Cup Final 1973

Really feel for you Cheery Thistle. The pictures on the news from Scotland have been dreadful.. We haven’t done badly in South Yorkshire, although my daughter who has come to spend Christmas here with her Australian partner (first time back in 15 years!) would have liked a white Christmas. My friends and ex- neighbours in Bendigo and Junortoun reported 100mm of rain in 2 days.

We moved back 18 months ago and used Send. (Dylan Wooster 0756195710). We were very pleased with the exchange but be aware you need to show where your funds have come from. We’ve also used them since we’ve been back. There are no fees and the rate is always competitive.

It’s all to do with the date you first claim your pension. When you are eligible isn’t a factor. If he first claims his pension in April and subsequently returns to Australia his pension will be frozen at the rate he’s receiving when he leaves the UK. It makes sense to defer!!

I feel there’s been quite a bit of hysteria regarding energy prices in the UK. My electricity daily standing charge has gone down fractionally with the unit rate rising from 27.35 pence to 33.029 per kW. Gas has increased more from 7.27 pence per unit to 10.244 although again the standing charge has decreased. To offset this, households have received £200 in three payments and pensioners like us will get £500 winter fuel payment. I’ve seen people interviewed on television claiming they’ll pay £4000 a year - they must live in a mansion with the heating on 24/7!

I haven’t heard of withholding tax Marisa. When is this applied? We left in May 2021 but I still have a bank account in Australia with quite a large amount in it.

Going into Y10 in February is certainly not ideal. You may want to choose Y9 instead so your child can do the full GCSE course starting in September.

Great to hear your follow-up bug family and I wish you all the very best in your new life.

I can’t believe that Nanna is seriously thinking of backing out of selling her house with 24 hours to go. I feel for the prospective buyers!

In Victoria students transfer to secondary school at age 12. They begin in Year 7 and can leave school after Year 10. If they choose to stay on for VCE which is the equivalent of A levels, they do Year 11 and 12.

We’ve just had a visit from some Aussie friends, one of whom moved to Australia from the UK in his twenties. He travelled on his Aussie passport, only to be challenged by the immigration officer and asked for his British passport! He was held up for some time and told in no uncertain terms that he should have travelled on his British passport.

Yes I know it’s basically about your income. My point is that if your income is the basic pension from the UK government you are never going to qualify for a credit card, no matter how many hundreds of thousands you have in your bank account.

Yes you’re right. I’ve had a Barclaycard for over 20 years but as soon as I hit 70 the spending limit was reduced to £250. This is not brilliant but I get round it by paying it off every week. Like Marisa I always pay the bill to avoid interest and use it for the cash back it gives. I have applied for other cards but no one is interested in how much money you have in the bank. If you have just a pension as income it’s an automatic refusal.

Your UK pension isn’t frozen the day you leave the UK if you haven’t already started receiving it, which you wouldn’t have given your age. Once you reach pensionable age and elect to receive the pension in Australia it is then frozen at that level.

Sorry Ruth. Completely missed the NHS bit!

If you have not yet reached pension age your pension amount has not yet been calculated! It will depend on how many years you’ve contributed and the rules do change. Once you start receiving your UK pension it is frozen at that rate while you are in Australia. Each time you go back to the UK or certain other countries the rate is updated to the current rate for the time you are in that country but reverts to the frozen rate once back in Oz. You have to declare it when you do your yearly tax return in Oz and you are taxed on it.