Tj916:
sawadee khap granpa.
I returned from deepest Issaaann… 18 months ago with license expired after living in LOS for five years.
As others have said you only need a medical to get your license back.
DVLC do a live chat which I found very helpful if you have any questions.
As for your DCPC the benefits agency paid for mine. It was a week of getting back to work skills first aid, health and safety interview skills CV writing etc and then the week for CPC.
I was dreading the two weeks in a classroom but I did learn some useful stuff and my new employer was impressed with the certificates they provided.
If you didn’t already know you won’t be able to claim any benefits for 3 months as you have been out of the UK for too long.Chock Dee and good luck.
Greetings fellow wanderer. 
We’re just north of Sattahip on the Eastern Seaboard, but my other half is from Buriram. Actually, I spent more time in Northern China than I have here, but that’s beside the point. It’s not the LOS anymore, the recession has hit hard and immigration is really tightening up now.
I’m on a marriage visa so I’m taking the required bank deposit of 400K back with me as I already know I’d fail the ‘habitual residency’ requirements. Strange that, as no one was complaining when I served in the forces, or paid tax and NI for decades. Still, I’ll get my revenge. When I die I’m coming back as a black, one-legged lesbian and I’ll milk the system dry! 
If I’m not entitled to benefits, would they still put me through a return to work program and pay for my CPC? That sounds like a good deal. The classroom rote and memorization part wouldn’t worry me – see my resume link at the top of the page. I wouldn’t be able to put a UK vocational resume together after all these years, but an idea I have is to write to some of the companies I used to work for. Obviously, they won’t remember me, but they might still have records of me having worked there which I can use as a reference to show I’m not a newbie. It’ll be strange coming back after all these years away, but I look at it as just another way to earn money so I can return later when I reach pension age, or my health declines.