Single mum wants to move to England...help with info?

Hi SpiceMum,

First thing I would like to ask you is: on your right of abode does it say "no recourse to public funds"?
If it does it means you are not allowed to get any help from the gouvernment (apart from tax child credit that you can get when you work).
If you are entitlement to benefits then I would say it is not a good idea to move to another country if you have no savings you will only struggle a lot financially. I would suggest to have enough of savings for at least 6 months to allow you to find work.
To be honest I don't really know what the public funds are , I never used them when I came here I had savings and then I found a job and work since I am here (9 years).
You can get info here : http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAnd … DG_4016805

If you are looking for social housing there is a huge list of people waiting so you you will have to rent privately for a while before you will be able to find a place like that (and I have to add that it is often in "rough" area.

How long did your mother work in the Uk before leaving to go to Canada? She may be able to a small pension but she wil not be able to get the "basic" pension (need 39 qualifying years to get the full basic State Pension, normal pension is at £95.25/week now) If she has at least 25 per cent or more of the qualifying years she may be entitled to a small pension. If not then she will not be entitled to anything.
See: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsand … G_10014671

About the type of job your are looking for: I think you wrote about your "dream" job because personally I never see this type of job advertise and I do not know anyone with such a job. Live-in position in the Uk are normally for nannies (single person) and they will have a single room in the house of the employer. Someone in business will not live-in staff, they will have an office and have a personal assistant.

Good luck !

Hi Spicemum,

If you need help arranging your move from Cnada to the UK please let me know as this is where I can help.

Hi Joanne

Thanks for all the info.

My right of abode does not say no recourse to public funds...my ex-husband's said that though, probably because he was on right of abode through me. But mine does not say that. I am free and clear to anything the UK has to offer and after five years of residency I can have a British passport I was told.

I have some savings and hopefully they will be bigger when I move. I hope not to get any benefits but I wanted to know all that are available in case I do need to apply at any point.

I would never, ever live in social housing. Never. Even if I ended up on benefits I would just go with less and rent what we could afford in a nice rural area.

My mum only worked a very short time and then WW2 broke out and she enlisted and served. We have looked into the pensions but she did not work long enough to get one. She has her Canada pension of course and she would get to keep that even living outside of Canada but it would not be worth much in pounds. And she receives alot of benefits here from Veterns Affairs Canada which she would not get in the UK. We looked into Veterans benefits in the UK (in 2006) and they only give benefits to wounded veterans which just seems unfair. I will look into it again though and see if anything has changed.

I thought about appealing to some TV show or some WW2 advocate groups, etc, if any are out there, who may help me get mum "home"...I guess I feel that since she served for England and is still a proud Brit, there must be someone or some organization out there who would want to help her before it is too late. She is originally from St Margarets, near Richmond in Surrey and I tried appealing to some tourism groups from there and community groups but so far no one has extended any help.

I like to think the job I want is not just a dream...but it probably is pretty hard to find. I may look into getting on somewhere as resident caretaker, where we are given free housing to look after someone's property but I would like to find something like that which comes with a wage too.

I welcome and appreciate any help or further info!

cheers!