Fighting for our rights as EU citizens

Here some examples that have affected readers:

UK pensioners who can show they are not a
burden on the French health service (eg. having
an S1 form) are exempt from social charges at
7.4% being levied on all British pension income.

Under a recent ruling many British retirees in
France who could show they were ‘attached’ to
the UK’s social security system , because Britain
pays for their healthcare, qualified for refunds
of social charges at 15.5% levied in 2012-2015
on income from capital and investments.

The commission began infringement proceedings
against France because of its ban on EU
early-retirees accessing its health service. France
then centralised applications and now allows
most early-retiree EU citizens into the system.

The European court required Britain to pay
the Winter Fuel Payment to expats who claimed
for the first time from another EU country if they
had a sufficient link to the UK social security system.
Following the UK’s decision to implement a
‘temperature test,’ which has excluded France, the
commission is investigating whether this breaks
EU rules harmonising social security.

European court action helped more British
expats to claim the UK’s DLA and AA disability
benefits after having been cut off on moving, in
some cases including back payments.

An EU directive led to France having to
remove the requirement for Britons with second
homes in France (ie. not resident here) to
pay a ‘fiscal representative’ when selling French
property (this still applies to people from non-
EU countries). Formerly, EU rules also ensured
France did not apply a high ‘non-residents’ rate
of TVA/ VAT on sales of their French property
(however this higher non-residents’ rate was
recently abolished).