AussiePom8

Hello everyone, my names Jennie and I've lived in Australia for 27yrs now. I was born in England and at age 13yrs old, was moved to Australia with my mum and ex husband. I am now a single mum who has no family in Australia and who has no contact with my mother. I feel like i don't belong anywhere ... my friends are in England and am still in contact with them. They are like my family left behind. If i got permission from my kids father for them to go to the UK on dual visa ... i was wondering what to expect by going back regarding support with settling back into my home life of England etc ..... Any advice is welcomed. Thankyou for reading ....

BritInParis

If you were born in the UK then your children will be British citizens by descent and they'll need British passports to move to the UK as will you. Do you have Australian citizenship? If not then you should apply for it before you move to leave that door open for you. As you already mentioned you'll need written permission from the father to remove your children from Australia.

If by support you mean government benefits then you won't be eligible for most benefits until you are deemed to be habitually resident, i.e. three months after you return permanently. You should ensure that you have enough funds to cover you and your children's living costs for at least this period. Citizens Advice has more information on this. You and your children will still have access to free NHS healthcare from day one and your children will be entitled to a school place if they are 16 or under.

You should to apply for a National Insurance Number (NINO) and register to vote after you arrive.

Jerseygirl

Welcome to BE.

I have moved your thread over to our MBTTUK forum.

formula

Welcome to the forum Jennie.

Can you get back to the UK for a holiday before you decide to move? It might not be what you remember or what you hope it will be.


As BiP said, some benefits have a least a 3 month wait before you can apply for them (which means a longer wait) but others are not allowed untl you have been back in the UK for at least 2 years. i.e. sick benefits.

If you have savings, capital, property or land (even in another country) then that may rule you out of some of the income based benefits. There are two types of benefits: income based and the contribution based benefits that don't take savings, capital, property into account.

Just be aware that there are also changes next month (in fact changes for the next two years that often will start in April) that will reduce a lot of income based benefits. Any calculations on UK benefit calculators will not reflect these planned reductions.

rebeccajo

Benefits Calculator - entitledto - independent | accurate | reliable

Benefit Changes 2016 - Entitledto

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-g...#guide-content

http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/ho...hanges#may2016

AussiePom8

Thankyou for your reply and input. Yes i myself am an Australian citizen so i understand that I'd have to apply for both British and Australian passports for myself and my 2 children aged 6yrs and 14yrs once i have permission from their father. I figured that there would be a cooling off period before any support would be given by the British government and that I'd need to look for a job as soon as i arrived and found my feet ... I guess my big Q's would be regarding the schooling and health side of things ... here in Australia we don't pay for public schools and we have medicare .... being a child last time I was in the UK , i would not know if there were costs involved or if the UK was the same with schooling and medicare like Australia. I also understand that any government financial help is not the same as Australia as less $$ is given out to British residents. ... but as long as you can get by ... i feel that $$ can't buy happiness and if being in Australia with no family or close friends doesnt make you happy , then going back home maybe the answer .... I would love to know from anyone who has gone back to the UK after living in Australia. ..... do you have any regrets ? Moving back is quite costly in itself. ... RIght now I am living in a government house in Canberra on the parenting payment single ... now that my youngest has started full time school, im very happy to either study or get a job as staying at home is not really me .... i have no idea what my options would be if moving back home to the UK .... my apologies for the Q's and long thread but it's a huge decision to make when kids are involved and need to make sure that i k ow what im getting myself into ... i'd be moving to the Manchester area if this was to happen ... are there any jobs in the UK or is it worse than Australia ?

verystormy

It will vary.

The NHS is far better than Medicare and doesn't have anything like the same costs. For example, all of your GP visits will be free. Prescriptions for your children will be free and for you it is a fixed rate - generally a lot less than you will pay in Australia.

Schools will not expect as much cash from you, if any. Education is free.

You would need to be back in the UK a year or two in order to fully qualify if you want to study for full benefits, however, there are then some excellent assistance packages available for single parents to go back to study.

Government financial help I cant say in your circumstances, but would say that we found Australian government help (dole) laughable compared to what we would have received in the UK. We are a couple with no children and there, what we were entitled to, wouldn't have covered rent! Here, we could claim rent, council charges and money