Live4today

The attitude that nothing would happen as they won't get caught as its such a small amount in the grand scheme of things seemed pretty prevalent

Yes, have also met quite a few people who have left commercial debt, credit card etc (quite huge amounts, 20,000+ ) I would just be so on edge all the time!

I assume they are getting centrelink payments as they are all Perm. Residents as far as I am aware, glad its not something that the majority think is ok

Yes there was a lot of back and forth to the centrelink office to prove things but once we got the CRN number and everything sorted, the online thing is easy to keep updated should circumstances change such as salary etc.

Not a chance, far too straight, would be waking up each day wondering if today was the day there is a knock at the door! It just seemed pretty common amongst people i have come across, seems like i was the only one who was pretty shocked that they were risking it....

:embarrassed: ha agree Bungo! yes they will be in for a shock, rather them than me!!

So been here a year or so now, something that seems to be a common occurrence with some fellow expats. Quite a few people that I have spoken to (a lot more than I would have thought) have confirmed that they have kept their child benefits going into their uk bank accounts, despite the fact that they live here now permanently....1 person had been here over 4 years and still received this. She just transfers it over to her Aussie account. Averaging out to be about £100 a month +, thats quite a lot over a few years. Now when we left, we rang up and informed them we were leaving, never to return (probably) and also sent a letter and it stopped after about a month of being here. Having spoken to quite a few different families (all seem pretty decent and hard working), many seem to have kept this going. I assumed that a) it would stop automatically anyway (but didnt want to leave any loose ends) and b) you'd get caught as it is essentially fraud? Some claimed that they assumed as they were still citizens they were entitled to it?! Others just said the usual, "Ive paid enough taxes in uk..etc" So is this normal that people keep their child benefit going from the uk, surely they will caught up with eventually? Just wodnered if others had heard of this as it seems to be pretty common from the people i have met...or maybe I'm just mixing with the wrong crowd!! I assumed it had to be stopped as we weren't living there any more....

thanks for the info, il try and have a look for the paperwork for my teachers pension to see what it says

Hi all, I have recently arrived in australia and have a question about pensions. A brief background about me: I was a primary teacher in the uk from 2008 -2015, until I left this Easter. During that time I worked full time for 3 years, had a years maternity leave, carried on working part time for a year(2 days a week), another maternity leave and then worked 1 day a week for approx. months. I have missed the deadline to transfer my pension over to an oz one. Can anyone please explain what this means for when i retire in terms of my uk teachers pension? I have looked on their website but cant find an answer. In 30 years time, when i retire, will my pension be the same amount as it is now, for example £200/$400 a month or will it go up with inflation? $400 might only buy me a loaf of bread and a pint of milk in 30 years ;-) or will it be even less as I don't know if employers contributions would be paid if i am here? One of our friends was a public sector worker and said that, if I wanted, I could take my contributions out and get a lump sum now. obviously that would mean that I wouldn't get a teachers pension later in life. But I am thinking if I could take out a lump sum now, that might be more beneficial to me now than waiting for 30 years and potentially getting very small amount each month. Does anyone know any of the answers to this or could they point me in the right direction on how to find out? Also, I have worked since I was 16 years old in either part time or full time except for a few years when travelling or at uni, do I still get to claim a state pension for the UK? sorry for all the pension questions, I'll admit I'm pretty clueless when it comes to any pension business. thanks PIO

So, we have been in oz for 3 months and have just checked my UK bank account which I left oPen as i had one more pay to go in after we left. Anyway, checking my account has reminded me of something that I completely forgot about, I didn't inform the benefits office that we were emigrating. It just wasn't something that I had even thought about but either way for 3 months my UK account has had the £100 credited to it. Has anyone else ever forgotten about this when they emigrated? If so, what do I do? Can. I write to them explaininv what happened or call them? Or can I just cancel the payments going in or cancel my bank account which I had planned to do. I know its not a vast amount, £300, but obviously I want to sort it out in case the UK government track me down ;-)

Sorry for the boring question but our house is freezing in the evenings and wondering if anyone can shed light on whether we have a heating option on our air con remote. When I press heat/cool button it says error ad will only pump out cold air. Just wondering if anyone had same brand air con who could give directions for use,cant find the manual. Or does the error button mean that only set up for cool air? The rental advert does say gas heating but might refer to the little useless fireplace! I will check with the agent but thought someone might know on here. Below is photo of the air con remote

:arghh: Ha now I'm even more confused! So I don't have a CAN or CRN number as I don't have any dealings with them prior to now and yet when I went into centrelink, the lady said they don't really deal with centrelink stuff as it's all done online or over the phone. But I guess if I go in with all our things (passport, visa paperwork , anything else?! ) and say it won't let us do it online, hopefully someone will be able to help!

Hi, I've been into the centrelink offices yesterday to sort out Medicare and centrelink. They were able to do our Medicare stuff, nice and easy but said I had to go online for centrelink. We haven't set up our mobiles up yet so can't ring the helpline. I've set up the mygov account for which I have my user name but when I try and use the centrelink stuff to process our child benefit claim it asks for a CRN number or CAN number, it says I can find it on any letters or correspondence from centrelink which obviously I don't have. Does anyone know if it will be sent to me now iv set up our mygov account? Or is there an easier way of setting up the centrelink child benefit stuff? Computers are not my thing but would like to get it sorted while we are both off work. Sorry for the boring question! Just thought someone who has recently done it could shed some light?

Hi, I can't find this info out on Malaysian airlines' website but does anyone have recent experience as to whether you are allotted more than the standard weight limit for baggage if you are emigrating with a one way ticket? Thanks

Thanks for the advice everyone, just trying to research as much as possible before we leave and put off some other bits and bobs that I know I need doing before we leave!

Thanks for the advice peeps! Yes it is a low wage but think it's the best we are probably going to get in his line of work, just telling myself that it will only be for a few years until I can go back full time. Then we will really appreciate the extra income I'm sure!

Thanks everyone. Just thought the fortnightly figure seemed quite high and wondered if anyone else on a similar or even higher wage receives around this amount or have I completely filled on the estimate calculator wrong? Will definitely overestimate when we do arrive, not long to go!!!

Yes we will probably be in the same boat then as we would also be paying for 2 childcare places which after the rebate would equate to one childcare place we would have to pay the full amount for. Thought that would be the case, but hey we will feel quite rich when all the children are at school and I'm working again!

Hi fellow poms In oz members, we have perm residency 190 visa and was doing some research this afternoon And looked up the family assistance calculator. I filled in the details as best as I could based on my other half's salary approx $55000 (what we think it will be) and I'm sure I've probably filled it in wrong! Wasn't sure which boxes to tick for some questions etc. but anyway the estimated family assistance and rental assistance figure came out as $536 a fortnight. Can anyone just shed some light on if this sounds like the correct sort of figure? Just seems a bit high to me! Obviously won't complain. If it's correct:wink: Thanks everyone in advance! ps we have 2 children and didn't fill in a salary for Myself as I'm not sure how the while childcare rebate works if I had 2 kids in childcare (both are preschool age). But I imagine I would earn approx similar to my husband

Thanks for all the replies folk, has helped make some decisions for us. From what you guys have said we don't HAVE to bring a car seat for our 19month old even though he will have his own seat which is fine by us, I'm like you Quoll, the less stuff to carry the better! Just wasn't sure if you had to have seat if your child is under 2, Quite happy for him to be on our knee during take off etc. Although originally we thought about requesting a bassinet as it would mean having the bulkhead seats, I didn't realise the arm rests won't go up which i think would end up being more of a pain than having chairs in front of us, with the arm rests up, you can make some sort of make shift bed for the little ones to lie down on. In terms of the whole motion sickness thing, do all children/toddlers seem to suffer with this on a plane or is it the kids that suffer car sickness etc that are more prone? Also how long does the pain/uncomfortableness on their ears tend to last in young children during the the take off/descent? I can always live in hope that they will sleep, miracles might happen!!

Looks like we are in for an eventful flight!!

So we booked our flights today, decided to just bite the bullet and purchase a seat for my 19 month old very very active toddler. Also have a 3 year old who will have a seat. We are flying with Malaysian airlines and have looked online but can't find answers to some questions. If you can answer all or any of these questions that would be great :smile: 1. Do I have to supply some sort of car seat for my toddler on Malaysian airlines or is he allowed to just sit in the seat as normal? From what I can gather I think that he will have to be on our lap during take off as he will be under 2?! 2.We half thought about requesting a bassinet but I suspect he will be too heavy or long for this? 3.Has as anyone got an opinion on what are the best seats to request with 2 children of this age when flying to oz? 4.we will be doing a 10pm flight so I HOPE they sleep for the majority of the first leg and we have a 4 hour stop over at kuala lumpa, is there anything to keep the kids entertained at the airport? 5.Can an anyone recommend any travelling gadgets, eg special pillows etc that have helped on flights with young children? 6.And finally, any entertainment ideas for the active toddler who's favourite hobbies including running, jumping, climbing and his all time favourite, throwing any item he can get hold of! Can't even begin to think. About the 3 year old, hoping the iPad/ own tv and games will suffice! TIA

Yeah, in my naivety I just didn't think that there would be extra time waiting for a container, just thought stuff gets picked up and put into container and then a week later it goes, didn't factor in having to wait for it to be filled which makes sense for them just wished it had been highlighted to us more rather than saying 8-12 weeks shipping time. Ah well, hopefully we have highlighted a question for others to be clear on when getting quotes!

Yeah, I just completely didn't click about that part of it all, it wasn't something that I even thought of, just assumed it would be 8-12 weeks from time of pick up!

Yes it's a shared container so I guess they have to fill it before they can ship, just didn't realise if would take another potentially 6 or 8 weeks on top of the 12 weeks shipping time...not good news for my work plans :-(