French pension

For the past 4 years my Parish Clerk has been able to send a signed letter and this has been accepted. Now they are saying it must be a 'competent authority' and it must be stamped. I've sent them a letter saying we don't use stamps plus a copy of my current passport, bank statement showing salary and UK pension paid in and I've phoned them 3 times - getting shunted from pillar to post only to be then cut off - all to no avail. I live in a small village and there is no-one else of authority I know of. I'm a long,long way from any consulate. When I first moved back to the UK the local council office said they couldn't do this sort of thing and doctors charge for this service. I'm sure this is a post-Brexit backlash! I'll try the council tax office again as people seem to have had some success with that.

I agree with Mamie - go to your Mayor's office, maybe with some proof of residence, and ask them to add their official stamp.

A friend in your position has someone from the local (to her uk home) council tax office office do hers. Not particularly high up the chain but he covers the form with a variety of stamps - from a date stamp through to the post received stamp and all is well. I think it is the number of stamps that swing it! Good luck.

We have to do this every year in the UK for our Swiss pensions and we just go to the local town hall and the Town Clerk or similar signs and stamps the form. Easy as that.

Make sure you have your passport with you, as the Consulate probably does not know you personally ...

Thank you all .I've looked at my local councillor who said it was a first for him but then I tried dear old Dr Google who suggested the consulate and I've emailed him. Thanks Aurelia. I shall have lunch in Newcastle and pay a visit. Two birds one stone.

Have a look for the nearest Consulate to where you live, the French love official forms and rubber stamps,

My experience of French bureaucracy suggests thst it is the official stamp that is important.

We have the UK forms too - we get a friend and neighbour who works for the French Civil Aviation authority to sign ours.

We have to do that too, each year, for our UK pensions (as we live abroad) - normally the letter says who is acceptable for the purpose. We get out local Council office to sign and stamp it- normally we should take passport with us, but as the Clerk is our neighbour and has known us for many years, we don't need to.

After my Dads death the bank in Switzerland insisted that he write to them to confirm this! Took ages to sort out.

We regularly have to prove that we are still alive for the English pension authorities. We go to the Mairie and get the form signed and stamped by the Mayor.
I suspect that may be the kind of thing they are looking for. Not sure if a Town Hall could / would do it though?

Could your doctor's surgery help? Do many places actually use rubber stamps nowadays? Good luck.

Our local Councillors sign loads of these 'proof of existence' forms at their regular surgeries. Apparently Councillors are incorruptible whereas no one trusts Bankers these days.

How typically French to present an Existentialist quandary!!
Are you sure you exist?
Do you think you exist?
"Je pense, donc je suis "
Is that not enough?

Have they said who they regard to be a person of authority?

Hope your day brightens a bit - it does not look as though the weather here is going to !

Take care.