Everton01

My story!
I left the UK when I was 30 and have lived and worked in Oz for 33 years. I am going to retire now unfortunately (ill health) and live off savings and my Oz Superannuation.
I'll be eligible for full Australian State Pension in 5 years time when I'm 67.
I looked on the GOV.UK website and discovered that I will be eligible for a UK state pension when I'm 67 (about GBP 100 per week according to their forecast).

Has anyone any experience or knowledge about claiming UK state pension from Australia?
Does it count as "Income" on the Oz Income and Assets test?
Is it frozen when you claim it? i.e. does it go up in line with inflation?
Is it worth making any NI top-up contributions?

spouse of scouse

You can claim your UK state pension through this UK International Pension Centre link https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre
Your state pension can be paid into your UK bank account (if you have one), or directly into your Australian bank account.
Yes, the UK state pension counts as income for the Australian age pension income test.
Yes, your UK state pension will be frozen at the rate you get when you first claim it if you continue to live in Australia.
Not sure whether or not it's worth topping up your NI contributions, but others here will probably know.

Everton01

Thanks for this information!

the troubadour

I topped up mine as Australian pension is means tested . It is a life payment and not means tested. Made sense for me to top it up. Yes you must declare it to taxation. (same Brits will tax OZ superannuation in UK)

Pulaski

You will get "years of actual or deemed contributions/ 35 x full UK state pension", which is currently about £185 IIRC. So in your case, that would likely be around 14/35 if you left school and started working, or 11/35 if you went to university. You likely got deemed years of contributions from age 16-18 IF you remained at school.

Until you retire you can make additional contributions, and if you were working both before and after you left the UK, you would likely be approved for the Class 2 rate of about £165/yr. You can usually contribute for the current plus six preceding (UK tax) years, for a current total cost of about £1,150, which would get your pension increased to 18/35 - 21/35. But if you try you might be still able to snag the concession available through to July 2023, which allows retrospective contributions back to 2006-07, which is a further 11 years, which would get your pension increased to 29/35 - 32/35. If you are eligible to contribute for any more years before claiming retirement at 67, you may actually be able to get a full UK pension, or very close to it.

I can't stress enough how good a deal Class 2 contributions are, because every penny you contribute at the Class 2 rate will be repaid to you in the first 7½ months of your retirement.

If you're interested in learning more, check the thread in the US forum - start near the end, its a very long thread!

Everton01

Are you considering moving back to the UK to retire? (I assume you live in Perth Australia?)
Are you concerned about the UK pension being frozen in the first year of claiming it due to Australia /UK not being in an social security agreement?

Everton01

Thanks for this information.
Are you in a country with a reciprocal social security agreement?
You are correct. 10/35 qualifying years due to incomplete years during University.
Most of the Commonwealth countries aren't and so my NI pension would be "frozen" in the first year if I stay in OZ.
I need to do the sums!