can we still pay our ni contributions whilst in oz to claim our uk pensions

arlene

don't the exchange rate make that incredibly expensive?

dont know
arlene

Arlene

I would be interested to know the answer to this.

pockygoes

Dont the UK and Oz have an agreement re pensions :s I read it somewhere need to rake thro my comp see if I can find it

I think you need to transfer it to Oz within 6 months to avoid tax. Or you can leave it over in UK & start another one out here.

Yes you can. You can pay schedule 6 (I think) contributions of about GBP6.50 per week.

I did some research on this before I came out and the conclusion I came to was that it wasn't worth paying for the UK stamp.

Your state pension is fixed from the date you leave and cannot increase even if you pay extra contributions. There is an address in Newcastle you can write to and get a statement of how much you have contributed and earned in percentage terms before you left the UK. When you reach retirement age this is used to calculate your UK pension.

If I have got this wrong I would appreciate some correct info.

Steve

Might be this address...

Inland Revenue Contributions Office
Customer Validation Unit
Brenton Park View
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE98 1ZZ

Hi all
Have a look at this link.You may find it interesting:
http://www.atpubs.com.au/bpia/

Much depends on your age.I need to get a pensions forecast (having recently retired early) to decide if it is worthwhile continuing to pay a stamp if I stay in the UK.
I am probably older than most posteres on here so circumstances vary.
State pensions are frozen when you leave UK, as I understand it. Private pensions need transferring within a time limit and it is best to take proper advice.
Best wishes
G

You can keep paying in but

1) if you emigrate to a country outside the commonwealth, your pension goes up as per UK pension, if you move to a commonwealth country (canada, south africa, australia, nz, etc), it is fixed from the date you leave. There is a pensioner in canada currently taking UK gov to court to try to get this overturned, her legal costs are being met by canadian gov as they are having to pick up pension bill and pay uk pensioners out there. Everyone is watching with interest as it seems pretty unfair fixing pension if you go to a commonwealth country, but not if you go to another one.

2) Unless youre near retirement age, do you think UK gov will give you a pension at all ?

3) If you get a pension, will bank charges and exch. rates take it up getting the pension out to the country youre in

Im no expert, but i guess whether you can get payments moved to country youre going to is one for expert advice, although there are reciprocal health arrangements between UK and AU, so anything is possible ....

Yes, you can continue to pay NI contributions while you're abroad to claim a UK state pension.

To clear up some of the misconceptions here :

- if you are already claiming UK state pension when you leave the UK (in which case you wouldn't be making voluntary contributions, now would you? ), then your pension rate stays the same as when you leave the UK.

- otherwise, when you first start to claim your UK pension abroad, it will remain fixed at that amount that you start to receive it at (which will be the going UK rate at that time). It will not increase each year unless you live in one of the designated countries where the pension rate will increase. Ironically, no Commonwealth countries, which seems unfair seeing as they helped Great Britain in the wars... but there you go.

These webpages on the Inland Revenue site gives more info :
http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs...38/ni38-03.htm
http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs...38/ni38-02.htm

I am very interested in this thread. We read in the paper that OZ pensions are not paid if you move back to the UK. It was about 2 years ago and I took very little notice of the aritcle as thinking of returning to the UK at the time.

So does anybody know, are OZ old age pensions, not your private ones, but the Government ones paid if you retire back to the UK???? Sure its a long way off for most of us but if your spending your life working here we should know the answer.

Baloo
Can I just clarify that.
Are you saying that the UK pension will be frozen at the level where I first start to draw it?

For some reason (not logic) I assumed it would be frozen from when I leave the UK. There is (in my case) a difference of 10 years. I am in the process of getting a pension forecast as I think I may have already paid enough into the system.

What you say makes sense. Don't know why I misread the situation.
Best wishes

G

Incorrect mate, but some others have already put you right.

You can pay in NI contributions until retirement age and increase the UK state pension you will be entitled to at retirement. Only then will the pension be frozen with no annual inflation increase (because you are in Aus).