LindaH27
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/16/the-225000-campaign-to-dislodge-peter-dutton-from-dickson?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+AUS+v1+-+AUS+morning+mail+callout&utm_term=278219&subid=25730370&CMP=ema_632
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@Pertenhall What!???? That’s disgraceful. They should have contacted her to let her know she was short and given her the opportunity to find a co assurer! I’m so sorry for you having come so far and waited so long and I really hope it’s a speedy solution in July!!
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Have a wonderful life in Oz! Keep popping in if you can with any snippets of advice for the rest of us patiently waiting
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No apologies needed! Yes most get more than £125 as they get the added SERPS and also something called GRB. - graduated retirement benefit. All that changed in 2016 Widow/widowers could also have inherited some of their late spouses pension as well. So that’s why some pre 2016 pensioners do get more than £125 and also why new pensioners aren’t getting a very good deal! I don’t believe any government has got this right despite tinkering around with increasing pension ages etc and wonder whether we will eventually see a system whereby we each pay into our own “pot” like Australia and New Zealand. Every country is facing the the problem of an increasing aged population - and no one seems to have got it quite right yet!
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Link pasted and copied instead..... Written on Oct 2015 so figure of £155 is now £164 But in the first five years of the new pension, only around a third of those reaching state pension age are estimated to get the full “flat-rate” pension of £155 per week, worth around £8,000 a year. By 2021, those eligible for the full rate will rise to just over 50 per cent, but it will be more than three decades before the state pension is paid to nine in ten retirement savers. System shake out The chief reason why many won’t get the full state pension is due to how the government has dealt with previous periods of contracting out as the old system converts to the new.
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Pre 2016 new pension changes the maximum you could get was a lot less. Many if not all of the pensioners on here with pensions paid before 2016 would, I suspect, getting a much lower figure than 164 p.w even after adding on what used to be called SERPS. This was state earnings related pension which would give you an increased amount if you earned more than a limit and therefore paid more but this was means tested in that if you also paid into a private works pension this would be taken into account in the SERPS calculation. Pre 2016 category A full state pension was £125.95 Even with the new state pension very few people will actually receive the full amount. This is what’s causing the big outcry - see a good explanation here https://www.ft.com/content/6564a2c4-6cd5-11e5-aca9-d87542bf8673 sorry link doesn’t appear to be working - will try to copy and paste
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Interesting read! Shows cuts in immigration in general breaking it down to work and family streams. As family includes partners and children, who I believe cannot be “capped”, there a definite decline in parent visas. Some very clear charts etc https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/13/australias-immigration-rate-to-fall-again-as-work-visa-approvals-drop?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+AUS+v1+-+AUS+morning+mail+callout&utm_term=277888&subid=25730370&CMP=ema_632
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Many congrats to all!! As many of us suspected, immi were hanging fire till end of financial year. According to another forum many applicants up to 30 June 15 have been asked to start preparations!
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@Ferrets the U.K. NI contribution rate is 12% Employers also pay in for every employee as well - I believe that is 13.8%? So there's a fair bit going in for every person who pays in which will increase the number of years pension is paid for. Given that not all people survive that long some may in fact not receive what they've paid for and their contributions will go towards funding other people's It also sounds as though Australians are also not paying in enough according to your figures and wonder how how much the "average" pension is in Australia given full UK pension is £8546 pa Im sure I read somewhere that Australian means tested pension is claimable if your income as a single person is below approx $55000? That sounds way more generous for your 9.5% contribution than £8546 for UK 12% contribution!! I'm not an accountant so obviously my figures are just based on my musings!!
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Can you do the same calculation for Australian super funds please. It would be interesting to see the comparison as perhaps it’s something UK govt can look into. Also Nzi is a percentage rate therefore the more you earn the more you contribute Also perhaps how many expats left Uk before paying full amount of contributions and now pay a relative pittance to claim full UK pension? Its all mathematics at the end of the day and yes the govt need to sort it out and there have been various attempts over the years including raising the pension age which I believe is also going to happen in Australia.
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quote from Marisa.... “We're talking about two totally different things here. I am talking about the misconception that the UK pension is something you pay into, therefore you have a right to get that money (and its profits) back. My cousins are getting their knickers in a knot because of that perception, because they feel the UK government is stealing theirmoney. It's not. Why you should get offended because I criticise the government for not increasing the contributions beats me. I am not disputing your right, or anyone else's to claim the pension which you have a legal right to claim (though the legal name for it, by the way, is a "contributory benefit"). I am not aware of anyone rubbishing people's credit ratings.” My view for what it’s worth. ...As mentioned in the quote above the legal term is contributory benefit. The key word there is “contributory” ie it’s something you have to pay into. In fact you have no choice it’s part of your NI contributions. So Brits pay a contribution towards the pension whether it’s to fund the previous generation or their own - the underlying premise is that you contribute to something in order to get something back. The more you earn, the more you pay in NI therefore the more you pay towards the pension. It’s also contributory in the sense that people can and do make extra contributions in order to increase the amount they get back in pension!! I believe, though am not sure, that the extra contributions are in fact less than someone might pay on a good salary If you have less than 10 years contributions you don't get anything at all and currently need 39 years of contributions to get the full pension, so yes Brits contribute to get something back. I rather think it’s like the debate about 143 visa cost and Medicare. I would suspect there are examples where peoples’ eventual payments from Medicare exceed the amount paid in!
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Wow think I need to move wherever you are in UK ! My last GP appointment took 3 weeks to come through. I was referred to a specialist in March - but won’t see him till mid July! Your GP sounds fantastic! I asked for a call out at 8 am once and had to contact surgery as GP still hadn’t arrived by 6 pm and I thought they had forgotten me! They only offer call outs to over 65s as well. Not an isolated example, all my friends have had same problems and indeed it’s always being mentioned in the media about how the NHS is struggling. I do have one friend who moved to the Lake District and as a rural community they do very well with their doctors but I live in a small market town where a local college has over the years been allowed to expand and now has more students than there are local residents!! So perhaps that’s half the problem - but that’s a whole different story!
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But isn’t that true of all pensions even private ones? You will nearly always get out more than you have paid in - especially as private funds invest in stocks and shares and therefore earn a much bigger potential increase? In UK what has happened is that govts haven’t looked at increases in population aged or otherwise. There’s no personal “pot” as such. So current worker state pensions contributions are actually being used to pay current pensioners. So in effect my generation paid for my parents pensions and my children are paying for mine! I paid for my own private pensions though and yes having done my sums I’m getting out more than I’ve paid in!
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And then the fun starts - finding homes, trying to get a place with gp, checking on residency for any benefit etc! House prices will have increased over the years, very few dentists offer nhs treatment and you wait 3 weeks for a gp appointment unlike same day appointments in Australia and up to 18 weeks to see consultants. I think long term expats would have quite a shock on returning home!!
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Never known the state pension to be stopped!
