EU referendum

[AmbrosiaCeleste]

Has anyone else living in the EU started making plans yet for what will happen if Britain decide to leave or panicking about how they will be affected?

I am lucky enough to be married to an EU (not UK) citizen so can in theory request citizenship from that country. It gets more complicated though as we are currently living in a third EU country so will have to go through the various embassies. I've just been looking at the paperwork required and it's an absolute nightmare. It's ridiculous as I could have done it years ago whilst living in DH's country but never really saw any need to.

I don't know whether it's better to just wait and see what happens and then deal with it if necessary or to start preparing now just in case

Not in the slightest bit worried and UK would probably stay in EEA which is almost the same without the extra costs of paying EU civil servants' salaries and private schooling for the kids :-)

I'm guessing that if the Uk did leave the EU it would mean an end for benefits and state pensions being paid to British people living in the EU?
Not an expert on this, so forgive me if I have got it wrong.

If you have a right to a state pension through having worked in the UK, you can claim it abroad from any country (not just those in the EU). If you are British but lived and worked all your life outside the UK you don't have a right to a state pension anyhow.

Rather few people are able to claim benefits from the UK when they live in Europe. For example, a family which moves from the UK to Europe can normally not claim child benefit from the UK - they need to claim the equivalent from the European country in which they live and pay tax. There are a small number of exceptions to this rule, such as those who work for the UK civil service, but the exemptions would likely remain even if we left the EU.

I think the PP is a bit naive to think that we would get all the same economic benefits at a massive discount: life doesn't work that way.

Around 2 million Britons live in continental Europe (so not far off the number of non-British EU citizens living in the UK). Whatever happens some sensible arrangement would have to be made for them: it's not likely that there would be a forced population exchange, both groups would have to be given rights to residence just as e.g. Swiss citizens have. So I wouldn't spend a lot of time and money acquiring another EU citizenship.

State pensions would be paid but probation no longer increased in line with current inflation as currently is agreed within eu.

Thanks for the reassurance. It just seems so all up in the air and uncertain at the moment but I suppose there are so many people in the same situation that there's no point worrying about it yet.

It is a worry and from what I can see from the UK press the vote might take place towards the end of 2016.
I believe the question will be along the lines of "do you wish the UK to remain part of the EU" the answer yes or no.
There is of course no guarantee that it will result in a No vote but it might.
After the result if it is a no I understand there will be a process to go through for the UK to extract itself from the EU. This might take some time however we may all face some problems as early as 2017.