I think your idea is great, but I have been on the Internet on the "Citizen Information Uk" link for nearly 3 hours trying to find out if I will be eligible for any benefits, if I have not paid anything into the NI, but cannot find anything! I was born in Northampton in 1950 and my parents moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1952. We then moved to South Africa in 1963 and this is where I am currently living. I went over to London in 1970 on a working holiday but only worked for 4 months or so, so if I did pay anything in to the NI it was minimal. I will be retiring next year when I am 60 and want to go back to the UK permanently. I have a current British passport ,as I went over to the UK in 2007. My daughter and her husband have been living and working there for nearly 4,5 years and she is near to getting her permanent residence. What I need to know is will I be able to get any benefits, as the prices of homes are 3 or 4 times what they are here in South Africa, and any profit on the sale of our house here, will maybe buy a small flat. In addition, my pension from South Africa after the exchange rate, will not be enough to live on? Can anyone provide me with any answers or a site where I can find this information?

www.direct.gov.uk
You could try here, unfortunately i don't think that you will be eligeable initially though, but worth a try.

Here's where you need to look.

"Pension Credit" is the income you would be looking at. Broadly speaking it supplements your income to the levels quoted.