Help for returning resident

seven-day-weekend

krisskross wrote: »

But I bet you have paid more than £2 a week, which is the max this guy will have paid as self employed 2nd class contributions or whatever they are called. Doesn't actually matter though if he hadn't paid a single sou, he would just be getting more pension credit. The end result is certainly the same amount of tax free income. So how come he can have £10K tax free but I have to pay tax on my hard earned little bit over £10K?

I simply wish he had a tad more appreciation for the country that has welcomed him back and laid the benefit table for him to fill his boots from.

Yes I paid considerably more than £2 a week. Even the Voluntary ones I had to pay cost £30 a month. I couldn't pay the £2 a week self-employed ones because I was not self-employed! (not employed at all). However I believe it is not the amount you pay that counts, but the Class of contributions and whether they count or not towards the State Pension,which Classes One (employed) Two (self-employed) and Three (Voluntary) all do.

I too wish he could be slightly more gracious towards a country that has provided for him health and income-wise instead of thinking he has been hard done to. He wouldn't get anything from most other places!

terryw

krisskross wrote: »

But I bet you have paid more than £2 a week, which is the max this guy will have paid as self employed 2nd class contributions or whatever they are called. Doesn't actually matter though if he hadn't paid a single sou, he would just be getting more pension credit. The end result is certainly the same amount of tax free income. So how come he can have £10K tax free but I have to pay tax on my hard earned little bit over £10K?

I simply wish he had a tad more appreciation for the country that has welcomed him back and laid the benefit table for him to fill his boots from.

Funnily enough though but the OP does have a very valid point. Every penny that he has spent on NI has been wasted. Regarding the NHS, NI contributions do not matter a jot. Residency is the key word............hence his partner is allowed the full benefits of the NHS even before she has paid a penny into the system.

Retirement pension does not matter a jot either regardless of contribution history! Pay NI for the full 50 years of your working life (as the OP states that he has done) and the single person's pension is is £90 or so per week. (to which the OP is entitled as a single person) But do absolutely nothing or live abroad, and Voila .............get a minimum income of £215 per week for you and your partner, and a bit extra for Housing benefit and Council Tax exemption. And get the wife to do a bit of work to help out and show that she is not receiving money from the public purse..

Or is it just me? Have I got it wrong? Someone please advise.

seven-day-weekend

If you do not pay any NI, you will get nothing if you are still abroad, whereas State Pension that you have contributed to can be drawn anywhere in the world.

The means-tested Benefits that you get in the UK if you have not paid are precisely that, means-tested and you have to jump through hoops to get them. You can't get them if you live abroad.

I'd rather pay my NI and have my own pension and be free to do as I like with my money , live in whatever country I wish, have who I want living in my house, not have to tell the Government what I spend my money on, have savings above £6k and not be quite so prone to the whims of future changes of Government.

beanjay1

“I'd rather pay my NI and have my own pension and be free to do as I like with my money , live in whatever country I wish, have who I want living in my house, not have to tell the Government what I spend my money on, have savings above £6k and not be quite so prone to the whims of future changes of Government.”

Bingo! We’ve cracked it! This is exactly my point and this is what I want to do and can’t. I don’t want handouts precisely because they completely remove your freedom as an individual. That is why I prefer to live in a country that is not a welfare state, and what is more that is easily done on my pension income without the handouts. But unfortunately this excludes the complicated medical operations which I thought I had covered.

Just a few points: I am discussing my benefit entitlement and in some cases it may not be what I am actually claiming because of my partners income which is added to mine for the purpose of calculating benefits. It is what I am entitled to if my partner chose not to work. She is a qualified and experienced elementary teacher in her own country but works long hours of shiftwork as Carer on the minimum wage in the UK.

When living overseas we had the two minor children from my partners marriage to support. We left them with my wife’s sister and her husband who have no children of their own. This arrangement suited everyone including the children who did not want to leave their friends. We still pay for their maintenance and education (which is not free) out of our combined income.

However when claiming HB and CTB we are not allowed to list the child maintenance on the expenses side of the form. “Quite right” I hear you say.

But.

The children are eligible to come and live with us in the UK and receive healthcare and education at the expense of the British taxpayer. When my partner gets ILR next year we would also get Child Tax Credit!!!!

So which is better, a little bit of discretion allowing us to claim the children as an expense and them remain abroad, or a fixed law compelling us to bring them to the UK? This discretion would free up enough of our money to continue to support them overseas which is very much in the public interest.

The point is that if I am going to be nailed by statute laws that are not in my interests then I am perfectly entitled to take advantage of those laws that are.

Please tell me if you disagree with that.

It think we have gone as far as we usefully can on this topic but anyone can leave me an online message if they like and I guarantee to respond.

krisskross

beanjay1 wrote: »

“I'd rather pay my NI and have my own pension and be free to do as I like with my money , live in whatever country I wish, have who I want living in my house, not have to tell the Government what I spend my money on, have savings above £6k and not be quite so prone to the whims of future changes of Government.”

Bingo! We’ve cracked it! This is exactly my point and this is what I want to do and can’t. I don’t want handouts precisely because they completely remove your freedom as an individual. That is why I prefer to live in a country that is not a welfare state, and what is more that is easily done on my pension income without the handouts. But unfortunately this excludes the complicated medical operations which I thought I had covered.

This doesn't actually make sense as the NHS does not guarantee even a date for any sort of surgery more than a few days in advance. Most of us who have had surgery know that except for emergencies most operations come after several visits to hospital for tests/tosee consultant.

Unless you were prepared to live in England for several weeks if not months then how would you get any elective surgery done? All hospital referrals are made via GP so you must have one of those . Most hospitals send letters giving a date for admission but not usually more than a week in advance. If you were living in Thailand, India or somewhere like that how would you get the notification in time to travel? You were living in a dreamworld if you thought you could just pop over and book in for surgery the next day.Perhaps you should have done a lot more homework. Still don't understand why you don't leave this country now you have had your free treatment and go back to your little slice of paradise. Did it never worry you that you may have needed emergency treatment that you couldn't pay for wherever it was that you lived?

seven-day-weekend

But in any country you can't pick and chose which bits of legislation you want applied to you! (Well not unless it's a country where the Government work on backhanders - I personally would not want to live in one of those countries).

NOBODY, even people who have never left the UK, is allowed to claim child maintenance as an expense when claiming means-tested Benefits.

If I have the privileges and freedoms to do as I wish with my money as mentioned above, it's because I claim no means-tested Benefits. Were I eligible to do so, I would have to abide by the rules and regulations the same as everybody else.


As I have said before, you are being treated no differently to anyone else.

thorsoak

Beanjay you said "
I would just like to say that I absolutely dread coming back to live on welfare benefits – its a nightmare before we even get there -but I have no alternative."

But you did have an alternative - you could have stayed where you were (where you can live so much better off your pension, you say) - save and then have the operation for cataracts where you currently live.

You seem to think that you are "entitled" because you paid for so many years - but you have shipped out, did not contributie anything to the economy once you retired - just took your pension, spent it overseas - so where is the entitlement? Your contributions did not build up a pot marked "Mr Beanjay" - those contributions paid out to pensioners at that time. Your pension now is being paid for by the contributions of my children, as is mine.

So sad, to be living resentfully in place one doesn't want to be, just because one feels that otherwise one loses "entitlement" . What about your partner - where would s/he prefer to be? After all, s/he is the wage-earner!

sharnad

If you lived in spain for so long Im not sure why you didnt take out private health care were you expecting it to be easier to come back to the UK get your surgery and leave again

Cataract surgery isnt that expensive in Spain could you not have save up for it probably would have cost you less than arranging to come back

Katykat

Just a lighthearted note, whatever your opinions are. The OP has done no more than Ronnie Biggs. He lived the life of riley, sticking 2 fingers up at our laws for many years. Then when he began to suffer ill health, he suddenly realised that he would get all his healthcare free if he returned to the UK. In fact because he was in jail, he would have received priority treatment. Now he is a free man, suddenly making a miraculous turnaround from deaths door & probably filling in his beneifit forms as we speak.
At least the OP has worked all his life, & paid NI contributions. I'm not saying I agree with him, it is irritating when people choose to live in another country, but then return & claim benefits & healthcare, at the same time as saying that he doesn't even want to be here, but at least he isn't a convicted criminal.

seven-day-weekend

sharnad wrote: »

If you lived in spain for so long Im not sure why you didnt take out private health care were you expecting it to be easier to come back to the UK get your surgery and leave again

Cataract surgery isnt that expensive in Spain could you not have save up for it probably would have cost you less than arranging to come back

I don't think the OP lived in Spain (I think it may have been Thailand?), but if he had , as a British State Pensioner, he would have been entitled to free Healthcare under the Spanish Health Service which the UK pays for.