le petit roi

I should have made it clearer that attaining the HMRC Gateway account and accessing the relevant area will provide you a pro-rata pension figure after entering the required data which is all very basic stuff about you. My computer is broken and don't currently have access to more info on this. If I get my replacement laptop in the next few days, I'll try and post more detailed info I have on the old hard drive. For anyone who hasn't been on it before, HMRC website is fairly helpful but its a minefield sometimes to find the right info. I've got a UK property and spent too many late nights investigating HMRC related stuff.

A bit late to the party but better late than never. I've paid Class 2 contributions every couple of years so now have around 30 years when added to the time I was in the UK. Currently it costs just under £200 per year. The number of years needed to contribute is dependent upon a few factors (age is just one) and not necessarily 30 years. I'm 5 years short, the number of years I need to get the full UK pension is 35. I think it best to obtain a HMRC Gateway account and that will give you access to info without needing to call a helpdesk and also calculate your potential final UK pension and the number of years contributions still required to attain that final figure.

I've been to 4 auctions in recent weeks and my anecdotal evidence is that our old friend the 'vendor bid' is bidding harder than the attending crowds. 1 sold as a genuine auction result, 3 were passed in after 20 minutes of the auctioneer talking to himself before receiving solo bids. These properties appeared as 'sold at auction' in the newspaper which is misleading because it can only be as a result of post-auction negotiation not the auction itself. Caveat emptor, 'Sold at auction' comes in many guises.

Resurrected this - I was back in the UK in Feb/Mar 2017 and did a bit more calling around. Turns out that one of my pensions currently has circa $40k in it which is substantially more than I ever thought. Another one wasn't quite so good...circa $600 but to redeem it into the other pension has a value of circa $200. Robbing thieves!! I've changed my contact address to my mothers in the UK so at least if I move around, I'll keep contact of where all my UK pensions are. One final few questions on this topic if anyone can help me with an answer: 1) As an Australian resident, am I permitted to contribute to the $40k pension? 2) What can I do to reduce the fees which will be likely charged by the Pension fund? Cheers

No arguments from me on that. I could give it a stab and until this year, with my relatively simple tax affairs, I did using MyGov. The rental and shares slightly complicates it for this year and additionally, the property had to undergo various work prior to letting to be compliant with Government housing laws which don't necessarily apply to houses within Australia. I'm in Melbourne so not sure how practical it would be but could you pm me your phone number?

Thanks again to all. After a few slow mail posts, I've managed to trace all my pensions and an insurance policy....not all good news though. One policy I started in my 1st job after leaving uni 25 years ago has the princely sum of 59 GBP in it. This in spite of almost 3 years of contributions from myself and my employer. Granted not a fortune but maybe 3-4k GBP contributions over the term and I did expect more than 59 GBP. Nothing more than theft as the FTSE has almost doubled during the same period. Overall I think I'm happy enough just having located them and notified a change of address but that pension return is a bitter pill :-)

I'm glad it has been raised again; can it be left a bit longer? After many doubts and more than a few passing years, I've just decided to rent my UK property out and need to start looking for tax advice on it going forward. I'll have to read this thread in full and in more detail but I may have a few queries because I'm not at all clued up on Aus taxation wrt property and what deductions can be claimed. I think I'll use an accountant to help set-up and advise given there is also foreign currency to consider.

Yes, rapid deterioration. I've banked with them for over 25 years...they were very good until mid GFC then it was a rapid deterioration followed by years of stagnation. A poor imitation of the bank I used in the early and mid 2000's. Still, our gripes with RBS are off-topic :wink:to the OP request for solutions which I think will be limited.

I've came across the same situation where the RBS card reader battery expired and I couldn't set-up new payees/make payments until the new reader arrived. Which generally takes 7+ days. However, in the past, I've requested transactions using the telephone banking service. You could try that though I can't remember if I used it to set-up new payees. Also, for the telephone banking service, you will need to know your passwords and security codes. In general, I'm disillusioned with the rapid deterioration of the RBS service level but it is near nigh impossible to open a new UK bank account elsewhere as an Australian resident. Pretty much stuck with a service which sucks.

It gives me some addresses when I punch in the old pension provider so I'm hopeful some lead makes an appearance. Thanks for the link and all who contributed; gives me some hope not all is lost. Fingers crossed they've left me with something.:twitcy:

I have some personal pensions in the UK which I had pretty much forgotten about and despite contributing several years into them, have written off their proceeds. However, in considering them again very recently, I should at least endeavour to find out their current status and determine from there, what to do with them. The issue I have is that with the misappropriation and mismanagement of the UK personal pension schemes over the last 20 years (before I left for Oz, I remember being disgusted how much one pension had shrunk even though the stock market had overseen one of the most rapid rises in its history), companies have amalgamated, policies moved around, etc and I don't know who owns what or which company to contact. Does anyone know of a central agency in the UK whereby if I give them a company name and policy number, they could provide contact details of where my policies are currently held thus allowing me to trace them and at least provide updated contact details. There is a small hope that I may be pleasantly surprised if I ever find out where they are located.:smile: Cheers

I'm no more wealthy than someone with a $400k mortgage on a $750k house; the majority of my assets however can be realised quicker. Problem is having money sitting earning zilch in a UK account whilst finding it impossible at the moment to open any UK financial account. Paying tax to either UK or Oz is impossible if there are no earnings generated to tax. :laugh: I'm not unhappy living where I am right now and it suits me but I don't see myself retiring in Oz. Knowing my Oz Super will sit where it is until retirement and I do have Oz savings and investments, my approach at the moment has been to try to hedge my bets and minimise exposure to currency fluctuation risks whilst having the majority of assets liquid should I decide to go back to UK. Who knows, I'm only going on what feels right to me so perhaps my approach is all wrong and there are better ways to achieve my objectives.

With interest on my UK capital currently attaining 0% (to all intents and purposes), when trying to invest it elsewhere, my problem is that most financial institutions and organisations require the applicant to be a UK resident. Consequently, as an Oz resident I can't open an account thus denied access to UK financial products. How is it possible to get round this requirement? I want to use my UK capital without the need for it to be exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchanges. I've no intent to bring the money to Oz therefore happy to pay tax based on a 12 month average exchange as set out by the ATO. In the hope of gaining better exposure to access UK mortgages and investment opportunities I have thrown some 'out of the box' ideas around in my head such as setting up a UK limited company (or sole trader) and having myself as a single shareholder. However, I have no ideas on the feasibility of such ideas, would it meet my objectives, its benefits or the tax implications as an Aus resident. The only thing I do think is that it would be subject to UK Corporation tax. Lots going on, lots of questions, lots to think about and although a nice position to be in, its giving me headaches and I'm tired of having money sitting earning zilch. On all but one occasion my experiences with financial 'professionals' is poor, where do I turn to...a uk tax advisor, UK financial planner, Oz tax advisor, Oz financial planner? Or a combination of those listed? Any bullet point suggestions on what I can do or speak to initially?

Firstly there are no childcare costs involved and secondly, if one parent stays at home, the tax system can be rorted by the re-allocation of allowances to the non-working partner thus reducing the payable tax. :-) Earning $135k+ is not all doom and gloom

I'm literally around the corner from you in lower Northcote. I'm single and earn a lower salary than yourself but a lot of what you say resonates with me. I'm currently deciding when I leave Melbourne, not if. Living in out of the way places, for me, is quite a depressing thought and moving to somewhere cheaper is like putting a sticking plaster onto an open wound. In my time here, housing costs have never been reasonable, never mind cheap. During the GFC period, the UK, USA and Europe allowed house prices to drop thus making houses affordable for savers and the financially responsible. In comparison, Australia did everything possible to support high housing costs and middle class lifestyle whilst imposing higher costs through indirect taxation. This has resulted in savers and the financially responsible being punished.

It appears that on the basis of perceived injury risks not yet realised and one fatality in Victoria in 2012, NSW have also banned many types of outside area gas heaters. https://www.productsafety.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1010311 Funnily enough, cars and trucks which cost several hundred lives and countless injuries every year across the country are still with us. 'Tis a strange country, strange people.

Granted, living away from home is never comfortable or much fun for the most part but how hideously out of sorts is the Australian economy if $135k isn't considered good money and insufficient to support a family. Is that a clarion call that maybe the middle class welfare budget needs to be increased?:wink: As for the young, I blame the parents :yes:

I did look at one time but gave up. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe these types of heater (which use LPG gas bottles) are banned for use in Australia. There are portable indoor gas heater available which can be moved from room to room. However, they require a permanently installed gas fitting which allows the heaters bayonet fitting to be plugged in and out. Without having gas pipe and fittings permanently installed in a room, I think it'll be a no-go. I agree with the gas bill. Last year I was in the UK for several weeks and hardly used any gas during the 2 month billing period. Came back to a large bill and it showed that most of my costs are down to the fixed charges. Same goes for the electricity.

Agreed. For a funds advertising hype and rhetoric to mean anything, fees should be based on a small fixed fee then the remainder on performance. Having asset based fees is not necessarily a good solution either for the 'investor'; the fixed up-front fee would be preferable. An individuals account balance can increase through increased contributions (hence larger fees) and not through performance growth. Thus poor performance is unjustly rewarded. I don't think people mind paying fair fees for a value added service. Its when inefficient and poor performing funds are rewarded with high fees, the issues arise. Moving slightly onto the financial industry in general, Fund companies provide insufficient information to savers and investors. Many thousands of savers were denied access to their money for several years when withdrawal of income funds was suspended. I'm not even sure that this issue has been resolved after all this time. For transparency, Fund companies should be made to declare this type of information on all of their Fund brochures because it is very relevant because it directly affects their ability to remain liquid during times of financial downturns.

Don't be fooled into believing that if you have Private Health Insurance that all your medical fees are covered. In general, you're still up for considerable costs even with Private Health Insurance. I personally believe its a rort but there's not much you can do but suck it up.

....and be aware of speed signs and road signs being almost obscured behind bushes, trees and other obstructions. I kid you not. Sadly the police lack any sort of integrity in publicly highlighting poorly placed signage.

The Parliament of 2010 was the first fixed-term Parliament and with limited means of being dissolved early, the Lib Dems would have had real influence had a minority Tory Govt wanted their tenure to be meaningful. Instead they chose to straight-jacket themselves with Tory policies just to call themselves a 'party of Government'. You can't rewrite history to show the Lib Dems were a party of principle when it was a shameful disregard of their principles that they failed so miserably in 2015.

A supplementary question on this. Does anyone know if it is possible/permitted within the current legal framework to pay into an existing Aus Superfund when resident in the UK? If the fund isn't topped up occasionally the value of the fund will be greatly reduced when retired due to fees and costs being deducted annually. It makes sense (to me anyway) to at least maintain the funds value through additional overseas contributions which offset the fees and costs. If my experiences to date are to be used as a guideline, Australia being Australia, although professing to have free movement of capital, probably have financial restrictions on this issue which appear to be Foreign Exchange Controls in all but name. :biglaugh:

House of Lords; a fine example of democracy in action. :wink: Abbot would probably earn more respect from all sides if he faced down cheating and corruption wherever it occurred. Instead, he is all about intimidation of the weakest parts of society. It says a lot about Australians that such an ignorant and boorish man ever became prime minister. He'll keep his support providing he keeps the money tap which supplies the middle class welfare flowing. Turn the money tap off, you'll hear the middle class parasites squeal.

I agree. My first winter in Adelaide was so cold and miserable due to the inadequate insulation, heating and poor build of the rental that until I moved, I cooked only the once in the house after work. I spent those first 2 months eating out at at restaurants and fast food outlets before coming straight home and into bed. My flat in Scotland was far more welcoming and warmer.