Hi everyone. We are considering moving to England from South Africa, I was born in England so no problem for me my partner would come on a visa until he was accepted as a British citizen( 5 Years) I am trying to find out as much information as I can how this would work. Jannie has MS and was diagnosed in 2004. He can walk small distances around the house, outside he used a wheelchair. He is on Avonex injections once a week and this is working for him no new legions for the past year. Would he get treatment ( We know we have to pay the NHS Fee every year ) what is England like for mobility how do MS Suffers find the terraced houses to live in? I know this seems a silly question as your used to them but in South Africa we have much roomier homes and bungalows are the normal type of dwellings we have.
Any information would be helpful or if there is another person on the forum that has emigrated can you please give advice, I have so many questions I could go on for ever, Jennifer
Hiya, can’t help about the immigration questions (sorry!) but as far as property is concerned it’s really up to you. In most parts of the country bungalows are available but if you’d decided on a terraced or semi-detached house loads of companies provide stair lifts and I understand there’s now a lift for houses which can be purchased which will take a wheelchair as long as the layout of the house is suitable. Obviously it’s personal whether you hope to buy or rent but if you log onto Rightmove.co.uk you’ll get an idea. You may also wish to consider a ground floor flat (unless you can find some flats with lifts).
Hopefully someone wiser than me will be able to help with your other questions.
I would say research is key. You say you were born here. If you havent been for a while, I suggest a holiday. Do you have friends, relatives here.? Pick their brains for what life is like here? Can you get employment here? Housing can vary. If you are buying then as above go on property websites have a look around. Mobility can vary too. Cities your mostly okay. More rural can be crap for services. London is massively expensive Do some research on where you WANT to live and where you can AFFORD to live
I can’t imagine why anyone would want to come here from SA.
Our standard of living here is abysmal for anybody who hasn’t got pots of money.
Overpriced tiny shoebox sized homes, spiralling homelessness, even for some people holding down jobs, uncontrolled utility prices, infrastructure that’s been neglected for decades, soaring crime rates, ideologically fuelled austerity, some working people reliant on food banks because wages run out before the end of the month (or indeed claiming in work benefits because wages are too low) underpaid insecure jobs, life saving drugs deemed too expensive for the NHS to supply.
And if your disabled, the ongoing battle to gain access to public transport (see Mik Scarlet on the topic) damaged and broken pavements creating no go streets for wheelies due to our lovely tree lined suburban avenues. And don’t get me started on disability benefit assessments!
And that’s for starters!
Unfortunately we lost the Great in Great Britain a long time ago.
As reddivine says - research, and then research, and more research …
Without a job to come to, you need to research the areas which have the right jobs available.
With an area identified, you need to research the housing market (see below).
With an area identified, you need to research the medical support available in that area.
As an example, we had to move to get a bungalow - could not risk my wife falling down stairs.
We had our house valued and spent hours on the Rightmove website. We lived in the county of Wiltshire.
In Wiltshire, at our budget, there were 93 bungalows available.
In Lancashire there were over 1300 available.
We moved to Lancashire (north of Greater Manchester).
We are just 20 miles from one of the top MS hospitals in the country, and I attend a clinic at my local District hospital (5 miles)
If you will settle for a house which does not have a bend in the stairs. but does have several feet of straight landing at the top, remember that straight stairlifts are a lot cheaper than curved ones (you may not need one now, but later …?).
Do the research first - not when it is too late to change your mind.