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semi-retirement...kind of
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poof



Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 161

PostPosted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:53 pm    Post subject: semi-retirement...kind of Reply with quote

I've been teaching ESL for about 6 years. Now, I'm thinking about wanting to try and come back to the UK to work ('Just' 30 yrs old) because of some short and long term concerns I have about being classed as non-resident in the UK.

It sounds like the prospect of getting dependable full time employment in ESL in the UK is pretty low. Therefore, I'm flexible to perhaps trying to persue some other job avenue.

I just wonder if there is anyone here who has managed to settle into coming back home after a long absence? How has it been?

Also, my other concern has been that I haven't been able to make any contributions to social security and perhaps more importantly, haven't been able to set up a pension scheme as I'm classed as 'non resident'. What do long termers working overseas do as regards pension is concerned? My worry is that because I have no family whatsoever, if ever I should become too sick to work, I would get no financial support and be homeless. Therefore, I feel the need that I have to hang up my teaching boots before it's too late to get set up with a pension. Anyone else worry about the same thing? How can you make overseas work a secure lifetime occupation?

Finally, one more question: does all the overseas teaching experience count for anything in the eyes of employers when you try to come home and start to look for a completely different job?

I'm feeling stressed!
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Will.



Joined: 02 May 2003
Posts: 783
Location: London Uk

PostPosted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 1:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can make back paid contributions for the years you missed. It can be done ..BUT you pay. but it can be done.
Wait a few months as there is some news in the pipeline about the total number of years of contributions for a full pension claim (40) being changed to 30 years in order to qualify.
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 9:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can pay NI Contributions retrospectively - but only going back 7 years.
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Russell Hadd



Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 181

PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 10:22 pm    Post subject: Paying mised contributions Reply with quote

Not sure why you'd want to pay missed contributions. Further pension reform is bound to happen. Successive governments brushed this one under the carpet for years. This one has dipped its toe in the water. The welfare state was set up when life expectancy was 63 so the fact was that contributions didn't need to pay for too many pensions. Nowadays, with more or less the same system, life expectancy is much higher so there is less to go round. Blair has already basically said that everyone will need to make private provision.

Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer occupational pensions which have the deals they used to but the good news is that the teachers' unions did manage to negotiate a fairly good deal compared to most of the private sector.
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

State Retirement Pension is being eroded but I am pretty confident that it wil not be abolished.

I look forward to getting a small pension from the UK NI Fund when I am 65. better tha nowt ! And I will continue to pay until I am 65 in the hope that I survive to claim it !
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SueH



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy

PostPosted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The advice I've seen is that it's worth paying the contributions, even with the low state pension in the UK, but do your own research.



Scot47, is that an old German saying? I'm guessing the meaning but with free-range pigs you'd have to add 'first catch your pig'..
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Suzie K



Joined: 19 Sep 2006
Posts: 3
Location: Canada

PostPosted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:57 pm    Post subject: Re: semi-retirement...kind of Reply with quote

poof wrote:
I've been teaching ESL for about 6 years. Now, I'm thinking about wanting to try and come back to the UK to work ('Just' 30 yrs old) because of some short and long term concerns I have about being classed as non-resident in the UK.

It sounds like the prospect of getting dependable full time employment in ESL in the UK is pretty low. Therefore, I'm flexible to perhaps trying to persue some other job avenue.

I just wonder if there is anyone here who has managed to settle into coming back home after a long absence? How has it been?

Also, my other concern has been that I haven't been able to make any contributions to social security and perhaps more importantly, haven't been able to set up a pension scheme as I'm classed as 'non resident'. What do long termers working overseas do as regards pension is concerned? My worry is that because I have no family whatsoever, if ever I should become too sick to work, I would get no financial support and be homeless. Therefore, I feel the need that I have to hang up my teaching boots before it's too late to get set up with a pension. Anyone else worry about the same thing? How can you make overseas work a secure lifetime occupation?

Finally, one more question: does all the overseas teaching experience count for anything in the eyes of employers when you try to come home and start to look for a completely different job?

I'm feeling stressed!

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Russell Hadd



Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 181

PostPosted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

scot47 wrote:
State Retirement Pension is being eroded but I am pretty confident that it wil not be abolished.

I look forward to getting a small pension from the UK NI Fund when I am 65. better tha nowt ! And I will continue to pay until I am 65 in the hope that I survive to claim it !


I agree 100% because the government that did that would be out of office because of the revolution they'd caused if not by the vote.

I've got no problem paying contributions when I'm in the UK plus my occupational and any other provision I can afford but when I'm outside it has made much more sense to make my own provision rather than put money towards a state pension. The fact that Gordon Brown was dishing out Winter fuel subsidies and gives free TV lisences shows what has happened to the state pension. It will get much much worse.

I'll be drawing mine soon and I can say even now that the money I didn't pay in which I used with other money to save for my deposit on my house and for my private pension have been far far better investments.
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poof



Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 161

PostPosted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

But how did you get this private pension? Last time I enquired, I was told if I was classed as a non-resident, that I couldn't open any private pension account in the UK. How does an ESL teacher working in different countries set up a secure pension fund?

I've been looking at all the job options on the Internet for the UK and it seems really bleak. I don't know what I'm going to turn my hand to... sigh...
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Russell Hadd



Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 181

PostPosted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="poof"]But how did you get this private pension? Last time I enquired, I was told if I was classed as a non-resident, that I couldn't open any private pension account in the UK. How does an ESL teacher working in different countries set up a secure pension fund?[quote]

I suppose it depends on what you call a pension. I've saved modest amounts off-shore for most of the period I was overseas. Now I'm based in the UK I've suspended payments. If I go away again for a few years I can start payments up again. It certainly works out better than making sure I have the 44 years paid up. And for those who are under 60 then there is even less point as - just read this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5301710.stm and then work out how many years you can stop paying in whilst overseas and still get the full pension. Mind you I still wouldn't bother paying it.

So who is seriously going to continue paying every year?
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poof



Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 161

PostPosted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the link Russell.
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madison01



Joined: 01 Sep 2006
Posts: 40

PostPosted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 3:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I returned to the UK last year after 6 years teaching in Poland. My NI contributions were the least of my concerns. I've been lucky enough to get a DoS position at a decent school that pays okay. It's been a year now and they've put me on their pension and health insurance plan.

Teaching jobs are thin on the ground and getting thinner. London seems to be the largest market but regular hours are difficult to get. If you have a DELTA get a DofS Job, I know they're underpaid but it's regular hours.

Otherwise, I would look at moving to CUP or OUP to see if they're looking for staff, they generally are and have all the benefits.

Concerning Pensions, I haven't back paid any contributions for the simple reason that the amount I'll get eventually will be ridiculously low and the age limit will be pushed to 70 most likely. As I said before I have an employers pension which I'll start making contributions too myself next year. I'm wary of taking out a pension because both my Mother and step-father had been sold duff ones that came in �20,000 lower than they expected (each) They've been buying property ever since because they're more likely to get a decent return on it over the next 20 years.

If you are thinking of coming back to the UK the main thing is to make sure you're qualified to the eyeballs, and it's cheaper to do a lot of the qualifications abroad rather than here in the UK.
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poof



Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 161

PostPosted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

6 years away is the same term as me. I just wonder how it's been in terms of culture shock. I've felt more at home abroad than the UK! The thought of adjusting to all that processed food again gives me the shivers...

I'm most worried about finding a job which pays enough to cover apartment rental costs. I'm really worried about being homeless. I don't necessarily need a teaching job, although it would be nice because I'm familiar with teaching. The only job I ever managed to find in the UK after graduation was scraping bird crap from hotel balconies for 1 pound an hour with my fingernails - no surprise, then, that I was pleased to escape as an ESL teacher!

The pension issue isn't an immediate concern. I'll look into it as it goes, but it's certainly been useful advice about the NI back payments. Thanks.
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SueH



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy

PostPosted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 7:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wouldn't worry about processed food if I were you, plenty of decent ingredients for you to cook! Eating out is another matter, and something I rarely did in the UK, but there again there's plenty of good stuff out there if you look.

Finding a job will be more difficult, but people are changing careers all the time. If you can't get an ESOL job in an FE college there's lots of other stuff out there. Give your CV a fair bit of thought, and look around at other fields. At least the 'net helps that process.

Edit: A PS. Article about Giorgio Locatelli and his restaurant in The Observer this Sunday (read online). He pays his plongeurs �11.10 an hour; which is more than a lot of dodgy language schools pay teachers in central London!
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madison01



Joined: 01 Sep 2006
Posts: 40

PostPosted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 10:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The culture shock wasn't an immediate thing, if anything it was a creeping sensation that things were not just different to Poland but different to the UK I left in '99. I got used to it, my wife had a hard time adjusting at first but then she got a job she loves and she's happier here and says she can't envisage a day she would go back to Poland. I say this as an illustration that returning home for some teflers highlights all the things they dislike about their own country, but to be honest it's much the same as any other home country.

The food, as SueH said, is much better, yes there's still crap out there but you can eat more healthily now.

If you want your own apartment, then London's going to be expensive, teaching will pay you an ok wage but you will be supplementing it. Other cities like Oxford are not much cheaper but the quality is better. I have an Australian friend who pays the same as I do for a smaller, less well-maintained apartment in London. I'd take on a shared house or apartment at first. (Is that patronising? It's not meant to be).

There are 1000s of websites for jobs that will bombard you with jobs if you sign up, but probably won't respond to your CV until you're in the UK. TEFL.com has a small list of jobs in th UK as does The Guardian online.
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