After moving to BC in our 20's and living here for 17 years my wife and I (along with two children) are considering a move back to the UK, this is mainly due to missing family, elderly parents, and the general insane cost of living here.

I work in IT and my wife is a Registered Nurse with over 25 years of experience and specializes in ICU care, we do not expect to have any issues finding work in the UK, our main concerns are related to our children, as they have only ever lived in Canada and how they will adjust to life in the UK. Reading through several articles it seems like there is a Departure Tax when leaving Canada, and then we will have the hassle of no credit rating in the UK, National Insurance issues, etc. Is there a guide for all the admin related items of moving back to the UK, we all have British passports and Canadian passports so at least that part is covered. We also have Canadian pensions, RRSP's, TFSA's RESP's that would all need to be either withdrawn or used at retirement age in the UK.

Due to my profession, it seems like it would be best to move to the Reading area, any advice would be appreciated as we previously lived in East Anglia.

If you haven't been making voluntary contributions to your NI account then you might have an opportunity to make payments in arrears, for at least six years, and from what I have read recently, perhaps as many as 15 or more (potentially back to 2006 IIRC). If you request and are accepted for Class 2 contributions then it only costs around £150/yr, and you have to do this before you return to the UK to live. .... The only possible issue I see for you is that you might not be allowed to contribute if you don't have three years of actual or deemed contributions before you left the UK. If you're interested in investigating the possibility you should contact the DWP's International Pension Centre.

Many thanks for the advice, we left the UK in late 2005 and we were around 27 at the time so we should have paid into the National Insurance for a while.

Check your state pension here:
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

I live in the Reading area, feel free to ask any questions and I'll happily try and help.

Good luck with the move back.

Not sure if anyone would know this but I went through the process of checking my state pension and the forecast stated 'You cannot improve this pension'.

Therefore would it be worth investigating the voluntary contributions?

Exact quote "You cannot improve your forecast any further, unless you choose to put off claiming."

Voluntary contributions won't help, because "You cannot improve your forecast any further, unless you choose to put off claiming."

Are you at or above state pension age? (66/67) Have you already made 35 years of contributions?

Those are the 2 obvious reasons to me why you can't improve your state pension with more contributions. If the answer is "no" then I would call DWP and ask why you can't make voluntary contributions.