Braces in the UK when living abroad?

[dasza79]

Hi all!
We live abroad, left the UK a few years ago. My partner works for a British company and pays UK taxes and NI as well.
Both kids need braces, which are somewhat pricey where we live. I'm curious whether it's at all possible to get them in the UK and how to get round it? We still have an English address we use for some purposes (banking etc).
To clarify - I'm only thinking about it becasue we do pay our NI in the UK, I wouldn't do it otherwise.

Well, that's not cool. I really don't appreciate your lack of belief. Why would I lie about it? We've been away for 4 years and he pays the income tax appropriate to his income, far from the retirement age. I'd be embarrassed to accuse people of lying without having any solid reasons to.

Quite apart from it being a shitty immoral thing to do, unless your kids teeth are awful you wouldn't get it on the NHS, and surely the cost of flying back and forth would outweight the benefits?

Yeah, I'm not sure how the logistics would work... Probably not worth it really.

We also live in a country where braces are very expansive.

Are you near the border of another country? Treatment there may be cheaper.
Are your kids young enough for dental insurance? It reduces the costs of braces.

When both my DC had braces we often had issues where we had to go back because bit broke or fell off or they had pain. This meant more appointments.

Ds1 had his brace fitted in 2017 Ds2 in 2022 and Ds3 2 weeks ago.
Maybe I'm underplaying how bad they were but with ds1 and ds2 the main issue was one canine which was in front of the other teeth as well as gaps and general unstraightness. Dc3 a bit worse (not sure of the correct terms) but a couple of the bottom teeth the bite was in front of the top teeth and vice versa.

Why shitty and immoral? Because we don't live there? I know of people who have been away for even longer and still get child benefit because they haven't declared change of address. That's shitty. Using services that are paid for? How is that immoral? It is paid for, we haven't used NHS since leaving 4 years ago... We don't steal benefits, get everything for free like some. So, who would have been hurt this way?

There. Sweet and short and good reasoning without preaching 🙂. Appreciated.

Seriously the logistics are hard enough when you are resident here (admittedly it was worse for both mine because of the pandemic but still). Regular appointments, the odd extra one at short notice because of breakages, cancellations because the orthodontist was ill. One of mine was still finishing treatment when he went to uni and organising his last few appointments was a nightmare around his lectures, my work, travel time. Even if it's legal you'd be crazy to consider this. I am SO glad we're done with it and we live within a couple of miles of the orthodontist clinic.

My partner works remotely for a British company and has been paying taxes in the UK since we have left. It's due to an agreement between the countries and lasts 10 years.

I'm not sure if it would be possible if you don't already have an NHS dentist. My teen was referred to the orthodontist by our NHS dentist 18 months ago and we're still waiting on the initial appointment.
If you're new to the area where we live you have zero chance of getting registered with an NHS dentist.

I disagree - both my DC received excellent NHS orthodontic treatment.

The university thing is an interesting one. It's differs slightly between England and Scotland, I believe. It's 3 years of residency that are required, we'll probably consider moving back in time to make it work for the kids.
It's all quite complicated in terms of taxes, legibility and so on. Many things are difficult to anticipate ahead.
Interesting to see many ready to jump in and judge without actually answering the questions asked or without knowing the ful picture. Rather unpleasant really.

Interesting outburst. Who would be exploited and how do you justify the rest of the insults based on the information I have provided?

Wow. A lot of insults coming my way. Who would have been exploited in the light of all the information provided? Who would have been stolen from?

It isn't ok legally is it, you know that and you have acknowledged it. Regardless of any of that it would be a nightmare because of all the checkups so it honestly wouldn't be worth it. I found it hard to arrange round work and school and the cancelled/changed appointments didn't help. If you can afford it just pay and get it done.

This. OP you are looking to commit fraud in order to avail yourself of something you are not entitled to. I am guessing if you are paying UK income tax and NI that is because your DH has worked out it would be cheaper than paying it elsewhere and being paid overseas and having to ‘import’ the money at a later date.

@Teentaxidriver

I am not sure that “nuts” is the correct adjective. NI pays for the state pension. OP fancies helping herself to some free dentistry. I think exploitative, venal, greedy, tight, dishonest, immoral, abusive are words that I would choose.
Why?
If the OP is correct and they are paying UK taxes and NI then why exactly should they be entitled? What are they getting for those taxes they are paying. They are saving the uk taxpayer by not using schools, NHS, any other government service.

It seems incredible to me that the Uk will tax people but not offer them anything that the tax is being paid for.

We paid private, otherwise waiting list was 3+ years. It cost us about £3,800, so it depends on how that compare to other countries. You've got to factor in travel to and from the UK every couple of months. I don't fancy your chances NHS if you are resident here, as you won't get a referral if you don't have a dentist.

People are saying 8 weeks, but sometimes the appointment intervals are more frequent. Sometimes there are problems. It’s completely impractical not to be close to the orthodontist.

As you mentioned a palate expander my daughter has recently gone from that to train tracks. In the turning phase of the expander she needed weekly appointments plus the 2 appointments for the mould and then the fitting. For those 6 weeks we felt like we lived at the hospital, and we also had an extra 3 in one week when the expander broke.
I would say it's probably not worth your while.

Right. Firstly, I was looking for advice not for moral education class :-) Secondly - you can guess all you want, or you can ask questions and read the answers. Which part of your assumption is the "bad" action? Is it not quite normal, in general, to seek paying as little in taxes as legally possible or do you have some form of self-flagillation fetish where you'd be happy to pay, let's say. 70% of your income plus other bills? Clearly, if I'm looking for cheaper ways of sorting my kids' teeth it suggests that we're not sitting on a goldmine. Why is paying any government a lot of money a good thing, and trying to avoid it a bad one? For normal people, not big companies or millionaires? Also, seriously, when I asked te question I wasn't even sure about the residency requirenments...

I don't know what the NHS are likely to do but is it worth risking a conviction? I really don't think it is because the whole thing would be a nightmare to do long distance. I think I'd concentrate on the practicalities rather than arguing about morals.

The waiting list is about 2 years. Then you have an appointment for an assessment and depending on the situation you may need to remove some teeth ( hopefully not but it means another waiting list to the hospital).
You have to attend follow up appointments e.g every 8 weeks, DD’s braces once were damaged (and believe me we were super careful) so she needed urgent appointment. The length of treatment is different for different children so again something difficult to plan around.

The NHS is for UK residents.
You aren't UK resident.

Really thank you for that imput. People get crazy offensive whenever taxes are brought up. For not paying the income tax where we live, for wanting to use it to our benefit in the country we do pay them in... It's not even like we have a choice in this, however if it does come up to paying them here we might decide to go back to the UK because here they are insanely high with little returns. Like, what would the commentators have us do? Not live abroad? Not seek best ways to save in any legal way possible? I'd rather see the system being fair on everyone and guarantee good returns on the income tax - decent health care and public services, otherwise it does feel like theft when you have to leave half of your wages in the public pocket. It's not like I'm planning on using services that aren't paid for... Anyhoo, it does seem like it would be too much hassle, which has been pointed out helpfully.