plodling2002

Many thanks everybody

Thanks Jehwal....did you have to prompt the UK Tax people or did they just send it out of the blue?

Thanks again all, I was thinking something along the lines of transferring it to someone like Legal and General, (don't know if they have the same rule as Standard Life), and withdrawing it bit by bit kind of thing. Maybe I'll have just suck it up as they say here.......

I should say that I have no income whatsoever in the UK so don't know if that would effect me being able to claim back some of the 40% tax should I decide to go that way... .....and thanks for the replies so far everyone....

Good day all. Apologies if this has been mentioned before, I need some help/advice. I live in Queensland, at present I have a private pension sum with Standard Life in the UK, its only £30,000, I wanted to draw out my 'tax free' amount of £7,900, (I also have a British bank account), so I rang Standard Life from Queensland, the lady on the phone stated that because I no longer live in, or have a UK address, Standard Life will only let me cash in the whole amount, (no idea why!), so I said "ok, lets do that then" where I was then informed that if I do, I will be given an emergency tax code and will probably lose around 40%, I was fuming, (at the tax people, not her), however, she stated that there are companies in the UK that will allow me to do the tax free withdrawal and leave the rest there, unfortunately she was not allowed to recommend any company or give me a name. Does anyone know of another company I can transfer that money to so I can then withdraw the tax free amount, or any other way around it?, I did try and contact my UK Financial Advisor but didn't even receive a reply, mind you I haven't contacted them since the 90's. As a side note, I don't even know whether or not I could claim any of that 40% tax back if I did just cash it all in, its seems so difficult trying to do anything from here - Yours, mildly angry Rick

Good grief ?

Thanks mate

Thanks mate

Good morning/afternoon, Does anybody have a clear answer on the following: I am at present a serving police officer in Queensland, however I have to retire at 60 (only got 5 years left) and I would like to continue with my old job that I did in the UK where I was a fully qualified plumber and gas fitter (i left the UK in 2012), how can I continue doing this, I'm not particularly bothered about the gas fitting side of things but would like to go back into building bathrooms etc, nobody seems to have a clear answer about how you get your skills assessed or how you go about the process, it's a shame that you just can't go ahead and practice plumbing as in my opinion the UK is by far and away years ahead in terms of all aspects of plumbing work. Any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks.

Thank you very much will give it a go- Rick

Good morning/afternoon. Could you please give me some advice regarding my pension because I’m at my wits end. I was born in October 1963, joined the Navy straight from school at 16 (1980), and served about 10 years so I have a small index linked pension there. I then worked for a company called GKN, again for about 10 years and also paid added voluntary contributions, I think the pension was with the Prudential, I then worked for a drainage company who paid my NI contributions , during that time I believe I opted out of the gov pension scheme!! I then went self employed for a short while, I then moved to Australia in 2012 and I’m now a police officer in QLD which has a decent superannuation scheme, I joined the police in Oz at 50 and therefore have to retire at 60 so I can only do 10years service, so not enough to retire on!! I know that I have a few years of NI contributions missing. My questions are these: How the hell do I find those pensions? how do I pay the missing years of national insurance, because I want the uk pension obviously! Who do I contact. I just seem to be going around in circles. Any help would be appreciated- thank you in advance Rick

This is Mrs plodling.... and I'm Australian born and raised and as my husband initially stated, we have lived in Rockhampton/Gracemere area for over 3 years. Yes I've been relocated to Rockhampton for work and not by choice, but that's not why I would agree against living here. It might be a little cheaper living here, and as you would be aware those areas are probably not some of the areas you would chose to bring up children in - the more appealing areas in Rockhampton are dearer (of course). And it's no Sydney, however if you're after the quieter country lifestyle then maybe that's what you'll get. However, there's nothing much more around Rockhampton (to travel and see) and there's not a whole lot to do in 'Rocky' either. I was raised in Toowoomba, which was a lovely garden city and had very cold winters and I then relocated to the Sunshine Coast hinterland over 10 years ago and absolutely fell in love with the area. Beautiful pristine beaches, green mountain ranges and a lifestyle that is very laid back and peaceful. My father has lived in Rocky for over 25 years, and I visited the place probably twice in that time and never wanted to really go back. It's intensely hot and dry for most of the year - winter sees you wearing a t-shirt for most of it. My friends and family said that I'd love Yeppoon beach - 30 minutes from Rockhampton and it's is nothing like the Sunshine Coast or Gold Coast beaches. We also worked when the large big floods that come through Rockhampton and it was 10 days of smelly, dank river water and people stuck in their homes around most of the city. Yes the crime rate probably matches most places around the world, and yes we probably only deal with the small sector of 'dodgy' people giving us a different outlook than some. However, for the size of the town, there are a lot of criminals who do to quote 'The Pom Queen', 'do the dirty on their own doorstep'. The town is very insular and has a small-town mentality. Plus I won't bring up much about the indigenous community because that would sound discriminatory. Yeppoon is probably the place to live if you chose to come here! And like most places Gracemere has it's better 'areas' just like Rocky does. However, Mt Morgan definitely doesn't have any nice areas haha! The council has finally injected some much needed money into the CBD and riverbank areas which has made the place look pretty smart and every so often they are doing festivals to encourage people to the town. It's not all bad! It just has quite a few 'downsides' which I would just get most people to research very carefully before taking the step to move here. Good luck.

Haha ?

Don’t even get me started on Mount Morgan!!!!

Good morning, I have read the other comments regarding Rockhampton and agree/disagree with a lot of them. This is my take on it, I am originally from Manchester but now I am a police officer in a place called Gracemere, nicknamed: disgracemere or the smear!! I have been here for over 3 years. This town is a couple of K’s from Rockhampton however I get to see Rockhampton every day as I’m usually transporting a fine upstanding citizen to the Watchhouse (jail/holding cell). The drug ICE is rife here (rocky and gracemere) and also weed is nearly second nature to a large portion of the community but not all. Domestic violence is almost out of control. There are a few good people here in gracemere but they are out numbered. Rockhampton is more or less the same. I know I probably have a tainted view of both areas, my wife is a police officer in Rockhampton itself so I do know a little of what I’m talking about. I would have to say that the area of Gracemere should be likened to Moss Side in Manchester, run down, high unemployment and people getting drunk/high then turning on each other leaving the police to clean up the mess. Parts of Rockhampton are the same, but not all of it. In the middle of the mining boom rental prices (Gracemere), were very high and only working people could afford to live there, looking after there houses and generally taking pride in the area, then the mining boom ended and most decent people moved out leaving a massive stock of un-rented properties, so the rents crashed to an average of just over $200 per week (£150), so centerlink (the dole) moved in your typical low socio-economic class type persons who only know how to smoke weed, take ICE (methlyamphetamine) and don’t give a sh*te about the way the house looks or when they eventually get kicked out how much damage they’ve caused. My personal opinion, and mine alone, is that given the choice I would NOT bring children up here nor would I live here, we were posted up here from the Sunshine Coast and had no choice in the matter and trying to get a spot back down south is almost impossible because nobody leaves there, (why would they), it sounds like I have a real downer on the place but I don’t, I enjoy some of the work and love the people I work with, I’m merely giving an extremely realistic view of the place to fellow brits because I don’t want anyone regretting moving here from the other side of the world because that’s hard enough in itself. Any questions you have for me I’ll be more than happy to answer.