fizzybangs

What's not to love about anywhere in Devon but for your interests I would move to Bristol. And from there you can visit most of Devon in afternoon or day trips! You are also close to Wilshire or north to Glouncesteshire or on main road to South Wales! Perfect. And if you smile you will make friends so easily. Enjoy

CLARIFICATIONS I will have lived 'continuously' in Australia for 34 years when I get the Oz pension so I will get 34/35 worth of age pension. I have lived back in the UK for one 9 month peiod working and another 11 months but was told to return just under a year as up to one year can be classed as a 'holiday'. Therefore my pension will be portable on receipt. Had we stayed one more day over the year in the UK, even if back before claiming pension it would NOT have been portable for 2 years. I am in receipt of a UK aged pension via my husband. I did not have enough years of work there and they would not count my years as a foster parent being paid an allowance for the children in my care as 'working'. We have twice topped up my husband's UK pension which gets reflected in an increase for me too. The first time we received a call from the overseas pension dept suggesting he did. We got more in back pay than we has sent them! So we phoned and asked if we could do the same again, which we did. Can't do any more though or we would! I think 7 years worth may be the limit now. Any Australian pensionwill naturally drop when allowances are removed if abroad. For us it took 10 months to get our UK pensions back out of Overseas section. Once it was in a local office our UK pensions went up a lot but be prepared for that gap between Oz one dropping and UK one going up.

Wrong according to CES who did extensive research for us. If you are here the full year before, it becomes portable as soon as you fet it. If you are not here the full year before then you have to stay a further 2 years after getting it for it to be portable

Yes you are right

Chicken you are right and I have done that and am in Oz now. If I had returned just before my Birthday I would have has to stay in Oz 2 years for the pension to become PORTABLE! As I am here the full year before it will become portable upon retirement age instead

I wouldn't even consider that option for myself! The interest rates are lousy in the UK versus the interest we get on my SunSuper account! We have earned a heap of money in Oz since December, literally thousands and I rolled mine into pension before Jan 1st so deeming rules do not apply. Low income people in the UK do get help but it took us about a year before it was sorted last time. The ?dept seemed to want to know if we were actually staying and wouldn't move our pensions out of the Overseas dept until 10 months were up, we were registered to vote etc. at that time, when they moved it into a local office,mwe could gave applied for rent and rates relief etc. they were right to be sliw as by the time they moved it we were about to return to Oz! I am now here and will claim my Ozzie pension at 65 this year and it will then be portable. We HAD to go there to find out what we could claim so we could budget for our future as we could get no sense out of the Dept of Pensions! I am still under the part 2 pension subsidies which have now been withdrawn for future pensions which will be a flat rate of £130 per week for people born later than me. Life is an adventure but can be very complicated at times!

You need to leave an Australian bank account open as super do not send abroad. No you do not pay tax on the house money anywhere but if you invest it or leave it in bank account for any length of time and ear interest you might depending on how much you earn

Well we are living in Lonnie! At Yountown. Loving it. How are you going jonathoncowen?

I too moved here a couple of months ago from Cotton Tree, Maroochydore. Live in Youngtown, Lonnie area and am absolutely loving it. Met a couple very first evening who had not long before moved from Springwood area to Lonnie. Very happy too.

Congratulations on picking Tasmania as I have been to all the states and territories and to my mind Tassie is the pick of them all. You will love it. Having said that, it is not easy to get a job in Tasmania and there are so many job losses happening throughout Australia now it is rather demoralising. The Federal government cutbacks and cutback in mining jobs means there are a lot of people looking for work now. You may need to take any work you can get before landing the type of work you really want to do.

Congratulations on making this decision and i am sure it will all work out with some hard work and determination which is a lot less tiring than all the indecision. Good luck

Totally agree with Aunt Agatha. Why are you hanging around? Ask your Mum and get back there by Christmas and don't look back. You don't need to spend the next weeks hearing stuff like that. Go home girl and find happiness.

I think Abbott is changing the rules yet again so please keep up with latest laws

Go with your heart. It always wins in the end! Forget 'being sensible' and do what you know you want to do. We only have one life so live it to the full. I was like a previous responder for 30 years and couldn't wait to get back to Australia but now, having trialled living in the UK for a year after the urge became just too strong to return, I know I had been masking my true feelings using my head for all those years. I honestly felt really happy here in Oz and coped with my brother dying suddenly in the UK, missing at least 15 Weddings of immediate family, not seeing my nephews and nieces growing up nor their children when they married. I just got on with 'my life' in Oz. When during trip back I really realised what I had missed, when I did not recognise half the people at a family reunion they gave us, when I realised I was just 'that ghost on the wall who lives down under' the overwhelming regret almost crippled me. Truth is is that we could not have afforded to move back. Now we can and will be there for good soon. Good luck with your decision. The UK is a wonderful country.

Ha ha, made me laugh! I came back to Oz April 1st this year after a year back in the UK and have to agree with you! Off back to UK again in a few months time. Hopefully for good after 32 years here!

I came out in 1981 and it was liberating in comparison to the gloom and doom of the Thatcher years and yes, to Brisbane. Boy, has it changed! Not only in Brisbane but in all of Australia. Now it is 'me first' that is important whereas when I came out everyone had little and everyone helped each other. Moving house, no need to ask for help as it was there if you wanted it or not! Going to build a fence was a community effort. However, those same helpful people remained acquaintances not friends as there was always an invisible wall if you were an immigrant. It was fun though. The Poms stuck together like glue as we have the same humour which Aussies just could not understand and that went two ways! If I was a newly arrived immigrant now I would be heading back to the UK very quickly! It is all so hard here in my opinion. The only place I don't feel that is in Tasmania which is fantastic if you can find a job! I am here now fir 6 months getting away from the Qld summer heat! We have been all around and through Oz over 4 years and I even grieve at how Karatha has changed fir the worse plus many other places we used to love. We spent a year back in the UK returning this last April. I absolutely love it there and so does my husband and we have a far better quality of life there. It used to be the other way around!

Yep. Going back to Paignton which we tried for a year returning to Qld in April but now renting furnished home in Launceston, Tasmania until we leave around May to June next year, permanently!

You will have a ball I'm sure. Haven't read all the posts but hope your Mum is okay? Enjoy your new home

Go back now! You cannot make yourself like a country. You can make the best of it and try to embrace it but it will hit sooner or later that you really want to go home by which time you will probably be entrenched and feel trapped. I loved it from the minute I arrived. However, that is because I did not want to come and thought it would be a terrible place to live so was pleasantly surprised! However, the UK is still home, I have missed too much of my family and have been a ghost on their walls! I should never have come really but only in the last two years have I owned up to this deep seated knowledge. It took me 32 years! Some people love it on arrival and some don't and if you don't then book your exit tickets now. And never look back.

Just started reading the post but cannot get past this comment! I went back for a year (had to return in April this year) after 32 years away. Woke in Newbury first morning where we had overnight stop, at 5am in March last year and went to look at the place. It was cold, damp, trees were bare of leaves but I was grinning the whole 2 hours I walked and didn't stop until we booked our flights back to Oz when I went into depression at the thought! Ergo, it took a few hours sleep, not 32 months! We are going back for good next year and I wish I'd returned many years earlier!

Ha ha, we are at the Sunshine Coast now too, how strange. Seems our plans might not work out for Tassie unfortunately as we were going for a person who is ill but who now hopes to move to NSW in January and that would be in the middle of a lease for us if we move to Lonnie. I find the people here the same as you!

I want to know how everyone is getting on who has returned!

Where did the survey come from? Was it a government survey?

Oh dear! I would have done very willingly 30 years ago but as it turns out I would have regretted it bitterly! That is the trouble, we cannot see into the future nor have any idea that we could change our minds! I would have been vehement in my denial if anybody had asked me over those 30 years if I could ever see me return to live in Britain. What a question!

Exactly the same as for my son in Australia then in the engineering and construction industry. He went from one job site where he was permanently employed to do some work at their request, found out he was now on casual and has not been classed as permanent since without being told this initially. Workers do not seem to have rights any more unless they work for government but even then it can be a problem. Met a woman who is a special needs teacher, permanent, full time. She does a market stall to supplement her income and explained that she does not get paid during school holidays! I was astounded. She only gets paid for her hours there. And this is Australia!