Elizabeth31

Hi All

My husband and I have been on the Parents Immigration list since 2005 and we have now been granted out visa's which have to be validated before December this year.

We are both retired and are 59 and 60 yrs old, I would like to hear from any others who have made the move at our age or older. Since we first applied for the visa the economic situation has changed a lot and of course our pound won't buy us as much any more. I have been looking at the prices for general household bills and shopping etc and I think they are pretty much the same as the UK so I'm not too concerned about that.

If there are any seniors out there who could give me the pro's and cons I would be very grateful. Or if there are things with hindsight that you wished you had done/organised in the UK before you left.

Thanks

DaveandLinda

We came over to Perth on a CPV last June. One of the things which we are still getting used to is how expensive it is here. It's not something you can really understand until you actually live here. We are currently renting as we have not yet brought our house money over due to the poor exchange rate.

We did want to retire here, but are in the process of transferring OH pension to an Australian superannuation fund and in the meantime he has taken a job to help swell the coffers.

On the plus side, we are enjoying the lifestyle, the lovely weather, and the beaches, as we live about 20 mins from the beach. And of course we get to be with our family and grandchild.

With regard to what we would do differently, I think probably would have brought more of our stuff over so that we would not have to buy too much when we got here.

Good luck with the move and your new life!

Elizabeth31

Thank you for your response. It sounds as though you think you have made the right move With the way things are in Europe at the moment I just can't see the exchange rate improving any time soon

We also thought we would bring over our car but having looked at a post earlier this week according to the poster it worked out at about ten thousand pounds which seem a ridiculous amount of money.

I'm still keen to make the move but my other half has reservations, financial and medical but I'm hoping that when we come to validate our visas he will get his enthusiasm back as scary as it all is.

Thanks again for responding.

DaveandLinda

There's not much we can do about the financial side of things. Although if you have a private or company pension in the UK which you have not yet started drawing you may be able to transfer this to an Australian superannuation fund and then draw it in dollars. This is what we are doing which will help to offset some of the disadvantages of the poor exchange rate if you are drawing a pension in ££s.

With regard to medical, I think the medical facilities over here are better than in the UK. If you can find a doctor who bulk bills you will not have to pay for visits to the doctor, many of them do this for seniors. You do have to pay for prescriptions, but there is a ceiling. There are some things not covered by Medicare, such as dentists, physio etc but we have taken out private insurance for these which costs us around $29 per fortnight. Pivate hospital cover is expensive, so we do not have this, after all we didn't have it in the uk.

Dimond

We made the move in our mid-to late 60's.
We enjoy the lifestyle here but take care- maintain British tax residency as long as you can. Income tax is 20%+ higher here when you pay Oz tax on your British pensions, you will loose some of your UK State pension, and the high dollar means any UK money is worth 20% less than it was some time ago. Also the cost of living is probably a bit higher in Australia.

Bermudashorts

You can't maintain UK tax residency at will, once you move here you become Australian tax resident.

I would love to know why you think Australian income tax on pension would be 20% higher than income tax on the same pension in the UK. Overall % of tax paid is very comparable between the two countries overall.

There is no point bringing what happens with Australian pensions into this, you don't have one of those, you have a UK pension.

Wol

As BS says, you can't just pick and choose where you pay tax! You will have to tell the UK tax office that you are no longer a tax resident so that all your UK pensions are henceforth paid without UK tax being deducted.

As you will know, your State pension will be frozen at the point when you take up residency, so will be worth less and less each year. And of course the exchange rate plays a huge part - my own pensions have gone down by over 40% in the last 18 months in $$ terms. There is some easing in the last week or two though.

You are fairly young so should be able to make contributions to an Australian superannuation scheme, which has tax advantages. Also you would be able to transfer any UK private pension funds into an Australian one - but finalise that before six months. And it might not be the best strategy anyway, depending on your circumstances.

I wouldn't say Australian tax is, overall, much different from that in the UK. But some things are more expensive, and some are VERY much more expensive - I'm talking multiples, not percentages!

The only advice I can give is to be careful, not to make decisions quickly on housing etc. Houses are very expensive and it's only too easy to end up in an undesirable area, of which there are plenty!