tabitha10 Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 My husband and i are not quite of pensionable age (46 & 49) we are looking to go to OZ on a CPV,(couple of yrs time) now my question is what will happen to our UK state pension if we are in OZ at pension age? will we still get one? will it be frozen at the rate it is in the yr we go to OZ, will we also be eligible for an OZ pension as well? If not how will it all work. thanks for listening Tab xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew from Vista Financial Posted September 14, 2012 Share Posted September 14, 2012 Hi Tab UK State Pension The years that you have accrued as qualifying years will be counted towards your UK State Pension benefit and can be paid to people in Australia. The current full UK State Pension qualifying years requirement is 30 for both men and women. If someone has not accrued the 30 years then it will be pro-rated i.e if someone has 15 qualifying years then they will be entitled to 50% of the Basic State Pension. The benefits that have been built up will increase with the cost of living each year up until retirement however once they are in payment at State Pension Age they then remain flat for people living in Australia. It is possible to make voluntary contributions to top up missing years. Australian Age Pension The Australian government also have an Age Pension however this is means tested based upon a persons 'asssets and income' in retirement. Generally 10 years as a permanent resident is the requirement to be eligible and the lowest outcome of the 'assets and income' test is what someone will receive. As an example of this, a couple who are homeowners can have up to $273,000 in assets (exc home) and $6,968 per annum of income before the Age Pension starts to be reduced. After this point the amount received is tapered off and whichever produces the lower result is the amount they are eligible for. There are lots of strategies available for pensioners to consider that can potentially increase their Australian Age Pension. I hope this helps, Regards Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabitha10 Posted September 14, 2012 Author Share Posted September 14, 2012 Oooooh thank you so much for all the info...it has helped no end...thanks again. Tab x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nige Butt Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Andrew, Having only paid into the state pension scheme for 28 of the 30 years required for qualification, is it worth making the additional extra top-up payments before I emigrate? What do I gain by doing/not doing so? Nige Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew from Vista Financial Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Andrew, Having only paid into the state pension scheme for 28 of the 30 years required for qualification, is it worth making the additional extra top-up payments before I emigrate? What do I gain by doing/not doing so? Nige Hi Nige Topping up could be worthwhile as it will mean that you would receive 100% of the Basic State Pension instead of 93.33% (28/30) which is around 382GBP difference annually. However there is no rush for you to do this before leaving the UK as it can be still done when in Australia. Also if you do look at this when you are in Australia you may be able to pay Class II contributions as opposed to Class III which are considerably cheaper (you will have to apply specifically for this though). Hope this helps, Regards Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.