65 million

Hi all,

We leave the UK on Monday 6th December. Should I be contacting the Inland revenue or someone to say were leaving the UK (I'm only 34 years old) and that when we reach pensionable age to send it to us in oz.

Anyone know what we should be doing please????

stephenwhite68

Yes u should notify them of leaving and also contact someone about what to do about your pension ...

do a search for a form from Jacko1 that he gave me concerning notifying the Inland revenue

but u have 6 months to sort this out in Oz so don't panic yet !!

tony blair

Your UK pension will be permanantly frozen at the level it is as soon as you arrive in Australia. In other words it will not be index linked to UK inflation levels.

There are cases of OAPs in Australia who have a pension of only a fiver a week, due to inflation corroding the value of it, be warned!!

http://www.moneyworld.co.uk/features...nsions_23.html

Don

RUBBISH.

You can carry on paying NI contributions whilst abroad and your state pension will carry on increasing. Or you can stop paying NI contributions and your % payable of the UK state pension (due to current NI contributions by you) will stay at that %, ie increasing as pension benefits are reviewed upwards each year in the budget.

Only (under current legislation - which can change) when you reach pensionable age will your UK state pension in Aus be frozen.

Phoenixuk2oz

Question;
If the UK pension is frozen from the day you leave UK......would the Aus govmnt pay the difference re your pension allowance / entitlement?

[presuming you've contributed to the Aus economy that is]

65 million

Cheers guys,

So I just write to Inland revinue and ask them to freeze my state pension?

jad n rich

I hope I am totally wrong on this, but have been told you will get OZ pension if you stay in OZ, but if you return to live in the UK on retirement you wont be paid your aussie pension. My wife posted lots of questions about this and didnt get an answer, perhaps someone knows this time?

Phoenixuk2oz

Cheers J & R
Presuming any of us returned to UK to retire....and lost Aus pension ..wouldn't UK just pay UK minimum pension?

As you say......maybe someone can enlighten us

Don

It's not frozen from the day you leave the UK. It's frozen from the day it becomes payable if you live in Aus.

Don

No. There is no need to do anything vis a vis the IR regarding your pension. It is advisable to get a state pension forecast and you will be given options, eg you may choose to carry on paying NI contributions while abroad to increase your UK state pension.

Don

No. Your UK state pension amount depends on NI contributions made by you.

It's another question as to whether the govt will 'make up' the amount to a basic minimum (as they currently do) for those without enough NI contributions.

But currently the rules for this are quite severe, eg you cannot have significant savings or other income before the 'extra' reduces to zero.

Phoenixuk2oz

Guten abend Herr Fartenpants

So....if it's frozen from the day it becomes payable in Aus....then surely it's "unfrozen" once Aus no longer pays

Veleicht bin Ich dorf

Don

UK state pension is completely independent of Aus pension and (under current rules) will be paid regardless of whether you get an Aus pension or not.

The Aus authorities may reduce Aus pension because you have a UK pension, that I don't know.

Certain countries (as you probably know) are treated 'badly' by the UK state pension, ie pension recipients do not get an annual cost of living increase if they live in Aus, NZ and a few others.

If you come back to live in the UK (as a pensioner) it will be unfrozen and reset to your normal entitlement.

Phoenixuk2oz

Thanks Don

OzTennis

Don's quite right. It is an outrageous injustice that pensioners who move in small numbers from the UK to Barbados, Bermuda or wherever get indexed pensions but those who move in large numbers to Australia (220,000), Canada (140,000) or New Zealand (37,000) don't get an indexed pension. This isn't principle or justice, it's financial expediency.

What you do is fight for your rights by joining the local British Expatriates Pensioners Association and anything else you can do - write to Westminster MP's etc. See:

http://www.britishpensions.org.au

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/ma...24/annette.xml

Unless the law changes it would seem that someone of 34 would be ill-advised in continuing to pay NI cont'ns so they receive a frozen pension at 65! Take out a personal pension in Oz rather than rely on Albion (not West Brom).

OzTennis