Redtop1 Posted April 13, 2017 Posted April 13, 2017 HI, I am new to this forum but thought our experiences of living here were worth sharing. We built our home in Adelaide 15 years ago and had to get Foreign Inestment Board Approval, initially it was our holiday home. We both had sick, ailing aged parents in UK and also good jobs, so we visited Adelaide a couple of times a year and had family local to our house keep an eye on it. This worked well for us. Sadly our parents passed away in a short period of time. We decided that we would move to Australia permanently, my husbands job was on the skills shortage list and within 18 months we were approved (2006) we sold up in the UK and came over with our two dogs. Husband got a job immediately, I stayed at home for about a year to short out arrival of furniture, cars and the dogs. We also had other work done on the house and when this was completed I set about getting a job. In in short we were happy and soon settled into our new life. Better job opportunities came along and life was great. Then 2010 I was made redundant, followed within weeks my husband lost his job, we both found it difficult to get new jobs as I was now 56 and encountered agism, my husband found it hard to get a job as there are only one or two jobs in his field that come up a year. He did get a job and after a year I got a job, it took us a couple of years to get back to where we were before redundancy. THen bang out of the blue I got made redundant (I was a couple of months from my 60th birthday, so I was pretty devastated and felt written off), 4 months later my husband was made redundant - this was 2014 and now we were feeling rather unsettled. We put a plan into place giving him 6 months to get a job, if he didn't, we were going to sell up and go back to the UK, we started to declutter to set ourselves up in readiness, we got to nearly the end of the six months and had arranged an appointment to sign up with to put the house on the market the following Monday. The next day a job came up he applied by the end of the week he had a job, it was 'the job he always wanted', he accepted, he was happy, life was good again. We quickly setttled back into enjoying life here I was even given the opportunity of going back to my old job which I took up, we were back on track again. We only had planned to do 10 more year and then retire and move back to the UK. In December 2016 I was told my job was to finish again! At the beginning of April my husband was made redundant! We were both devastated. We have had enough, we are selling up and moving back to the UK, there are jobs there for him to go for. We will miss our friends, our family that was in Adelaide has mainly gone now to other states as they don't see a future for themselves or kids in SA. We are sad that it has finally come to this. On the positives, at least my husband can go back to the UK and get his NI contributes to get a full pension, When I get mine in 2019 I won't have to worry about currency fluctuation. The exchange rate is in our favour for returning, We had a holiday booked to UK in June, so it will be an opportunity to see what jobs there are, we will be flexible on where we live over there within reason, so all will be good. We have been back regularly and have seen things on the up in our last 3-4 visits. LIfe is what you make it and when we came to Oz we were only going to live on earned income, no income, no stay. Onto the next adventure! Sorry this has turned out so long.
Toots Posted April 13, 2017 Posted April 13, 2017 What a lot of ups and downs you and your husband have had! I don't blame you for wanting to return to the UK. Hope life will be better for you there. Good luck.
Redtop1 Posted April 13, 2017 Author Posted April 13, 2017 Thank you, it is going to take a while to get sorted out and sold up here, but we will do it one step at a time. We are fortunate in that we still have UK bank accounts and a credit card. I just heard on the radio today that the unemployment rate has just gone up to 7% in South Australia. We just want to get our house sold before Holden shuts down.
simmo Posted April 13, 2017 Posted April 13, 2017 Best of luck with the move. No better place in the world to get old in.
BacktoDemocracy Posted April 13, 2017 Posted April 13, 2017 16 hours ago, Redtop1 said: HI, I am new to this forum but thought our experiences of living here were worth sharing. We built our home in Adelaide 15 years ago and had to get Foreign Inestment Board Approval, initially it was our holiday home. We both had sick, ailing aged parents in UK and also good jobs, so we visited Adelaide a couple of times a year and had family local to our house keep an eye on it. This worked well for us. Sadly our parents passed away in a short period of time. We decided that we would move to Australia permanently, my husbands job was on the skills shortage list and within 18 months we were approved (2006) we sold up in the UK and came over with our two dogs. Husband got a job immediately, I stayed at home for about a year to short out arrival of furniture, cars and the dogs. We also had other work done on the house and when this was completed I set about getting a job. In in short we were happy and soon settled into our new life. Better job opportunities came along and life was great. Then 2010 I was made redundant, followed within weeks my husband lost his job, we both found it difficult to get new jobs as I was now 56 and encountered agism, my husband found it hard to get a job as there are only one or two jobs in his field that come up a year. He did get a job and after a year I got a job, it took us a couple of years to get back to where we were before redundancy. THen bang out of the blue I got made redundant (I was a couple of months from my 60th birthday, so I was pretty devastated and felt written off), 4 months later my husband was made redundant - this was 2014 and now we were feeling rather unsettled. We put a plan into place giving him 6 months to get a job, if he didn't, we were going to sell up and go back to the UK, we started to declutter to set ourselves up in readiness, we got to nearly the end of the six months and had arranged an appointment to sign up with to put the house on the market the following Monday. The next day a job came up he applied by the end of the week he had a job, it was 'the job he always wanted', he accepted, he was happy, life was good again. We quickly setttled back into enjoying life here I was even given the opportunity of going back to my old job which I took up, we were back on track again. We only had planned to do 10 more year and then retire and move back to the UK. In December 2016 I was told my job was to finish again! At the beginning of April my husband was made redundant! We were both devastated. We have had enough, we are selling up and moving back to the UK, there are jobs there for him to go for. We will miss our friends, our family that was in Adelaide has mainly gone now to other states as they don't see a future for themselves or kids in SA. We are sad that it has finally come to this. On the positives, at least my husband can go back to the UK and get his NI contributes to get a full pension, When I get mine in 2019 I won't have to worry about currency fluctuation. The exchange rate is in our favour for returning, We had a holiday booked to UK in June, so it will be an opportunity to see what jobs there are, we will be flexible on where we live over there within reason, so all will be good. We have been back regularly and have seen things on the up in our last 3-4 visits. LIfe is what you make it and when we came to Oz we were only going to live on earned income, no income, no stay. Onto the next adventure! Sorry this has turned out so long. Sorry you have had such experiences, sounds like you have a grasp of the situation here in the UK, I would only say just make sure you are aware of the effects of Brexit and the inexorable squeeze being put on social provision of every kind by the Tories and this mad economics of Austerity. BTW you are across the changes to pension eligibility and years of paying into NI.
tea4too Posted April 13, 2017 Posted April 13, 2017 49 minutes ago, BacktoDemocracy said: Sorry you have had such experiences, sounds like you have a grasp of the situation here in the UK, I would only say just make sure you are aware of the effects of Brexit and the inexorable squeeze being put on social provision of every kind by the Tories and this mad economics of Austerity. BTW you are across the changes to pension eligibility and years of paying into NI. I would just add that it might be worth exploring the UK because devolution means that what happens in England doesn’t necessarily happen everywhere else. Policies relating to housing, transport, education, health (including management of the NHS), and social services are just some of the key areas where the Assemblies and Parliaments differ in their approach. For example - in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland NHS prescriptions are free for all patients because the Welsh Assembly, Northern Ireland Assembly and Scottish Parliament decided to legislate accordingly. However, people living in England are only exempt of charges in certain circumstances. The political focus depends on the party in power, and that (currently) differs across the home countries. T x
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