wadsy

Hello, I'm new to the forum & I hope this is the right place to post this.
I'm a British born Australian citizen originally from Manchester. I've been in
Australia for nearly 30 years & am now seriously considering moving back to
England. I will have a fair superannuation payout coming my way when & if I retire from work in Australia. Enough to buy a house & have a bit left over.
I'm 60 years old & I would be looking for work. However I have discovered that the Australian government do not pay an Australian pension to people living in the UK. Would I at some stage be eligible for an English pension? I worked in England for 14 years before I emigrated. Also I realise everything is means tested these days so if my search for work of some sort proved fruitless would I be eligible for any benefits if I had my own home & some small savings?

not2old

on the OZ pension not quite correct

Age Pension - Department of Human Services

You'd want to be back in OZ when you apply at the age you are eligible.

I could see it like this....

Suppose you leave OZ at age 60, you may want to return back before you reach pension age. Something such as - stay with family, take up residence for the period to qualifying, apply for the pension - once done, either stay in OZ or leave & collect the pension while outside OZ.

Age Pension while travelling outside Australia - Department of Human Services

On the UK old age pension. Based on your current age for the time that you would be eligible, the requirement to get the full 100% pension, looks like you would need to have 35 years of National insurance (stamp was the old name) NIC's.

You can contact the pensions service in the UK to get a forecast to see if from when you left how much you'd likely be entitled to a state pension age. Also inquire whether you can top-up missed years of National Insurance contributions (NIC's) for the period you've been away from the UK & how many years so as to give you more qualifying years towards the UK state (old age) pension.

Pension information for ....

-a man born on or after 6 April 1951
-a woman born on or after 6 April 1953

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension

other information as follows....

https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-statement

https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-nationa...-contributions

not2old

in addition to post#2

to get a pension statement (forecast)

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...br19-print.pdf

to contact the folks for this specific point

Request by phone from outside the UK
Telephone from outside the UK: +44 (0)191 218 3600
Textphone from outside the UK: +44 (0)191 218 2051
Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm

wadsy

Thank you so much for the information!

not2old

Trust that you find the information useful

Any further questions you may have with regard to your opening post (OP), simply put them on BE, because for sure someone will come along to help answer them for you

good luck to you.

wadsy

I do have one more question regarding returning to the UK from Australia.

I just came back from a 6 week holiday in England & while I was there

I enquired about opening a bank account in England whilst living overseas.

The lady at Barclays told me it wasn't possible as I needed a permanent

UK address & a regular income whether it be a wage or benefits of some

sort. What I want to do is transfer my savings from my account in Australia

to the UK pending my arrival back there. I don't want to just turn up & try

to claim benefits. Anyway I wouldn't be able to!

Any advice please?

brits1

Hi you can easily open a bank account with HSBC while living in Australia, we did and have had no problems even though the account was open in the UK we had our cards delivered to our Aussie address and also had an option of statements sent out to us or internet banking, when we arrived in the UK 18 months later we just informed the local HSBC bank of our change of address. To transfer money into our Bank account from Aus we used the excellent service of Ozforex it was very simple and straightforward to do so. Good luck

wadsy

Thank you for your reply. I visited an HSBC branch when I was in the UK & the person
I spoke to although helpful gave me advice to the contrary. She did mention that I should enquire about it online & to consult a financial advisor here, which I have not done yet.
I will look into it more thoroughly & I am grateful for your help.

wadsy

Hello. Does anyone know how much tax I would have to pay to transfer my savings from an Australian bank account to a UK bank? I will be claiming my superannuation payments which I am told is tax free but I'm concerned about any tax that may withdrawn if I transfer it overseas!

spouse of scouse

Couple of things. The age pension in Australia isn't like the basic state pension in the UK. In Australia, the age pension is a welfare payment and is subject to income and assets tests. https://www.humanservices.gov.au/cus...nk/age-pension

If you return to Australia just to claim an age pension, there's a 2 year waiting period before that pension can be paid overseas. https://www.humanservices.gov.au/cus...side-australia

You need to have lived and worked in Australia for 35 years to receive a full age pension. With 30 years, you'd receive 30/35ths of the full means tested rate. Your rate would also change once you'd been receiving the pension while living overseas for more than 26 weeks https://www.humanservices.gov.au/cus...side-australia

spouse of scouse

We use OzForex to transfer funds from Australia to our UK bank account. OzForex don't charge any fees for transferring amounts over AU$10,000. There is a fee for transferring less than that but I'm not sure what it is. I'd strongly advice that you don't do bank-to-bank transfers - not only will you receive a much poorer exchange rate, compared to a foreign exchange broker, but both the sending and the receiving banks (and any banks the funds pass through on the way to their destination) can and do charge fees. As an example, I transferred the equivalent of 1,000 pounds from the Commonwealth Bank to our nephew's UK bank account, by the time the funds landed in his account 25 pounds of fees had been deducted.

The lump sum funds you transfer won't be taxed, but any interest generated from those funds count as part of your total income, tax on income becomes payable once you've exceeded your personal tax allowance.

Australian superannuation payments are tax-free in Australia (at the moment, that may change) for over 60s. They aren't tax free in the UK, but instead form part of your total income as above.

Bermudashorts

There is no tax on transferring money from one bank account to another. It is your money and you are free to transfer it at will. Tax in the UK (and Australia) is levied on increases in wealth, due to employment income or investment income for example.

But your superannuation payments will not be tax free in the UK. Pensions and indeed welfare benefits form part of taxable income in the UK. Whether you transfer it of not, if you are resident in the UK, it is taxable.

Quokka

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the full pension is payable after 10 years residence if you are resident. The rate when living abroad is the pro-rata amount you quote.

spouse of scouse

No, you're quite correct for people who live in Australia. But since the OP was enquiring about the Australian pension if he moved back to the UK I posted info that was relevant to that. Probably should have explained better though, so thanks