Drivers Licences WA and Medicare

Hi all,

Just a quick question. We are moving to the UK in early March and need to know if you have to do change of addresses/inform them you are leaving the country? We will be doing a final tax return so have that bit covered.

Thanks.

I exchanged my WA licence for a UK one when we returned, DVLA sent it back to Australia but they returned it to me.

Medicare I didn't do anything about, I'm an Australian citizen so my expectation is if I was to find myself in Australia I would be entitled to use it.

You may have it covered already but if you have PHI it is important to tell them you are leaving the country and not just cancel the policy. That way it is suspended and if you were to return you don't get stung with lifetime loading tax (or called something like that)

We were also told to keep evidence, boarding cards etc, that we left the country.

Thanks LR. We are citizens too and have UK licences already. I was just worried that Medicare would send our replacement card out to our old address. Annoyed that we have a substantial amount in our gap saver with HBF and can't get it back or use it to pay our premiums for the next few weeks[emoji37]. New glasses all round I think!

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Hi Martin

I'm with HBF and if you're interested I told them about going to UK - you can suspend your HBF and take our travel insurance and that way if anything happens to you while your waiting your 3 months out for residency you're covered. For me I need it longer with my knee issues. The max is 12 months travel insurance however they will then extend another 12 months and that's the limit. I am considering doing this in case I need knee surgery within first 2 years. I don't know enough about the health system in UK to know if I'll get good help with issues.

I would go online and if worst case go into the Medicare office (which is complete pain given they're combined with Centrelink) and ask the question. You want your Medicare available should you ever return. Maybe you know you won't so it doesn't matter (always the just in case). But they'll definitely send to your last recorded address.

Hope all is going well with the final preparations to return.

Sue

I exchanged my WA licence for a UK one when we returned, DVLA sent it back to Australia but they returned it to me.

 

Medicare I didn't do anything about, I'm an Australian citizen so my expectation is if I was to find myself in Australia I would be entitled to use it.

 

You may have it covered already but if you have PHI it is important to tell them you are leaving the country and not just cancel the policy. That way it is suspended and if you were to return you don't get stung with lifetime loading tax (or called something like that)

 

We were also told to keep evidence, boarding cards etc, that we left the country.

If you left on your Australian passport (as you are supposed to) you would be able to get a proof of travel (not sure of the exact terminology) from the immigration department which acts of proof of non residence for avoidance of the life time loading on private health cover. We had to get one for my OH when we first moved back to prove he had been out of the country so he could have the full discount on private health cover. I don't know if it's possible to get this as a non citizen travelling on a visa though.

If you left on your Australian passport (as you are supposed to) you would be able to get a proof of travel (not sure of the exact terminology) from the immigration department which acts of proof of non residence for avoidance of the life time loading on private health cover. We had to get one for my OH when we first moved back to prove he had been out of the country so he could have the full discount on private health cover. I don't know if it's possible to get this as a non citizen travelling on a visa though.

Yes, I did know that but useful to add to this thread, we were advised by HBF to keep boarding passes/E tickets as evidence to avoid the hassle of doing that.

Thanks LR. We are citizens too and have UK licences already. I was just worried that Medicare would send our replacement card out to our old address. Annoyed that we have a substantial amount in our gap saver with HBF and can't get it back or use it to pay our premiums for the next few weeks[emoji37]. New glasses all round I think!

 

 

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Legally if you have left the UK you should have returned your UK licences - you can technically get a £1000 fine for not doing so!

And yes, we went on a gap saver spending spree!

Oh, we were told we didn't have to!! No option to change to an address outside the UK either, so will just change when we go back. We have used them since when we have been back and none of the hire car companies have mentioned it!! Whoops [emoji51]!

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Oh, we were told we didn't have to!! No option to change to an address outside the UK either, so will just change when we go back. We have used them since when we have been back and none of the hire car companies have mentioned it!! Whoops [emoji51]!

 

 

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You are lucky you weren't subjected to a thousand proof of ID questions hiring a car on a UK licence. I have always found it easier to rent a vehicle on my WA one.

I think we showed our WA ones too.

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We used our UK licenses, it wasn't a problem at all hiring a car.