Dell

Hi Tina2! - Thanks for your interest in my plans. I think my situation is made easier than many in that I am on my own now and that makes moving from one country to another much easier, doesnt it. I actually do feel as if I will make it at some point . Don't know why but I do. Well, my original plan was to go back to St Annes and buy a small house of about two bedrooms and then find someone to share with me but I found out that if you are on the UK pension and getting all the little extra payments which are available to single pensioners, this means that they can control how many bedrooms you have in a house. If you have two bedrooms or more, they think you might be wanting to take in a boarder and collect rent so it is zoned differently or something - can't remember the actual tax that is affected but there is one. Just one person living in a house attracts a really good zoning (at least I thought so) which helps with expenses, you know, but you can't supplement your income by charging rent from a boarder. Lytham St Annes is really a lovely little town, well kept, lovely homes, but quite expensive. I have kept my knowledge of it, having gone back and forward several times visiting Dad many times and working as well. He has since passed away. My cousins live in Cambridge and so they would be very nice to visit and I have two more cousins living in Cologne and Madeira respectively so I would have all my holidays planned out ahead of time, haha!! Unbeknownst to them!! One of the things about living in Australia, though, is the feeling of being so cut off from the rest of the world.

Hi there, yes, I've driven people mad trying to find out about the financial side of things. I have now a pretty clear idea about it. If I kept my Oz pension, it might be more initially than the UK State pension but I would be at the mercy of exchange rates each month and also I would not be able to apply for any of the extras due to UK recipients of the pension. That last was pointed out to me by Pensions UK and so I thought that was a good thing to know. I would have to actually go to the UK and start living there before I applied for the UK pension, though, if I was going to go down that route. Which is fine, because I would have made my decisions by then and would have to accept one or the other. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Trying to find out about the UK pension from so far away is a bit of a minefield. You have to make yourself extremely unpopular by calling here, there and everywhere to find out but it's worth it.

Hi there, Yes, it's been a big blow! I have been trying to sell my house in this rural town I live in but it was a struggle due to many people coming up from Sydney to buy a cheaper house due to the ridiculous prices they are now charging down there. However, these good people are wanting cheap cheap so that they can renovate which makes sense to me but mine is already renovated and I really want a decent but realistic price for it and so they're tending to go past my house to the really old places that are just crying out for renovation. I don't blame them - I would do the same in their shoes. So I have to wait for that one buyer who likes my house. However, once I sell it which I will do eventually, I plan to go over to St Annes for a holiday, get a definite answer to my British pension, although they have told me I will be eligible for the full State pension. Somebody said earlier that I would lose my Aussie pension which is supposedly higher than the State pension. I do know that I would have to lose most if not all of my Aussie pension if I accepted the British one. The good thing about the Brit one, though, is that I would then be eligible for all the little extras so a person really needs to sit down with Pensions, pen in hand, and work it out correctly. Then I'd check out the house prices. I would need a garden. I used to flat yonks ago when I was single and used to hate not having a garden! I'll never do that again. So, as you see, the idea is not dead because things can change in one's life so quickly sometimes Gardening is one of my hobbies but I doubt I could make any money out of that. I remember in the 80's, we couldnt afford to buy a house for love nor money in Sydney due to the recession - then suddenly the bottom dropped out of the market and we were back in the housing market again! So never say never is my motto!! Thanks for the hug. Here's one back!!!

Thanks, Toots! Now, I just need to win big on next Saturday's Lotto - $40,000,000! That should just about do it!

Thanks, Wishful, for your nice words! My plans to go home at this ripe age (I won't put 'old' in there) have come to a grinding halt, unfortunately! When I retired from full-time work in 2004, I set up a little home business which topped up my Oz pension to a certain extent and I was full of plans to go back to St Annes, which is in Lancs and continue my business for the same client. I'm a member of a FB page on St Annes and so am more or less up to date with what's happening there. There have been many changes since my last visit in the '90's and some not for the better but I still would be going if I win the lottery or something unknown happens! My little home business was transcribing audio for a well known organisation in the UK and I used headphones for transcribing documents but lo and behold I have suddenly gone deaf in one ear! It's put paid to my little business in no uncertain terms, and I've had to close it after multiple tests, buying a stereo headset for one ear which didnt work and constantly trying different methods. My work was transcribing court work within the Old Bailey in London which has very high ceilings, with multiple microphones, so audio tends to echo around the room and you need 100% hearing to be able to hear it all and accuracy was the key, of course. So fate has taken a hand. I now can't afford to go back as I would want to buy a house when I got there in order to feel secure and unfortunately now I don't feel financially secure enough. So ... although I won't admit to giving up on my plan to go home, I've had to park the idea and think of something local instead until my luck changes again! I don't have any children, more's the pity, but my husband passed away in 2006. The rest of my family weren't a bit surprised to hear I was planning to go back because we've always just gone off and done things. We spent six years living in Virginia and working in DC and we travelled back to UK, working each time, quite a lot, so the plan to finish up back in Blighty didn't really faze me. It just seemed the thing to do since I was now on my own. I do have some family back there, several first cousins scattered around, two of which I am very fond of, so it was going to be such a good plan, I thought.

Hi Toots Hi, yes, I have worked in Oz for over 33 years all up, plus nine recorded years in the UK (it was actually a couple of years more but I can't prove it). NickyNook, The UK offered me a total of two pounds a month and a lump sum (due to me not applying for the UK pension for 15 years) of 450 pounds! If I had qualified for the full ten years work in the UK, I would have been able to go over there and apply for hundreds, maybe thousands of pounds for the 15 years delay in applying!!!!). If I do manage to get over there, I will query all this and ask them to look into it again but since I can't sell my house here for a reasonable sum, I am a bit stuck!!!

Sorry, don't understand your reply!!

Hi there I have been stymied by the fact that I can't sell my house for the price I need! I live in a country town and prices have not risen as they have in the cities and so that has stopped me. Lots of city folk coming to buy houses up here, driven away from the cities by the exorbitant prices there, but they are wanting dirt cheap in order to renovate. Sensible idea and I would do the same in their position but for the person wanting to sell, it's not good. I am also getting older and this is beginning to weigh on my decision. Re UK pensions, I would be eligible for full State pension ONLY if I went back to the UK and then applied for it after demonstrating I was going back to stay. In that case, my full employment history working in Australia would be taken into account by the UK. I have applied for it and this is what they've told me. They have granted me a tiny, tiny pension in the meantime because they say I have only worked in the UK for nine years, not ten. I have disputed that as I worked off and on for many companies temping apart from my permanent jobs and was told that not all temp agencies reported correctly. That would have taken me over the ten year mark. The Aussie pensions people are not helpful, either. They seem to take it as a personal insult if you call up to enquire about moving back to the UK. All they can say is that if you earn one single pound more than a certain amount, your Aussie pension will go down. Now, I am well aware of all this but it' s the attitude I don't like. So by all means enquire in order to get the best information you can but wait until you have installed yourself back in the UK and then apply for the UK pension. The awkward thing about that is that you have to actually move countries, which is a big deal, before you have a definitive answer on either your Oz pension or your UK pension. I've been told so many different things by both countries. So I am waiting for something to give on the housing side of things in order to get a higher price for my house as that is a key thing for me.

Hi there, thanks for posting to me. Well, I've been approved the UK pension of 119 per week a week or so ago. I haven't applied for it yet because I think if I did, I'd lose a substantial amount of my Aussie pension whilst I'm still here. I've got a small US pension as well so that brings the total up, too. If you went back to the UK, your pension would go up immediately but I'm sure you know a lot more about that than I do. This freeze that they've inflicted on UK pension recipients in Aust is so totally unfair. I'm now starting to concentrate on selling my house which is going to take me some time, by the looks of it with me living in a rural area. Best wishes Dell

You are in a heartbreaking predicament and I really feel for you. Aust migration laws are absolutely ruthless when it comes to allowing somebody like your sister to emigrate here or get a relative visa. There have been many instances like yours where people have taken the Aust government to court about it and their stories usually end up as headlines in the press but there is a loophole that allows them to do this. They believe that people with a disability or permanent illness could be a drain on the Medicare system here but it is a barbaric law. If it were me, I would go back. I couldn't stand to live in a country that refused my sister under that criteria! I know it's easy for me to say that but your plan to work with your other sister in looking after her is a really good one and if you can't do it here, I guess you would have to go back to Ireland and do it there. I hope I could be more help to you .

Pat, thanks so much for your two posts. I put in an application to Gov UK to see if I was eligible to get any pension if I did go back to the UK and I have now been informed that I would get the full state pension. However, because I am already on the Aussie pension, I will have to inform them that I will be receiving the UK pension. The Aussie pension is means-tested so I would expect to lose a large chunk of it because of receiving the UK one. I'm unsure just how much it would be at the moment. Yes, if I do return to the UK, it will be permanent so I would have residency. Cheers Dell

Oh, Sheila, I forgot to mention. UK Gov taking into consideration work within Australia for UK citizens is as a result of emigration in the 1950s. Australia offered a 10 pound fee for anybody wanting to come and settle in Australia for two years. That was the cut-off point, two years. Thousands of people in the UK who were fed up with Britain after WW2 emigrated. Many stayed but many also went back and so they decided to protect the pensions of those people who stayed in Oz for several years or more and then went back. The UK govt said they would recognise their Oz work experience as if they had worked in Britain. It was something they did back in the '50s and it lasted until 2001. They have told me I will only get my UK pension if I withdraw from the Aussie pension and also only if I go back to Britain and live there permanently. So no hopping back and forth for me any more! Hope that helps you understand.

Well, I'm not sure about your situation. You seem to have worked for 27 years in the UK, if my calcs are right. I don't understand the 'old way' or the 'new way.' You could write to them and ask them why you are receiving X amount of UK pension and not the full amount. I think that's what I would do. You are right about the Aussie pension being a lot more than the UK one. It's almost double at the moment but when you're living in the UK, they pay only in Aussie dollars so you could easily find that the pension drops way down once the pound start surging again. The pluses about receiving the UK pension when living in the UK is that you are absolutely sure of how much you will receive all the time and also it opens the way for you to apply for the supplemental benefits such as tax credits, etc. As for the proceeds of my house sale, I will be, unfortunately, in the position of yes, having a cash settlement but that cash settlement will not be enough to buy me property in the UK, either house or flat, so what to do there is something I'm wondering about. The other thing I'm mindful of is that when we bought our first house, we had saved and worked for quite a long time to be able to apply for that mortgage and the last thing I now want to do is just let that cash amount slowly fritter away! I have to do something productive with it and somehow not fall foul of the pension! When I sell my house, I intend to take a quick trip back there and assess it properly, armed with the info I will have by that time and make a final decision. Dell

Hi there everybody that posted to me! Just to let you know I put in an application with Gov UK to see if I was eligible to get the state pension. Just to paint the picture again, I had worked for about 8 years all up in the UK, I had then emigrated to Australia and nearly all of my working life (42 years) was spent in Australia. So my total experience was 8 years working in the UK and 42 years working in Australia. I have already qualified for the Aussie pension. I received an email a few days ago telling me that I WAS eligible to get the full state pension in the UK, due to the fact that the work experience of UK citizens that emigrated here and worked up until 2001 would be taken into account by the UK government when applying for a pension. In 2001, Australia and the UK changed their pension arrangements and the UK no longer passes along cost of living increases. I was lucky in that I had done most of my work experience prior to 2001 so was able to take advantage of this. I received such a friendly response and several people recommended I put an application in just in case I could be eligible, so the least I could do is let you know what happened! So I now have the option of moving back to the UK once I have sold my house here. I believe I will be eligible for several additional payments such as tax credits, help with rent if I have to rent for awhile, so I will follow these things up, too. I also now have to judge which is the best pension to stay on! Best of luck to everybody. Del

Ozzie, very glad you have decided to take your cat back with you! I wondered if I could ask this group a further question about shipping a cat (or dog for that matter) to the UK from Oz. It's related in a way to your request. When the animals are in the back section of the plane, is it very noisy, does anyone know? And is it cold in there? I'll be wanting to take an animal back with me, too, so I'm a bit worried about the noise. Thank you.