Paying the price of Boris

Humphrey CarterPalma12/08/2019 12:20

As Boris Johnson sprints towards a no deal Brexit, he obviously does not care about Britons living in EU countries.

The United Kingdom has not even left the European Union yet, but millions of Britons are already paying the price of the threat of a no deal Brexit.Since the 2016 EU referendum, the pound has been up and down against the Euro - and recent events have even seen it reach new lows of around just €1.09.

Before the referendum, a pound was worth a much more favourable €1.31 but right now, holidaymakers changing money in the UK are getting less than parity as they head abroad while British pensioners or expatriates living on a fixed income a great deal poorer than they were three years ago and the extremely worrying thing is that, when the UK does finally leave the EU, the pound is expected to crash even further.

But, Boris does not seem to care and if he does manage to pull off his no deal Brexit, which is highly unlikely, he is going to leave millions of expatriates out of pocket and having to live in precarious conditions.

A no deal Brexit will drastically change the lives of Britons in the EU - and not for the better.

Less spending power is going to mean a significant change in lifestyle, not to mention what status expatriates will have.

We have been told that Spain and the UK have a deal on the table, but as Brussels has made quite clear, no unilateral deals can be made until THE deal has been signed off on. So, in the meantime, every time Boris belches out the words "no deal Brexit" the markets catch a cold and the pound remains in ill health.

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Mr C | over 5 years ago

1.31euros to the pound I missed,? We voted out in the U.K.as we do not want to be part of the corrupt E.U. Jason you do not live in the U.K. get a spainish passport then we will all be happy.

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John Duffy | over 5 years ago

Dear SirsI have every sympathy with Britons living in the EU who are suffering from the decreasing value in the pound but this devaluation does not just apply to the Euro, it is worldwide and there are more British pensioners living outside the EU (and U.K.) than there are living in the EU.At present there are 470,000 British pensioners living in the EU who receive the same annual increase as U.K. pensioners (plus 260,000 British pensioners living elsewhere in the world who also receive the annual up-rating). However, there are 510,000 British pensioners, living mainly in Commonwealth countries, who do not and never have received an annual increase, many now living in poverty and some of whom have been driven to suicide due to the penury forced upon them by the British government.British pensioners should count themselves lucky that they are still receiving the full state pension, albeit reduced in value by about 20% when exchanged into currency of the country of their choice. Some British pensioners are now forced to live on less than 25% of the state pension and hundreds of thousands on less than 50%.Maybe British pensioners in the EU will discover what it really like to suffer if the U.K. does not come to reciprocal agreements with EU countries and, if the U.K. does, what excuse will they then have to still deprive 510,000 pensioners of their annual up-rating?Yours faithfullyJohn J Duffy - Chairman, International Consortium of British Pensioners

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