. But you can't do that with someone of 94. So we are really just "waiting for God" as they say.
Last year we went to see the Citizen's Advice Bureau over there, who were very helpful but what they said is in keeping with what someone said here about it is better to have nothing then you get help. Here's what happened. We have a lovely house here, four bedroom and a pool on a third of an acre but when we sell that and turn the money into pounds it would only buy an old parkhome!!!  We asked the CAB what should we do, knowing that we would not have enough to buy a place. Their advice was to come over, buy a nice new car and furniture, rent a decent place, register with a doctor and a dentist to prove we were there to stay and make sure we had less than fifteen thousand left then they would claim all the benefits on our behalf. I have no doubt that is how it works, and one would probably be silly not to take full advantage of "the system" but it is just not how I have ever done things. it's the "all or nothing thing, isn't it, if you don't have enough to buy a home, and you are too old to get a mortgage then you either spend your money on rent and make the best of things or just spend what you have and hold out your hand!!!  I have been running my own little business for the last 20 years adn I don't expect handouts now.

So come on folks, what would you do??  Would you use the system to the full or try to find middle ground???

Cheeers

John

I'm afraid I can't give you much Advice to you on how to go about things when you get back, I've spent all my life working for a wage, not been very lucky with property and only have a very small railway pension to live on when i retire, so am not even sure how we will cope , but we will survive as I am sure you will.
I hear so much about how bad it is to live in this country, and how much better off you are abroard, Which I have never believed lol. So its good to hear from someone who has experienced both.
I love Britain and wouldnt want to live anywhere else, we don't have the best climate in the world but at least we don't  get the severe conditions that other places get ( glad i'm not holidaying in Mexico atm). I wish you well with your move when you are able to make it.

Hello to yo all, 
This is Jacqui John's other half.  I cannot begin to say how moved I am by the lovely feeling of support you all are so willing to give.  I certainly would love to be back in the UK again. I am not as concerned as my John about returning because I know I would soon get back into "the swing of things" so to speak.

There is however, one little thing that concerns me it is regarding the Dentist why does one have to pay for dentists?  Are they not on the NHS perhaps someone would be kind enough to explain or enlighten me on this.  I have also heard of "Top Ups"  is it worth trying or buying a "Top Up"

Until next time keep well and be happy.

Jacqui Ingram

Thanks for the info. I just looked and Chippenham has more dentists than I have teeth!!!!

I know that this started off a "state of the nation" thing and I drifted things off a bit, but one of the things that came up was misuse of the system. I have been doing a bit of simple arithmetic whilst sitting in the sun down here and some things about Britain just don't add up. I don't know how you all survive!!!

From what I read about wages paid and rent charged, the figures just don't balance. With a minimum wage of about a fiver an hour a full working month of 168 hours will bring in about 840 pounds. It looks like you can rent a little house for about 500 and pay council tax of 100.  That now leaves 240. I asssume utilities will be at least another 100 so we are down to 140. Let's assume you have only paid 100 income tax, you now have 40 for the month for food, clothes, bicycle tyres etc. oh yes, the owner of the little house insists you pay insurance on your goods so maybe you have 20 to live on. How do you do it???  I put this to one of my friends over there who lives 11 months in a holiday mobile home and one month in a holiday flat (for Christmas) and he tells me and I quote: " yes its a hard life here with all the scams like myself, we are all trying to buck the system at the expense of the genuine taxpayer and everyone seems to be getting away with it"
If the figures are as I suggest then it is hardly surprising that everyone is holding their hands out, and they are not ashamed to do so, it is necessary. Is that really how it is???

Its like this John
if you work 16 hours a week or more and get the minimum wage,you will get a council rebate off the rates.There is a figure the government has for what anyone can live on,unfortunately this differs in every case.
So if someone gets only the state pension then they will automatically get rates paid,because state pension is not enough.They will also get the rent paid.
This is where some problems lie,for the people who paid into a private pension have it all to pay ! even though they may not get much more at the end of the day,some of my friends are worse off than the ones being topped up.
Have you got any children at school,because this would be a big bonus.