Jason MoorePalma23/03/2021 10:36
TW
5

I remember asking a British minister about cold weather payments for British pensioners on Mallorca, he just laughed and said they would be wanting help with their air conditioning bills next.

As I have said in this space before expat Britons are not exactly the flavour of the month in the UK.

Whether it is a mixture of jealousy or the perception that we are all tax exiles, expats do not get much sympathy.

But Britons living on the European continent are now at the sharp end of Brexit, there are plenty of question marks and few answers.

The Foreign Office through the Embassy and their network of Consulates across Spain have done their best to keep us abreast of Brexit.

But the Foreign Office in Spain doesn´t make the rules, it is governments and at the moment many Britons living in Spain have serious concerns. Yesterday, we received two telephone calls from worried British residents over the vaccine.

They wanted to get the jab but were completely in the dark how to get it. It appears that if you don´t have social security in Spain...no vaccine.

We received anothercall from a man who said that he couldn´t get his inter-island travel discount because Britain was not a member of the EU.

This is total rubbish but it still caused him grief. Expats need a British government minister who can address their concerns or at least a Member of Parliament who is aware of the problems they face. We are talking about British citizens, surely they have rights?