Guidance - Taxes

Hello All,
I am not sure how to go about it all, so putting it all out there. In the hope that someone can guide me.
I have been working onboard the cruise ships in the US for the last 2 decades, this income was tax free, so I never paid any taxes in the US.  I am a citizen of India and have paid taxes on capital gains only on investments in my home country.
I moved from the US, to UK in April 2014.  I finally started work here in Nov. 2014  and started paying taxes in UK

My questions are ..
1) I have just received my retirement for 23 years of work in Feb. 2015 and it is now in a bank in the US.   Before I move it to the UK, I wanted to be sure I do not end up paying taxes or messing myself up.  This is not a recent income, it was due since I left my work, but finally materialised.  This I presume should not be taxable?
2) My uk taxes are deducted directly at work now, Should I be keeping track of any expenses like uniform expenses or some other education related expenses and can I claim refund on it at the end of the year?  How do I go about it?  Sorry, If this is a very basic question, I have just not paid taxes before this job or claimed back any amounts before.  Any good sites to advise re. this?
Regards
AK

For question 1) how you are taxed will depend on your residency and maybe citizenship; I assume that you are not a US citizen.

You have a pension benefit sitting in a US account, do you know what it is, 401k, defined benefit pension etc? If you are UK resident Moving it all at once to the UK might produce a big UK tax bill. If you are an NRA you would file a W-8BEN in the US to avoid US tax and withholding and then pay income tax to your country of residence.

2) If you are self employed and have to provide materials to do your job you can claim them as expenses.


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