Belinda

Hi there, I am English and 14 years ago, moved to Australia to be with my Australian partner. I have never really felt like Australia is "home" but have tried hard for my partner and we have bought a house in Melbourne and previously lived in Newcastle and Paramatta. For various reasons, including going through breast cancer, we are thinking of going back to the UK to settle. The main kicker is the awful exchange rate........ really wish it had got a lot better after 14 years, but it is what it is ! The other real decider for us is UK pensions, as we are not getting any younger, my partner is 50 and I am 40. My partner could earn a good wage in the UK and works in the finance/law sector and work in IT/admin but pensions worry us. Before I left the UK, I had spent a lot of the time being a student and so wouldn't have accumulated too much toward the national pension. I've worked ever since being here in oz, apart from when going through breast cancer and if we removed our Super, once again the exchange rate would be a disadvantage and leave us with less. What I really can't seem to find is some definitive information about the UK pension for us. A friend of ours said that you need to have worked for 30 years there before you can get the pension in the UK, is this the case ? We looked at buying to let whilst still in OZ, so that we had something to go to there, having saved some money up here for a year or so, but every mortgage lender in the UK want a lot of UK pounds in an account, before lending to you and we don't have as much as they want, which is between 30-50 thousand UK pounds. So unfortunately, had to give that idea the flick. Would love some information, if anyone can assist it would be much appreciated, Belinda