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!

17 hours ago, Marisawright said:

You won't be taxed on the transfer.   The only thing to consider is that if you leave your money in a bank account in Australia for any length of time, the bank will deduct withholding tax because you're now a foreigner. 

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!

5 hours ago, sammy11480 said:

Hello Everyone

I would really appreciate if anyone can advise me on whether my daughter is in the right year group. I know this sounds silly that I don't know, but I'm getting myself all confused.

We moved to Melbourne in January 2020 and my daughter turned 5 on 19th May 2020. We then started her in Prep starting January 2021. 

She is now in Year 1 and just turned 7 in May 2022. 

She is the oldest in her class and some in her class are still 5! Alarm bells are beginning to ring and I'm wondering if she should actually be in Year 2 by now?!

I confess I find the ages and year groups so much more confusing than UK where you start school at 4 or 5 and then all children are the same age in each year group.

Please advise if you can if a 7 year old in Year 1 is normal or I've gone wrong somewhere?

In Uk she would be heading into year 3 in September! Such a huge difference to Year 1. I also can't believe she will be 12 and still at Primary school at this rate!

Many thanks,

Sam 

 

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.

On 19/07/2022 at 00:56, Marisawright said:

Strictly speaking, if you are a British citizen, you are supposed to enter the UK on a British passport. 

In practice, if you just use your Australian passport and don't tell anyone you're British, no one will check.  You'll be allowed in for a holiday, like any other Australian.

The problem arises if you arrive at the UK Border and tell someone that you're a British citizen, then they get all funny about it. 

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.

8 hours ago, Tulip1 said:

It’s more about how much your income is.  The banks don’t care whether it’s from a salary or a pension, they have to document affordability when offering lending.  If you only have a low pension, that’s the same as someone with a low paid part to job and they would equally be refused.  If you have a good pension then you would be treated the same as someone with a good salary.  Having money in the bank cannot be used as affordability.  You may spend it all the following week and then you have been given lending that you can’t afford.  Lots of very old people have credit cards with high limits because they have passed the affordability to have them.  Nothing to do with age or having just a pension. 

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.

On 08/07/2022 at 12:40, Marisawright said:

It is outlandish, I'm just saying it's the same in the UK so not exclusively an Australian thing.

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.

11 hours ago, kimboslice said:

Hi

i know your uk pension is frozen the day you leave the uk. If you return after say 2/3 years, how does that affect your final salary, do you have to make the 2/3 years up. We are both 58 years of age. Thanks in advance.

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.

4 hours ago, Ruth1 said:

I was specifically referring to the NHS pension as I have a current defined 'pot' that I will get each year.. I should have been clearer, apologies.

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.

6 hours ago, beketamun said:

 

Why would you disagree, it's not even controversial?  There hasn't been a new town in the UK for 50 years.....what was the last new town created in the UK?  Redditch, MK? 

It's ok sticking a housing estate on the green belt, or a flood plain....but any existing town with streets 100 years old has nowhere to expand to, that is the exact problem with the economy.  Nobody wants to fund the infrastructure support costs which would need to be drastic, and builders are only looking at their profits from house sales.  

I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make.  It’s true there haven’t been new towns created in the UK but my existing town, founded in 71AD, is having new houses built at the rate of almost 1000 a year.  

7 hours ago, beketamun said:

it's something you don't see in the UK, everything is finished...no new towns since when, nowhere to put new streets in existing towns?  The expansion of Australia is relentless and they're pretty good at making new societies from scratch right down to base infrastructure.

That’s a rather sweeping generalisation about the UK.

We don’t book a blood test on the NHS website here.  We ring the GP surgery and the receptionist books one for the next day.

We were very happy with the service we got from Send last year.  The rate was good, no fee and the transfer arrived in our UK bank the same day.  I still have some funds remaining in my Australian bank and am thinking of transferring them soon as the exchange rate is very favourable at the moment.

I’m so sorry you feel you shouldn’t have moved to Australia in the first place but if you want to leave don’t believe all the horror stories you hear about life in the UK.  I’ve already queried one comment about electricity bills going up from £100 to £400 a month.  As for the NHS, we can’t fault the treatment we’ve received in the 11 months since we’ve been back.  House prices vary enormously depending on the area.

Hi Jo,  we had a lovely 15 years in Oz and made lots of good friends.  One daughter followed us to Bendigo and the other stayed in Yorkshire and produced grandsons!  So the move back to Yorkshire was a mixture of family and a longing for some history!  We went on a long trip to Scandinavia, UK and France in 2019 and just felt something was missing when we got back to Oz.  There are things I miss from Australia just as I missed things from England when we were there.  We certainly don’t regret having gone - and we were mid 50s when we arrived - but I agree with others that have posted, it’s not to be undertaken lightly.

We came back to England last year after 15 years in Victoria.  We lived in Bendigo but used to go to Torquay and Anglesea quite often, both in summer and winter - great to visit but personally I think Geelong gives you better options.

Can’t give any help on the schools but just curious as to why you want to live in Torquay?  House prices are very high, it’s horrendous in summer with tourists flocking and dead in winter!

7 hours ago, DrDougster said:

Well, my passport arrived!

We've got some TimTams, Brisbane Heat caps, the predictable Roxy bikinis and RipCurl swimmers. I think a couple of 100 Paracetamol and 96 'brufen packs and some Aussie chocolates would be good.

Really don't want to go. Going to be a lot of hard work.

Don’t know when you’re coming or where exactly but I hope you get some of the beautiful weather we’ve been having in Yorkshire this past week.  Cloudless blue sky and sun, daffodils and hyacinths in full bloom with bluebells just ready to burst forth!  Lots of white skin exposed by the locals….

Why was tax charged on a second hand shirt?