Dugong Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Hi Just wondering if you can still make minimum national insurance payments even though you are in Oz? :err: Could you pay the self employed contibution? Would feel a little more secure knowing that if we ever decided to return to the UK (havent even left yet!!) that we were doing something towards our pension! thanks for any advice:notworthy: Dugong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy and Tracy Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 AFAIAA, you still can. We are going to! Paid in for all these years, so may as well get something back..little that it is. I do know tho' that it is not index linked - i.e. once you start claiming your pension and you are not UK based, you will only ever get the rate that you started getting on the first day you were paid when you retire. It will never go up with annual increases (all 75p a week of them) This is something that British expats in Spain are always unhappy about isn't it? Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmaj Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 How do you go about this? Im confused. Thanks Emma x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy and Tracy Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 You write to them direct and say you want to make your own contributions. You can pay monthly or annually. Just keep a British bank open for them to take the payments out. My husband does it as a self-employed person. For the years that women (or in some cases men) are getting child benefit, your contributions are paid anyway for a certain number of years - in fact I think it is for the whole time that your children are at school if you stay at home. Check out the governments website - bound to be there somewhere - making your own contributions. It doesn't just have to be your employer. Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MariAndyok Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Are you sure it's not index linked. I know NZ has not got a reciprical agreement with UK but I think Oz has. I know that my Army pension goes index linked when I'm in Oz. Does anybody know any different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest earlswood Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Are you sure it's not index linked. I know NZ has not got a reciprical agreement with UK but I think Oz has. I know that my Army pension goes index linked when I'm in Oz. Does anybody know any different? It is index linked in the European Union...in Oz it stays the same without the increases from the day you start to receive it.. quote... There are some 11.5 million UK state pensioners living in the UK and some 40 other countries. All these pensioners have historically received annual uprating of their pensions. Of those, 556,500 expatriate pensioners receive uprating because they happen to live in some 40 countries where pensions are not frozen by the UK. Unfrozen countries include the European Union, USA, Israel, Philippines, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, etc.. The practice of paying equal benefits to members of the state contributory pension fund, regardless of their country of residence is normal and common to all countries within the member states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. (OECD) The only exception is the United Kingdom which fails to treat all its expatriate pensioners equally. 518,260 expatriate pensioners, (92% of whom live in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) have never received any uprating of their pensions since they received their first pension cheque as a resident of a frozen country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest W99TTS Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Hi I requested a pension forecast based on working in the UK until Dec 08 and it breaks down what your pension will be worth when you retire. I then need to get back in touch the the NI contributions section and they will advise of the amount payable . If you do a search on their website it details all sorts of help pages. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ceefa Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 What a good question tracy That wouldnt have even crossed our minds. That will be something to look forward to, after all we have all paid in for it. Good on ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy and Tracy Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 It is index linked in the European Union...in Oz it stays the same without the increases from the day you start to receive it.. quote... There are some 11.5 million UK state pensioners living in the UK and some 40 other countries. All these pensioners have historically received annual uprating of their pensions. Of those, 556,500 expatriate pensioners receive uprating because they happen to live in some 40 countries where pensions are not frozen by the UK. Unfrozen countries include the European Union, USA, Israel, Philippines, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, etc.. The practice of paying equal benefits to members of the state contributory pension fund, regardless of their country of residence is normal and common to all countries within the member states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. (OECD) The only exception is the United Kingdom which fails to treat all its expatriate pensioners equally. 518,260 expatriate pensioners, (92% of whom live in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) have never received any uprating of their pensions since they received their first pension cheque as a resident of a frozen country. Thanks for the clarification Earlswood. Only in the UK would our pensioners be treated like this! So, in 20 odd year's time we can all start a campaign on here to get our pensions index linked! Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest earlswood Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 What a good question tracyThat wouldnt have even crossed our minds. That will be something to look forward to, after all we have all paid in for it. Good on ya. Yes but the problem is it stays the same from your first payment...so after 10 years of inflation it will still be the same as your first payment and worth probably half. :dull: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ceefa Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Still money for old rope though. Better than leaving it behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest earlswood Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Still money for old rope though.Better than leaving it behind. True...it is your money and have paid thousands in....why should they have it:spinny: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy and Tracy Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 I reckon though that our generation will not be so "grateful" to the Government once we reach retirement age. The problem is, this generation lived through having to pay for Doctor's visits, no welfare state etc and they forget that they have paid in for all this stuff. I am sure we won't take the same **** once we get to their age. Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest earlswood Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 I reckon though that our generation will not be so "grateful" to the Government once we reach retirement age. The problem is, this generation lived through having to pay for Doctor's visits, no welfare state etc and they forget that they have paid in for all this stuff. I am sure we won't take the same **** once we get to their age.Tracy I agree...why should the British Goverment be the only Country in the world that does not pay an index-linked pension to its ex-pats.:realmad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dazla Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 its a good idea to get a pension forecast first from the contributions agency. I spoke to them yesterday as I intended to pay voluntary contributions when I get to sydney in december. They told me that it may not be worth paying them as I've been working for 21 years, and will only fall short by 4 years, so if i come back to the UK in a few years I can start paying them again at that point Daz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy and Tracy Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Good post Dugong and great suggestions from posters. Daz, that was good advice, but why do they make you pay in for 40 years if you work in the UK if you could have stopped after 25?.. blimey.. definitely worth checking though. Also, I just had another thought...earlswood quoted up to date legislation about the European Union insisting that the UK pay index - linked pensions to ex - pats in Spain, but when we considered Spain to emigrate to 5 years ago, it wasn't, I'm sure..SO.. did the campaigning by the ex- pats work?! If so, we could do the same for OZ!!! Does anyone know when it changed for Spain or did I misunderstand all those yaers ago? Gives us a bit of hope! Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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