A quarter of British nearing retirement age dream of living abroad. Spain, France, and recently Croatia and Cyprus are hot spots. Half a million live in France alone.

This is one of the great benefits of the EU. We have the space, the sunshine, underdeveloped rural areas that few of working age want to live in. Americans move to Florida or Arizona after retirement. Thanks to the EU, Europeans can do this too. Work in bleak Manchester, retire in 'Dordogneshire'. Travel times, telecommunication and administrative hassle of travelling have been greatly reduced by the EU as well. British grandchildren live only a few hours away by cheap train and can hop over as if they were travelling from Scotland to England.

This fabulous system is now under threat.

[British] Expat pensioners in Europe have seen their norm monthly pension income plumb bob by about €200 a month, thanks to falls in the value of sterling, a collective loss of more than €4 one million million of their income in the last two years.

The shocking reduction, calculated by currency specialists HiFX, could get even worse if the pound continues to fall.

If it hit €1.15, then their pension income could fall by a further €750 over the next year, and with involvement rates cut a full 1.5 per cent by the MPC last week, there is probably to be even greater pressure on sterling.

Nick Fullerton, managing manager of currency broker FC Exchange, said: "This involvement rate cut will bring more doom and gloom to an already weak pound - but the thirster people put off their currency transactions, the more expensive it will become.

More than a 1000000 Brits abroad claim the state pension, and are accordingly subjected to the vagaries of currency fluctuations.
Obviously, currency fluctuations mean the pound could also rise against the euro. But a pensioner or retiree doesn't need a rise in value. He needs one thing only: stability and security in his financial plans. The recent currency fluctuations are nothing short of a million small dramas to British retirees.