About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we lose
 

Hi there ,
Both my son and i have been permanent residents here in Australia now for 5yrs and our initial visa has finally expired.
We have both chosen to and passed the citizenship written test and interview stages and now have only the ceremony to attend in 2 weeks time.
The reason that we chose to go down this route was because i believed that Australia has a reciprical agreement with the UK (our place of birth and residence prior to emigrating to Australia) regarding health care ,pensions etc as long as we continued to hold UK passports .My main concern being that i am entitled to a UK old age pension at retirement age due to the years that i paiod into the system and national insurance paid etc and also that should i or he for any reason return to the Uk still want the benefits of the health care system.
However someone has informed me just this week that should we become Australian citizens regardless of whether we maintain UK passports then we permanently forfeit any of our former uk entitlements including pension rights?
Can anyone tell me please whether this information is correct/partly correct or any information to the contrary as i am now extremely confused..
Many thanks in advance for any advice/replies recieved ,
Jollyswagman

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required please !
 

OYou are still entitled to your UK state pension. Entitlement to the NHS is more complex and dependent on where you are resident - check out threads in our UK forum for more details, but if you return to the UK to live, you are still entitled to NHS care.
You are still a UKcitizen after all, you are just becoming an Aus citizen as well.

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required please !
 

Hi there Pollyana thx for your reply can you tell me what obvious entitlements I will be losing though as I am now quite worried being only two weeks away from making the commitment ? Thanks again
Jollyswagman

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required please !
 

I can't tell you as I'm not aware of any. I will move your post to the main Aussie forum, with a new title, might get better answers there.

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required please !
 

I don't think you will lose any, you will still be British Citizens with all that entails, you don't have access to the UK NHS now as you are an Australian resident, and that will not change, you will be entitled to it though if you move back to the UK and become a UK resident once again. You will keep your UK pension, and it will be payable on reaching the required age, and you can, of course, contimue to top up that pension.

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

If you are an Australian PR, permanently living in Australia, your rights in the UK are the same as if you are an Australian Citizen. So no change.

As either, if you go back to the UK for a holiday you may not be entitled to free health care. Your pension will be affected by living outside the UK, not by dual citizenship status.

BB

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

As you are living abroad you don't have NHS rights even now but were you to return to UK to live permanently, you would.

Pension - well, you aren't contributing to your UK pension while working in Aus unless you are consciously doing it - and that is a worthwhile thing to do - you can back pay 4-5 yrs worth - so you won't have got enough years up for a full pension. Also, living in Aus and claiming a UK pension your pension will be frozen at the rate you take it initially.

Otherwise there aren't really any disadvantages to becoming an Aus citizen unless you count the need to keep two passports current - the Aussies won't let you leave without one of theirs!

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

The only drawback about claiming a UK state pension whilst living in Australia is that you do not receive any annual cost of living rises after you initially claim the pension, as long as you remain in Australia. If you return to the UK (holiday or permanently) you get the full current rate whilst in the UK.

Have you got a pensions forecast? There are different rules depending on when you were born. You should also look at deferring your pension options.

Start here https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-...d/how-to-claim

More info Amassed Information to help

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

Thx guys for all the responses I am going to check that info out and see what is applicable in the meantime if anyone has any other information please sing out !
Thx Jollyswagman

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

There is no discernible difference aside from potential rule changes governing transfer of pensions, i.e. it is being proposed that from sometime next year you will not have the option of having your pension paid into an Australian bank account, so if you wish to transfer it or have the option to do so then you would need to declare so by then.

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

Many thanks for your advice guys, it would seem i have nothing to lose then from gaining my citizenshp status apart from the need to obtain a further passport?
I will check out the rules etc re the uk pension and get a forecast sorted thanks again for your help everybody and of course if anyone has anything further to add please dont be shy ,
The Jollyswagman

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

You won't lose any UK benefits that you haven't already lost by living in Aus. IE citizenship doesn't change anything from PR aside from having the option of using an Australian passport whilst traveling abroad. But remember Aus requires you to enter/exit Aus on an Aus passport.

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

It's well worth getting the UK pension forecast. I got mine recently and have arranged to inexpensively top up the missing years and resume contributions. Bear in mind that when the new rules kick in (next year?) you'll need more than 30 years of contributions to be entitled to the full state pension, though they haven't worked out how many yet.

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

Plus (if I read it correctly), under the new rules we'll need at least 10 years of contributions to be entitled to anything.

Re: About to attend Citizenship Ceremony -advice required-what UK entitlements do we
 

How do you go about that paulry? It is something I have been meaning to get around to for a while.