Immigrated to oz now thinking about national insurance etc

[irvine1]

Hey everyone, I’ve got a random question I hope I can get help with.
I have immigrated to Australia just over 5 years ago and I’ve just got thinking about the national insurance I’d paid plus state pension, it’s only 13 years worth but I’m thinking is there anything I can do with it...???

My partner and I do plan to eventuall do something in England, at this point no ideas yet BUT that little money I’d contributed must be obtainable and usable for some fore of investment like a “high interest locked in account” I don’t want to loose any of it.
I haven’t a clue who to speak to being this side of the world.
Thanks,
Neil.

[Evolved]

You emigrated, not immigrated

[bongtom]

If you’re of pensionable age you get claim it, but it won’t be much.

[davepoth]

Evolved said:

You emigrated, not immigrated

Technically he did both.

[citizensm1th]

irvine1 said:

t BUT that little money I’d contributed must be obtainable and usable for some fore of investment like a “high interest locked in account” I don’t want to loose any of it.

Neil.

Either
1. A very poor april fools joke.
2 The I.Q. standards for emigrating to Australia are slipping.

The little you have contributed is not sitting in a government account somewhere,it has been well and truly spent most likely looking after Mrs Miggins at number 73 when she had her new hip.

[Testaburger]

My understanding (as an expat) is that;

As it stands, you'll get 16/35ths of the full state pension when you reach state pension age.

Assuming your 16 years of payments are correct, you can't claim any of this back.

I left the UK with only 6 years of NI credits. There's a mechanism for buying credits while overseas.

I topped mine up to 12 years, because it only cost me a couple of quid a week. I'm aware that it's all likely to change in the ensuing 33 years for me, but for the sake of a few hundred quid, I thought why not.

I'll assess the landscape over the coming years to see if it's worth buying more years. I just wanted to ensure that I had the minimum 10 years to qualify.

[bongtom]

It doesn’t matter where you live in the world. As long as you’ve paid contributions you’ll get a pension, depending on how many years as to the amount.

The only difference is if you are an expat outside the EU your pension won’t increase with inflation.

[Ultuous]

davepoth said:

Evolved said:

You emigrated, not immigrated

Technically he did both.

My take on it is that he emigrated, integrated and thus 'immigrated' as a nod to his new accent!

[williaa68]

bongtom said:

The only difference is if you are an expat outside the EU your pension won’t increase with inflation.

This is very important. I think there are some non-EU countries where the pension is updated annually but in Australia it isn’t. As the index linking is a significant component of the value in the State pension it does mean that buying years has potentially significantly less appeal.

[caziques]

bongtom said:

It doesn’t matter where you live in the world. As long as you’ve paid contributions you’ll get a pension, depending on how many years as to the amount.

The only difference is if you are an expat outside the EU your pension won’t increase with inflation.

There are some countries outside the EU where the entitlement to a UK state pension does increase with inflation, Australia isn't one of them.

Failure to increase the state pension where someone has an entitlement to it is frankly nauseating - particularly as you cannot opt out of paying NI.

One strange quirk is that someone with a frozen pension can receive their full amount if on holiday in the UK.

[bongtom]

caziques said:

bongtom said:

It doesn’t matter where you live in the world. As long as you’ve paid contributions you’ll get a pension, depending on how many years as to the amount.

The only difference is if you are an expat outside the EU your pension won’t increase with inflation.

There are some countries outside the EU where the entitlement to a UK state pension does increase with inflation, Australia isn't one of them.

Failure to increase the state pension where someone has an entitlement to it is frankly nauseating - particularly as you cannot opt out of paying NI.

One strange quirk is that someone with a frozen pension can receive their full amount if on holiday in the UK.

Oddly you can get an increase in the Philippines, Barbados, USA but not Canada or NZ!

Interesting what constitutes a “holiday”. Might be worth going back for a month every year to get an increase.

As I’ve said before. Got 20 years to wait so not bothered!