UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

Hi

Couple of questiosn trying to get definitive answers on please:

Child Benefit

Can you still claim child benefit in the UK if on a 457 visa - npt sure how long we will stay but current intention is to return to UK at some point

National Insurance Contributions

How much per week/month do you have to pay voluntarily to make sure still get UK pension

Many thanks for any help

Cheers

Re: UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

Hi

Unfortunately you cant claim either UK child benefit or Oz family credit when you're on a 457 Visa (which is a bit unfair! :mad: ). Not sure about the National Insurance, I think hubby got a request for £35 to cover a month - dont quote me on that though. With money being so tight, and converting that to Aus$ we opted not to bother in the end.

HTH :)

Re: UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

Nope, no child benefit from UK and Mrs Jackaroo says no benefits in oz which is a pisser because you pay as much tax as the PRs.

AS for NI contributions I have regularly received letters from the contributions agency offering me this service while I lived in Canada and Oz so I suspect you can contribute but with the exhange rate at the moment, sending money back to the UK is a no no.

Re: UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

You realise it costs the equivalent of a Latte a week?

Re: UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

I know its not very expensive but at nearly 2.5 dollars to the quid at the minute and a monthly mortgage payment that would feed a small child for 10 years its just not a priority for us at the moment.

Re: UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

not if you have LAFHA...

Re: UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

my husbands company don't offer it and as you lose it the day you apply for PR, we didn't want to get used to money that we weren't going to have in the long term.

Re: UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

Bummer they do not offer it - it has been very useful to us...

I know what you mean about getting used to it, not that we have done much research into it yet, but we are hoping the child benefits, cheaper medical insurance etc will balance it all out if we go for PR.

Re: UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

we don't qualify for child benefit anyway as Paul earns too much but the cheaper medical insurance would be nice.

Re: UK Child Benefit and Voluntary National Insurance Contributions on a 457 Visa
 

Yeah - they charge a fortune for non residents...