woogle

Hi,
We are due to go to Oz in Jan,& I was after some advice/experiences of claiming our UK state pension whilst there. We're both 39,& our when we spoke to our agent in the beginning,he said most people don't bother,as it's a long winded process & not worth the hassle. So I haven't looked into it yet,but just wondered if anyone would agree not to bother?
I know it's a few years off yet, but at we could do to find out.
Any feedback welcome,
thanks

FRAYNE

HI i phoned the DDS for a pension forecast 08453000168 they were very helpful they can give you the number for the dept that deals with overseas and then you can decide if its worth it for you to pay any more stamp, you can do a forecast yourself online but i cant remember the web site if you try a search on the pension service you might find it Janet

Kevhaze

Hi, I am in the same predicament. I am 39 and Kev is 44 and the way I see it is that Kev has paid for all those years, since starting work at 16 and it would be really annoying to lose any claim. I think that I will arrange for us to pay the basic NIC, then if we do ever decide to come back, our contributions will be up to date. I think that the basic rate is Class III voluntary at about £360 per annum. Though don't quote me on that.

I do know that when you are at the age to claim your pension, it is not index linked. So although when you start receiving it, it will be the normal rate; it will not increase.

I got a forecast for my pension and it came out at £115 per month.

Look at www.thepensionservice.gov.uk or phone 0845 3000 168, they should be able to help.

Would be good to see anyone elses thoughts on this subject.

Hazel

woogle

Thanks,
I know it might be obvious,but do you stop paying the £360 a year when you get your pension?

markeh

Hi,
has anyone worked out what you would get if you invested the money?

Bye
Mark - Playing devils advocate.

jan

No it goes up 10% a year and you have to pay until you die.

Unless you are married then it cost £720 per year unless you collect tokens from your local petrol station the you get 1% discount.

Hope this helps.

markeh

Hiya,
I fofollowedhe link, now I have to await a PIN in the post

Bye
Mark

jjonboy

OK OK i am really confused!?!

So if you leave the UK and never pay any more N.I. after x years of work say 10 for arguments sake then are you entitled to anything at retirement??

Can someone help with a few nuggets of info?

annqldau

We opted to keep our pensions contributions up, they have sent us letter the pension people saying they will send us another letter at end of year for what national insurance we need to pay.

We are 40 so seemed worth while as retirement will be here asap.

marco121068

Yes you will be entitled to something at retirement - but if it's only 10 years it won't be very much.

From my understanding to qualify for a full basic pension you need to accrue 44 years worth of contributions. Register with the pensions site and get a forecast. It's fairly informative.

HTH

marco121068

????

GinaUK

Some points to consider:

1. In order to get the full Basic State Penion, you need to have paid appropriate National Insurance (NI) contributions for a certain number of tax years. For a man, this means 44 tax years worth of appropriate NI to get the full Basic State Penion. For a woman, it depends on when she was born: those reaching age 60 before 2010 need 39 years of NI contributions (or NI credits). From 2020, when the state pension age will be 65 years of age for both men and women, women will also need 44 years of appropriate NI.

2. If you have less than 25% of the tax years needed for a full state pension, i.e. you are a bloke and you have clocked up less than 11 years of appropriate NI contributions, you will get no state pension at all.

3. If you have between 25% and 100% of the required years' worth of NI you will get a partial state pension. (At the moment, the minimum basic state pension is around £20 per week and the full basic state pension for a single person is around £80 a week.)

4. HOWEVER, if by the time you are due to retire the government of the day has abolished the basic state pension, or has changed the rules (perhaps made it means-tested, or introduced a rule that only those living in the UK can claim it), you may get nothing for your NI contributions.

A lot of people forget that just because they pay NI does not mean they will get the basic state pension for sure. It depends entirely on the (whim of the) government at the time when you retire.

Looking back over the past 20 years, successive governments have tinkered substantially with the pension system. Personally, I think if we have a few Conservative governments, then the state pension will disappear altogether. Under Labour, it'll probably be means-tested and only available to UK residents by the time I retire. The reason: as we all get older and there are fewer young people around, keeping the basic state pension going will be prohibitively expensive for the government.

5. Some people are thinking of paying voluntary NI when in Oz in case they come back to the UK (and they believe the basic state pension will still be around when they retire). If you are thinking along those lines, consider this:

These voluntary NI contributions must be paid within six years of the tax year in which they fall due. Example: If you leave the UK on 6 December 2005, your voluntary contributions for the period 6/12/2005 to 5/04/2006 must be paid by 05/04/2012. Your voluntary NI contributions due for the year 06/04/2006 to 05/04/2007 must be paid by 05/04/2013. And so on.

Therefore, you could put the money for those voluntary NI contributions into a savings account in OZ each month. In six years' time (when you get near the due date (05/04/2012) for those contributions for the first tax year when you left the UK), you can re-evaluate your situation: Do you still think you'll be going back to the UK? If you think the answer to that question is "yes" or "maybe", then pay over that year's worth of voluntary NI contributions.

If by then you're sure you'll be staying in Oz, then don't "waste" the money on a UK state pension that may not materialise. You'll be better off keeping it invested in Oz. That way, it'll be a pot of money with your name on it when you are due to retire.

6. Last but not least, don't forget that once you've been in Oz 10 years (having arrived with a PR visa), you qualify for the Oz state pension on retirement (Oz state pension is means-tested).

I hope this has answered a few questions.

Gina

markeh

Hiya Gina
I like your idea of keeping the contributions in a savins account for just under the 6 years.
That could be a nice little earner!

The way the pension is going it could beworth nothing, and then because you are in Oz it is frozen

Bye
Mark

annqldau

Oh Gina you are a cheerful sole but you could be correct, may try your advice... .

OzTennis

http://www.britishpensions.org.au

And lobby for a change to the ridiculous law that some British pensioners living overseas have an index linked pension whilst those who live in Australia and some other countries have a pension which is frozen from day one of drawing.

OzTennis