Coming back to the UK after 45 years living abroad.

I feel desperately sorry for the couple in question and SA must be a very difficult place to be in their circumstances. I do hope that they find some way of getting support, but I also hope that it makes people think before they decide to live abroad. It's fine in your salad days, but you will need a lot of savings and good luck to deal with the exigencies of old age! Services have to be paid for somehow, and it's not fair to ask tax-payers to pay for everyone who didn't make provision when they could have done so.

There are plenty of our own who've never done a days work in their lives but still receive everything that opens and shuts !

I would put all politics etc. aside and concentrate on having my family back to be treated here. Who would refuse that ?

Quizqueen yes you are very brave to come out with that comment. A good few years ago I used to read the saga magazine and each month they did a article on British people moving abroad for retirement. Most I would say 95% said they would come back to the UK when either of them needed healthcare from the nhs. Some had been living abroad for a large bulk of the ageing years where the country of choice was good enough to benefit from their wealth but when they need free healthcare and nursing homes they return to Britain. Many people would comment on the unfairness of just using the UK for free care when the UK wasn’t deemed good enough to spend their hard earned retirement money. Our services are well overstretched and becoming much harder to access unless you pay for it. At one time we were paying over £800 a week for my mums care when she first developed dementia.

Annaram1 Sat 01-Aug-20 11:56:00
Many many people from Britain and elsewhere went there after the war because it was seen as a land of opportunity, good lifestyle, cheap servants etc.
On the backs of racism and apartheid.

SA went to the opposite extreme. It has very high crime rates and is very unfair to its white residents.
As the whites were previously to the blacks (see the above quote).

when so many others are allowed to come here with not a drop of British blood and get benefits?
And yet more racism.

You are not supporting KL's point, Annaram1. As you've said, immigrants to SA went directly to benefit from the racist apartheid regime.

But I wasn’t brave enough to say it.

100% agreed GagaJo.

I think the colonisation of Africa was wrong and any Westerners that emigrated there 45 years ago, in the 1970's WOULD have been taking advantage of the oppressive and racist apartheid regime. How is that NOT true? Please feel free to explain the point if I am completely wrong?

Yes, prioritising blacks now is positive discrimination. It is to make up for the positive discrimination of whites that your BIL enjoyed for years.

I would have a slightly different view if they were born there. An accident of birth is unavoidable and outside of our control. But to move somewhere as rampantly and violently racist in the 1970s means they actively participated in that system.

It’s a very difficult situation. The position of people who lived in Europe may be different, I don’t know. But people who moved abroad, didn’t keep up their NI contributions in the way GagaJo, which was the sensible thing to do, shouldn’t expect that because they are now old and ill, they can now up sticks and move back to Britain, and be treated by the system that they haven’t paid into for all their lives.
Obviously it’s a difficult situation for kitty as it’s her family, and we try to do what we can for our families, but at the end of the day, people who move abroad for a better life, and pay their taxes to a different state, should not be entitled to anything from the taxes I paid and still pay to our government.

I completely support Kitty. She wants to be able to help her family in SOUTH AFRICA, not in Germany or Cyprus or France. SOUTH AFRICA is altogether a different kettle of fish. I grew up there in apartheid days. Many many people from Britain and elsewhere went there after the war because it was seen as a land of opportunity, good lifestyle, cheap servants etc. I came back in the early 60s as Britain was then seen as a very exciting place compared to SA. But as time went on and apartheid vanished and an African government was elected, SA went to the opposite extreme. It has very high crime rates and is very unfair to its white residents. Obviously they now want to come back in order to have a more stable old age, and if they have a British passport would you deny them that, when so many others are allowed to come here with not a drop of British blood and get benefits?

It's easy to make simplistic judgements, based not on facts but supposition.

We had retired to Cyprus when, in June 2012, DH had a major stroke. When certified ‘ fit to fly’, we returned to UK to live with DD, an Occupational Therapist. On landing at Liverpool airport, we had to pay £400 for an ambulance to take DH to hospital and stroke unit. On his discharge, 10 weeks later, a visitor from DHSS informed us we were not liable for Attendance Allowance or, indeed, any benefit, or help with adaptations, for 6 months. GP, fortunately, accepted us on his list. It’s a minefield with the odds often stacked against the UK citizen who returns!

Thank you granny23. Part of our thinking is that there is more support here from family and dbil is nowhere near that position yet.

Does anyone ever read a thread before they post?

The position in SA is very different to here. Their children do understand and would step up if the road between their houses was passable.

It is very judgemental to say they took advantage of the oppressive regime. You know nothing about how they lived their lives there.

ajswan

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.

Not to mention taking advantage of a racist, oppressive regime where they could be dominant just because of the colour of their skin.

I know, different times, different values. Still doesn't make it right. Nor does coming back when times are hard.

I understand you're trying to be supportive, kittylester, which is really kind of you. In reality, what needs to happen is that their children need to step up and help. Do they actually understand the severity of their parents position?

Hi Kitty. As you will be aware Dementia is treated differently from any other condition/disease/illness. It is classed as a 'social care' problem and such care is not funded by the NHS nor Social Services, unless the person with dementia has exhausted almost all their income and savings. So if they are broke and not sure if they would receive any UK pension, I doubt if any care home would be willing to accept them. Many private Care Homes insist on proof that the resident or the family have sufficient resources to cover Care Home fees for the foreseeable future.

I’m sorry to hear of your problems. But the harsh reality is why should they be entitled to anything when they have not contributed To the British economy for 45 years. They shouldn’t expect anything.

As sad as the problem is I completely agree with both Quizqueen (never done that before!) and cupaffull. It seems strange to me that a fair number of GN disagree with refugees coming here, even some to join families that are already here.

I'll put my tin hat now? I feel quite angry that people who have lived abroad for decades think, as soon as health etc gets bad, that they think it's ok to swan back to the uk to use the nhs which they haven't contributed to via taxes etc. There are uk residents waiting for operations, assessments, care or who have paid in all their working life. You chose to live abroad so you need to live with the consequences.

Good post annaram. Thank you.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.