cathntone

Well far from causing a minor irritation, having our pension index linked for the 7 weeks we are in the UK proved to be ridiculously easy. The proof will be in the increased payment of course. A phone call to the overseas pension office and it's done. If anyone would like the telephone number please message me. However it's fairly easy to find on the pension website. Now to see how blighty looks 2.5 years on!

cathntone

 

I have just found this site, I think its the same one - they have a contact email on their website so you could ask for advice possibly?

 

http://pensionjustice.org/the-icbp/

Thank you for that, I will take a look and see how we get on. I just think that if it causes just a tiny bit of irritation it will be worth it. I didn't mean to open a can of worms and cause harsh words here but it seems to me that there's little point in comparing one country's pension arrangements with another and judging the unfairness of it. It's the UK's double standard which is hard to take, it should really be all expats are frozen or none. I understand that there is supposed to be some historical reasoning why this has occurred but the result is grossly unfair. It's fair to say we knew all of this when we came here but things looked a whole lot more rosy when we were receiving a dollar more for each pound than we are now lol!

In 3 weeks time we are heading back to the UK for a 7 week stay, the first visit since we arrived her 2.5 years ago. I'm pretty sure that we can receive the enhanced state pension for the time we are on UK soil and I wonder whether anyone has done this. I realise that the amount we receive will be hardly worth the effort but it's the *****ation factor that I 'm interested in.

Cath

Hallo all out there

I am just reading through information from a shipping company and for insurance I am asked to list my items and say the price they would be in Australia. I am wonderiing if it would be OK to get the price they would be in UK and change it to Oz dollars? What have others done.

Also I have been told that items such as settee and mattress are very likely to get mould, I will take out the insurance but I am also wondering if it is worth taking them.?

Although it is a long time before getting a CO at times like this I am glad to have the time, all this reading through forms and making decisions is exhausting. I thought I was through with that after filling in the application. But I guess 'thats life'

Thanks again for this wonderful site

Moira

Hi Moira, I don't know who told you that your mattresses etc are likely to get mouldy en-route. They should be just fine, your removers should check that the container is in good condition by shutting themselves inside to check that there are no holes. It's where the container is not waterproof that people have come unstuck. We brought more or less everything with us and have no regrets about that. The cost of transporting it is certainly cheaper than buying it all again here. Having said that, furniture is not as expensive as we had assumed particularly at sale time. Try looking at Harvey Norman, Super A Mart etc to get an idea of prices but also take into account that the advertised price is rarely what you would pay, you'd be amazed what you can get knocked off by just asking. Also there are deals to be had on insurance, you should be able to get a better rate than that quoted by your removal company.

Good luck with your move.

Hi guys,

 

I've got a few questions with regards to the parent visa and hopefully someone will be able to answer them.

1)If my parents decide to apply for the 173 first then the 143, will they have to join the queue twice? Ie wait approximately 2 yrs to get a CO for 173 then another 2 yrs before the 143 is approved?

2)When they decide to go ahead with the 143 conversion, will they be paying the price of the 173-143 conversion for the year they applied the 173? (ie apply for the conversion visa in 2014 and decide to convert in 2015, will they be paying the price for 2014? or 2015?)

3)Will I be able to apply for my mum first then get my mum to sponsor my dad? I know that there's a 5 year waiting period but 90K AUD is NOT FUNNY! (They're relatively young 58 and 54).

4)I know that if they get any pension, the money paid to them will be from my assurance of support but what about healthcare card or seniors card? You dont get pension with that but you get cheaper prescriptions and public transport-will that come off my AOS??

Thanks everyone!

Hello

I can answer a couple of these for you, #3, this is a no go I'm afraid, the Australian Government closed this particular loophole a couple of years ago. #4, we are in WA and we were able to apply for a Seniors Card (not to be confused with the Commonwealth Seniors Card) immediately. Using this allows us to use public transport free of charge outside of peak hours and can also be used in a variety of places to get money off. The Commonwealth Seniors Card can only be applied for when you have been resident for 2 years and this is the card that can get cheaper prescriptions. If you need a lot of prescriptions there is a 'cap', I can't think of the correct wording, which drops the cost of prescriptions when you reach it. I think it's about $1200 but I'm sure there is someone out there who will have the exact figures to hand. No, this does not come of your AoS.

Hi Gollywobbler,

 

Like WOW, our June, we have waited for a CO for 16months and then within a month we have a final VAC request which is very scary. Do you know of any good reason to get the date extended as rates and tied in monies would make this difficult to achieve by 4th Nov. If anyone knows you know!:wacko: thanks

Just ask your CO if you can have an extension. I don't think it will wash if you say you are waiting for the rates to go up but tied in money might do the trick.

Hi,

It would appear to be normal practice for us CPVs to give/loan the money to our offspring for them to pay the Bond and then hope to hang on for the ten years to get it back.:laugh:

Interest is paid to said offspring each six months so you may want to pop round to their house each time as it's your money.:policeman:

There is a fee of $150 to open the account that has to be paid, but I am not aware of any other fee to do with this bond.

I will second this. We sent our daughter all the money required including the final vac and she arranged to pay everything as it was requested. As to the interest, I had a conversation with her at the weekend about interest as I hadn't heard anything and the AoS was paid in April 09. I finally got a message mid week to say that she had tracked it down but had spent it! She is getting married so it's just about forgiveable but hopefully we will get it eventually.

Remember we were the post war children, no money, no shoes on our feet but WE SURVIVED :smile:...........in the past I have typed labels on a bettered old typewriter for 1p each 1000 at a time, made hand knitted garments for a tenner a time to feed the family in bad times, delivered free newspapers, delivered yellow pages etc etc, there are always options for the people who WANT to do it.....so let that be our motto(parents on PIO) we WILL and CAN SURVIVE, ok cuddles wont feed our bodies but they will feed our hearts and souls................the rest is easy :biggrin:

 

Phoebe

You're quite right Phoebe, we are the generation that have had to make do and mend in the past. I did some ghastly jobs when the children were little to fit around the hours I had to spare. My husband, at the grand old age of nearly 69, works for a children's charity, fetching babies and children from their foster carers to meet their family at a contact centre. He loves it and the kids love him - he rattles on about this baby and that toddler and all the things they chat about. I wonder whether anything similar happens in Perth. I'm hopeful we will find something however, I can't imagine not working at all.

I aree, this pensions lark is a nightmare. I have seen lots of threads for younger people re pensions and transferring to Oz and it seems fairly straightforward in that your employer can get involved in the transfer, but maybe we could start a new thread for us oldies, some of whom will probably not be working. We could share any information, recommendations etc. I know everyone's case is different but there must be some general tips and info we could share. Incidentally we ae also headed to Perth.

I have to agree that it would be good to have pensions thread for us oldies. We will be retired by the time we go though we are already drawing various pensions anyway. I have no idea how we should go about having our pensions paid to us in Oz or ensuring that they are paid gross. Aside from the fact that our UK state pensions are frozen the moment we leave these shores I know nothing about the rest. We will have to do something about getting further information soon but at the moment it's enough that we have to cope with selling the house and moving our goods and chattels.

Hi caththone,

There are so many of us in the same position and age. When we started with this, it all looked so possible but then wallop everything changed and now, especially at 4 in the morning, it is so scary. then at dawn and looking at the family photos, hey, do we really need to eat anyway, perhaps family kisses with do the job.

Hello to everyone who is feeling like us, thanks for your replies. It is the middle of the night that this emigration lark is at its scariest (then and when I open our garage door). Also thank you to Gill for the suggestion about the possible tax breaks available if one of our offspring decided to buy a house for us to rent. Of our 3 daughters in Perth, only one would be in a position to do this and I'm just not sure whether she would go for it. I think we will have to look at this possibility in more detail when we get there.

Oh well, onwards and upwards.

I've just spent an enjoyable few minutes trawling through this post which has a quite different flavour to the BE thread. After several hiccups along the way we now have our 143 visa which we validated in April as we are not in a position to make the permanent move yet. We have just received a second offer on our house (the first buyers pulled out) and I am more hopeful for this couple. I think when you overhear them chatting about installing their furniture it's a good thing! Like others here we are very, very nervous about the future. We are 69 & 61 respectively and both still working here in the UK and have a rather comfortable lifestyle. This is bound to change since unless I can find work we will be living on our combined pensions. After paying the huge amount to get our visa and allowing for removal costs we will be woefully short of sufficient capital to buy a house outright. It was always going to be skin of the teeth stuff but with the combination of the economic downturn, awful exchange rate and sky high house prices in Perth we are ready to bow to the inevitable. We have already investigated getting a mortgage but this was when the exchange rate was 2.2:1, however, it would still be cheaper than renting. Somedays, like today, when I look at the detritus of 23 years living in the same house I think we must be mad but then I look at the photos of the family and our 4 grandchildren (soon to be 5) enjoying their down under lifestyle I say bring it on. Incidentally, has anyone had any experience of obtaining a mortgage in their more senior years.