Tommasso

Hi. New to board. We are moving to Gran Canaria from Scotland in July and wondered what the situation is with regards to Child Tax Credits / Child benefit entitlement. i.e Will we still claim through the UK system or do we need to claim through Spanish. Will be working for a British International School and still to find out quite a few details, but just wondered if anyone had any experience of this situation? Any general advice would be greatly appreciated at this early stage. Thanks!

valenciatim

When you leave the UK, officially, you give up your entitlement to child benefit and tax credits. There is a form of child benefit available in Spain that should kick in once you start paying into the social security system, but I believe this only covers children born in Spain.
Regards
Tim

Tommasso

Thanks Tim. As I said knoe very little about this situation so just thought I would see if anyone had experience in this. Does it make any difference if the contract abroad is seen as temporary?
Regards!

valenciatim

Probably depends on how you leave things in the UK, where you are paying your taxes, where you are paid, etc.
When leaving the UK, you should contact the dept for work and pensions in Newcastle to sort out some paperwork such as the E106, which should entitle you and yours to temporarily access the health system in Spain, register at the doctors, etc. until such time as you register for social security in Spain (basically means that you pay a minimum of about €240 a month for benefits similar to National insurance in the UK). This has to be paid regardless of how much you earn by the way.
One would assume that once you notify the DWP, their computers all talk to each other and then take you off of the child benefit and tax credit computers. I believe that that is what happened with us, although we didn't do the DWP bit until after we arrived, but soon after that, the child benefit stopped.
Hope this helps
Regards
Tim

Tommasso

Thanks Tim. Going to be on a teachers salary of about 1700 euro net aprox, so all this sounding rather tight on the old budget front. Will need to work out some serious figures if we are feasibly able to make this move. Hope the money factor is'nt going to be too much of a spanner in the works. Think it would be a great move for my family. (Wife and twin daughters of one). I am prepared to do some other income activites i.e teaching English as a foreign language or playing/singing work (used to be in the music industry) to supplement if I need to I guess. If only we were all rich eh? Thanks again mate!