Coming back to the UK after 45 years living abroad.

I hope you can find a way through the bureaucracy and it works out well kitty.

Thank you! I expect they will stay in SA but it is very hard for her!

I was wondering if my newly widowed sister would come back to the UK. She has lived abroad for 52 years. Slightly different in her case as she already has a house here and continued to pay contributions right up until retirement. She has a UK pension but the German government deduct that same amount from her German pension.
I think it would be difficult to resettle if you do not have the funds to support yourself, hard enough to get care even when you are permanently domiciled here.

Arent families a worry, Harri? I hope your your sister is coping.

not sure if this has been suggested already, worth a look,

www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs25_returning_from_abroad_fcs.pdf

Daisymae

I know people who paid NI while living abroad and got state pension on returning. In time they also got state care, sheltered accommodation and a nursing home. No idea how that worked though.

I voluntarily paid Class 2 or 3 (I forget which) for years while overseas in order to keep my UK pension. Only for them to raise the age so high I may not ever get it.

I won't bother again.

The conundrum is not what will they get but what do they deserve to get? After a working lifetime of paying tax and choosing to spend their money on another continent, my opinion would be that they deserve nothing from the UK taxpayer!

quizqueen

The conundrum is not what will they get but what do they deserve to get? After a working lifetime of paying tax and choosing to spend their money on another continent, my opinion would be that they deserve nothing from the UK taxpayer!

Oh quizqueen you are very brave to come out with that!

I do tend to agree though.

I wonder if your sister-in-law (?) has tried teaching yoga via zoom or similar? I say this because my son’s girlfriend has found loads of new clients during lockdown - so many in fact that she’s decided to give up her studio.

Obviously this isn’t the solution but might ease the immediate situation a little.

Quizqueen, yes, absolutely!

My Sil does do some Zoom classes and has done since their first lockdown but the situation is so bad that lots of people can no longer afford to pay the membership.

We moved back to UK after living in Spain for 15 years because of my husband's health . We unable to sell our house in Spain so we just handed the keys back . We was not entitled to council property but I didn't expect we would . We had to be mean tested for benefits being my husband has in a small war pension . They will find they are unable to register with a doctor until they have a UK address . Even with that they needs proof of bills in there name . Trying to find a dentist is near to impossible . You can get emergency treatment on the NHS but until you have registered with a doctor , you cannot get referrals to see specialist . Also all this takes time . Good luck .

They could have paid voluntary contributions into the UK scheme for years as Gagajo says she did, so would be as entitled as anyone else to a State Pension.

There is a wealth of info here www.ageuk.org.uk/services/information-advice/guides-and-factsheets/

My brother was born in England but moved to South Africa at 2 years old when our parents emigrated. He married a South
African woman and they had two children. About 10 years ago in their sixties they decided to move to a "crime free" country - England. He got a job with B & Q and she got a job with a family firm gift shop. He has a British passport, she has not, and she foolishly allowed her SA passport to lapse. They have both retired now, in their mid seventies. She cannot get a British passport without her SA passport, so can go nowhere, not even back to SA to visit their family still there. To renew her SA passport requires many hoops to be jumped through, including fingerprints to be taken at the SA Embassy in London, which entails a lot of travelling to. He gets some small benefits which allow them to live in a little flat and have enough to eat, but no luxuries. They both get free health care. I don't think she gets benefits. Their jobs did not pay pensions.
What about all the foreign immigrants arriving from all sorts of countries who, according to the press, are given free housing and money, and say that is one of the reasons they choose to come here?

Oh I do love it, not, when people live abroad for many years and when they get older, decide to come back and use our NHS and all the other benefits.

You will need to research on government websites. May depend on why you left UK, are you UK citizen?

When we moved abroad we employed an accountant. His first comment to us was, "you can't be in both systems. You've chosen to live and work here, so you should get yourselves into the system. You lose the right to be in the UK system."
Goodness knows how much we paid in taxes, contributions and medical insurance abroad. We probably have a pension sitting somewhere in Europe but trying to get hold of it after December will be a nightmare, it will probably just disappear.
In the meantime, back in the UK, we had to pick up where we left off even though we lost out on several counts.

Oh I do love it, not, when people live abroad for many years and when they get older, decide to come back and use our NHS and all the other benefits.
I agree, ajswan. We did not return for that reason, but to work and carry on contributing.

Kittylester
I dealt with many elderly people who had returned from overseas having lived most of their lives theree, had children but then became ill. What they did or their family did was bring them to UK, rent a small flat on short term basis and then contact social services to say their parents needed care or took them to hospital where they would be diagnosed with dementia etc and referred on. The parents had UK passports, had established residency therefore entitled to care. Job done! Some EU citizens who lived here but had parents still in EU would go on holiday, bring parent who had health/care needs back with them knowing full well it would be difficult to cope. After a few weeks contact SS and apply for care home as they couldn't manage with grandma. Surprise, surprise! Always amazed at the number of ex pats who return once getting older or ill health sets in. Never came across anyone who had paid into UK system once they had emigrated.

I have friends (at least two separate lots of people) who had to leave behind jobs, houses, money etc in Zimbabwe.
They just had to start afresh here or in another country but they were a bit younger.

Contact AGE UK for guidance. They're very good.

Just to point out, that I did not say that they were, or even intending, to return. I just asked what happened if............

We and sil's sisters think it would be for the best but that is an entirely different matter.

I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that one of the reasons my England born brother decided to come back to Britain was because the government in South Africa decided to with hold the pensions of white people, so that they had nothing to live on once they retired. My sister in Cape Town said she had seen old white people going through bins to see if there was any food there. SA is not a country of equal rights. Yes, apartheid was wrong and the Africans may be getting their revenge. But if you were in that position what would you do? Before anyone accuses me of racism let me remind you that I was married to an Indian for 54 happy years, in England. I would not have been able to even date him in South Africa.

I know I'm going to be shot down for this but given many people had their most productive/industrious years abroad, paying taxes to another country, why should the British taxpayer pick up their bills in a needy old age?

Just when their adoptive countries become too expensive to live in due to healthcare concerns they want to return to Blighty having paid nothing into our system.