atlasthemonk

My brother is 59 , (with dual UK and Australia citizenship)and has worked in the UK for 21 years (with small work pension) and has worked in Australia for 21 years ( with a similer, small Australian work pension) and is contemplating returning to the UK to work for his last 8 years. With consideration to pension, would he be better off remaining in Australia or returning to the UK ?

calman014

Just go to the gov.uk site and look at the pension options there. Lots of useful info.

Pollyana

Impossible for anyone to tell from that. Too many tax issues and different scenarios.
https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record Go to that link and find out how much UK State Pension he would be entitled to, then see if he can make that up to a full UK pension. He can claim that while living in Australia and its not means tested.
Check out the rules around the Aus state pension too, which IS means tested and is not so easy to claim for non-residents.

Paid independent advice might be an idea,

atlasthemonk

If my brother returns to the UK now he will be able to claim full UK pension ( after a bit of tweeking) but will he receive anything from Australia ?
If he stays in Australia he will not receive a full pension but will this be topped up from UK state pension ?

Pollyana

If he goes back to the UK and has paid in enough for the full UK State Pension, then he will receive the full amount.
He would also receive the full amount if he remains in Aus, but the pension would not benefit from any increase, its frozen at the amount he gets when he starts to claim.

If he claims the Aus Old Age Pension then he needs to know its means tested, and any UK State Pension its taken into account when claiming the Aus one. He gets the UK one first, then any top up may come from the Aus one, not the other way round.
Being eligible for the Aus one in the first place is not as simple as the UK one.
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au...?context=22526

spouse of scouse

When you're talking about his Australian pension, do you mean the government Age pension or superannuation through his employer(s)?

The former is classed as a welfare payment and as Polly has said, is subject to income and assets tests. The latter is not.