Brexit Negotiations to 2020

[Gate Keeper]

Originally Posted by topman

£4000 per person, wow.

I’d be a lot richer without it. When I first started paying into it in 2008, it was £1400 pp and over 10 years it has gone up to £4000 pp. I wonder how much per person, the NHS costs the country?

[topman]

I don't know without looking it up, at a guess £2000.

[Gate Keeper]

Originally Posted by topman

I don't know without looking it up, at a guess £2000.

Thank you, your not far off https://fullfact.org/health/what-is-the-nhs-budget/
In comparison to private health care, that’s a better price. A private bone marrow transplant costs £750,000, to the NHS its about £100,000 less.
Long live the NHS....

[rustymotor]

Originally Posted by Gate Keeper

I spend part of the year living outside of the EU. Today it has been 26C and rainy. The warmer weather is an appeal for retirees in Spain or like us in the tropics. I live off an NHS pension and if one is careful it is possible to still have a comfortable lifestyle. It’s only taxed once in the UK and not taxed again in Kenya. There is no welfare state and no NHS here, so private health insurance is important. For the 2 of us at our age it costs £8000 p.a

Do check out your health entitlements and other benefits for a non EU resident. I guess you could apply for Spanish and EU residency, once the UK leaves the EU, then entitlements will be free if you are successful. Do your research I wonder what their terms and conditions are. The upside of living in the tropics is the weather, the wildlife and being able to swim in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, all accessible. The flight between London and Nairobi is 8 and half hours one way and 9 hours the other way. I am used to it. Spanish is not a difficult language to pick up and English is the second language

Wow Phillip that's a fair chunk of money you are paying, I'll look in to all aspects of making the move for sure, my wife is Filipino so Spanish language for her is easy and I can order a beer in 35 languages .

Living out in Nairobi must be fascinating, and a far cry from the hit and miss climate we have here, good on you!

[Gate Keeper]

Originally Posted by rustymotor

Wow Phillip that's a fair chunk of money you are paying, I'll look in to all aspects of making the move for sure, my wife is Filipino so Spanish language for her is easy and I can order a beer in 35 languages .

Living out in Nairobi must be fascinating, and a far cry from the hit and miss climate we have here, good on you!

Congratulations Gordon on being married to a lady from the Philippines If I may be permitted to say, the backbone of the NHS. Just before I retired, because of the shortage of nurses in the NHS, we flew out to the Philippines on a recruitment drive and were quite successful. Lovely people

I don't know how much longer I can afford to pay into a private health care scheme. At a certain point it will no longer be viable and will cost as much or less to pay for the treatment out of our own pockets. We keep it going in case we are ever in an RTA and need ICU etc or a medi-vac out of the country.

We seem to have drifted off the discussion I wonder is it worth tracing back into your heritage to see if you are able to get an EU passport. If you are thinking of living in Spain, it could help if you had one. A friend of the family tracked down her Mothers Irish birth certificate to South Africa of all places. She said there was a lot of paperwork, but she is now an Irish passport holder. She voted to remain and now she has the Irish passport, it is not so much of an issue

[rustymotor]

Hi Phillip many thanks for the advice and compliment, we have several friends Filipino doctors and nurses, think the main benefit to our NHS is the fact that they are trained in a medical system mainly akin to that of America. The Spanish didn't leave much behind as in most countries they ruled however, the Americans gave the Filipino education and health benefits.

My Grandmother once mentioned there is Irish blood in the family so, I may well endeavor to find out, good idea.

[Gate Keeper]

Originally Posted by rustymotor

Hi Phillip many thanks for the advice and compliment, we have several friends Filipino doctors and nurses, think the main benefit to our NHS is the fact that they are trained in a medical system mainly akin to that of America. The Spanish didn't leave much behind as in most countries they ruled however, the Americans gave the Filipino education and health benefits.

My Grandmother once mentioned there is Irish blood in the family so, I may well endeavor to find out, good idea.

Good morning Gordon, thank you for getting back and thank you for your lovely reply Our friend who got her Irish passport, did everything on line and through letter writing, filling in forms. She said it took about 2 weeks. She lives in the UK and has a UK passport. The only delay was tracking down her Irish Mothers birth certificate, as it was in Pretoria in South Africa. At first it was thought it would not be found due to a fire in an office. But hey ho it was found, but the delay and the search in another country made it all worth it in the end for her. Interestingly, my Mother was Irish and I could apply for an Irish passport, but haven't got round to it. I am not sure I would use it.

I have a UK passport and I have Kenyan permanent residency. The authorities here make it hard for foreigners to apply for one. The fee for the application is 5000 GBP. I only got it last year. The application process took 3 years, unlike Eire. I had to prove a certain income, proof of property ownership, have a clean criminal record and submit bank statement for 3 months, showing I was not in debt, not a BR blah blah, then go for an interview with the Director of Immigration, the Chief of Police and other officials in the boardroom at a Government building in Nairobi, talk for 15 minutes and was then grilled about my knowledge of Kenya, the language, but they did help me get through it and were very nice to me. I was up to the task and succeeded. There is none of that when you apply for an Irish passport.

I wonder if it is the same for foreigners wanting to come and settle in the UK? I think thats why some of UK electorate in the lead up to the referendum bought into the UKIP thing, because of the issues for them about immigration

All the best Gordon with your plans for the future and retirement when that comes

[rustymotor]

Hello Phillip, very interesting post, you did very well on the Kenyan application and very costly. When my wife arrived in the UK she cam on a fiance visa though we were already married however, it was the only basis the embassy would allow, we had to get married again in the UK. When she made the application for naturalisation 21 years ago it cost a mere £120 think now it is around £3000.

You have a point regarding the immigration angle on Brexit, many thought folk from the EU would be told pack your bags and leave, there are a lot of well educated EU migrants occupying top jobs, my bank manager is Polish for example..

Watched a documentary once on Peterborough and migrant workers, most of them working on the land, the cameras moved to outside the job centre dole office as we knew it, groups of young Brits with cans of beer and cider in their hands at 9-30 am..they were asked, there are plenty of jobs available harvesting why don't you have a go at it? not us mate we leave all that to the immigrants..in reality the immigrants have taken quite a few of the jobs Brits simply won't do.

On retirement Phillip, I did at 58 to concentrate on three teenagers, the driving instruction is more of a hobby as they, the kids that is are in uni well, last one goes this September..

And the same to you and please watch out for those spiders, as an Indian gentlemen once said to me " You may escape the elephant but the mosquito will kill you".

[rustymotor]

It appears the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement is in fact underpinned by the EU in as much as, during our membership NI,UK and the Republic were all members. Border control may well be a precursor to renewed trouble in NI.

NI voted to remain in the EU and apart from the border issues which, has the potential to undermine the Good Friday Agreement, NI is in receipt of a £58 million gain from the EU. So in fact NI has the most to lose after Brexit and in particular the agriculture sector.

[Stevie25]

Originally Posted by rustymotor

It appears the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement is in fact underpinned by the EU in as much as, during our membership NI,UK and the Republic were all members. Border control may well be a precursor to renewed trouble in NI.

NI voted to remain in the EU and apart from the border issues which, has the potential to undermine the Good Friday Agreement, NI is in receipt of a £58 million gain from the EU. So in fact NI has the most to lose after Brexit and in particular the agriculture sector.

I understand that most people in mainland GB are preplexed by the NI/ROI Border issue, it was barely raised at a National Level before the vote, and why it only seems that now it has surfaced as a Major topic.
Your brief summary illustrates why it is very important on this side of the Irish Sea, and has always been a Major issue here.