spainandre

E.U country pensions & UK state pension: I am about to reach Pension age. Not currently working, I am resident in Spain. I have three countries (UK, another EU country & Spain) where I have made contributions to social insurance. It seems I can only claim a pension centrally through Spain, where I live, or through the UK where I last worked. In the U.K and other E.U country I qualify independently for state pension amounts. In Spain, a pension amount from here only if I claim through here I believe (as my other country contributions lead to qualification here). It’s all a bit nerve wracking. Anyone got any qualified contacts who are fully competent in how this all works or has anyone got good personal advice/experience? Claiming in either Spain or UK brings it's own anxieties, haha.

olivefarmer

You get your UK state pension assuming you have sufficient years in uk to qualify.

also you apply for your “EU pension” in the last country you worked. The UK as you say. They then contact Spain INSS plus the other EU country you worked in. Then a pension is calculated from the rules which include the years worked in UK. There maybe minimum qualifying periods in each EU country

Some points.

Do not assume the retirement ages are the same in each country. E.g. Spain might be 66 and a half but 67 in UK. If you wait till you are 67 to apply the Spanish six months are lost. I.e. not backdated as it would be in the UK.

the UK will allow you to contribute additional years to improve your uk pension. The added years do not improve your eu pension ( but I might be wrong on that). Worthwhile boosting your UK pension unless you dont anticipate living very long or you cannot spare the cash

Be prepared for it to take months. Every civil service dept in all countries claim to be short staffed due to pandemic. “Work” for other countries producing records of your qualifying years will be the lowest priority.

Calculate your own record of qualifying years for each country. They can make mistakes.

once you have submitted your application for your EU pension to the UK check on progress from reasonable time to time. It could quite easily be waiting for figures from one of the countries and no one chasing it.

UK work and pensions staff are very helpful but you may have a wait a bit in the queue. Website is very comprehensive too.

Hope that helps as a start. Lets see what other advice you get.

Loafing Along

Excellent summary from Olivefarmer. To add a little from personal experience.

The Spanish route
1. Check you have the minimum necessary for a pension in Spain, should be 15 years + You can check your exact working history via a "Vida Laboral" , the number of days worked will be shown there and used by the SS ( no pun intended) to calculate your entitlement. Remember if you have been unemployed in Spain and claimed benefit for the period of unemployment the state automatically pays your Social Security at the minimum rate and the days count towards your pension entitlement.
2. If all looks good start the process in your local SS office, they will get you to fill out paperwork there that sweeps up other countries .worldwide .
3. As a separate exercise get a calculation from the DHSS in the UK, they issue this about six months or even earlier before retirement age.
4. Yes delaying the UK pension means your entitlement increases but you can also take the pension and then make extra contributions should you wish to do so .

I did the above a few years ago via the Spanish route and it all took a few months for everything to come together but they did a good job.

Fred James

Years of contributions in multiple countries can be added together to qualify. I have a friend who worked in 4 countries including Spain. He worked in Spain for 2 years but he qualifies for a (small) Spanish pension together with small Italian and Swiss pensions.

spainandre

Thanks everybody very much for your responses.

spainrico

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-in-spain#pensions

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/work/retire-abroad/state-pensions-abroad/index_en.htm

Jon-Bxl

Thanks! I delved in a bit further

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizen...q/index_en.htm

It's good to hear that Brexit hasn't affected the rules re combining pensions from EU countries, where UK continues to be included. My personal situation. Click on the Brexit box at the top. (I'm sure there might be some extra hurdles though).

Ive learned that its important to kick off the process before you reach pensionable age in the country with the lowest pension age!

However, in an earlier post, it was mentioned that AVC's may not be counted. (Additional Voluntary Contributions). In my personal situation AVC's are a 'no brainer'. I am in that age group where a full pension was originally based on 30 years contributions. I have an old letter from DWP/HMRC saying I qualify gor a full pension due to the 30 years contributions.

But then they changed the rules, and upped it to 35 years. For one reason or another, that meant me paying 6 years more AVC, which I did earlier this year. Again I got a later letter from them explaining this beforehand.

So I would like to dive in to this issue. I understand that AVC's are not available in all EU countries, so may not apply. But if there is a way to use the UK pensions entitlement, including AVC's which is fully and legally accepted in the UK - I would like to try and include it.

Does anybody have any experience of this - or any pointers on how to proceed, please? In order to get an "EU Pension"

I'm sure there are many different scenarios in each country, and hopefully the EU + local authorities have already dealt with them.

Jon
Great tool for your forecast
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

​​​​​It worked for me till last year. But they changed the rules for long term expats so, if it doesn't work, you can go 'manual'

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-for-a-state-pension-statement

Or call the Future Pensions Group +44 191 203 7010 (Number valid early this year). Put the phone speaker on, make a cuppa and have a good book ready, it may be a wait!

spainandre

olivefarmer

For the eu pension you apply in the country you last worked. You said that was the uk.

Have you rung them and talked it through with the UK dept. They are very helpful but as I advised earlier expect a wait when ringing.

spainandre

Thanks

Luz liver

I applied for Spanish and UK pension in February ( I was 65 in March ) I got a favorable response to the Spanish Part and started receiving payment in June. I had just over 10 years vida laboral in Spain and I'm recieving 202 euros a month. The last time I checked the SS had not had a response from the UK.

Mustard

I don't understand how you were permitted to retire at 65 and start to receive a Spanish state pension.
According to the Seguridad Social webpage, unless you have 37 years 3 months of 'cotizaciones', you can't receive a Spanish state pension until you are 66.

https://www.seg-social.es/wps/portal...93/28396/28472

The UK state pension age is also now 66 so in theory you won't start receiving it until next March.

spainandre

Re claiming at 65..my understanding is if you have all those years combined together from Spain and any e.u country (and that still includes U.K under current agreement)..you can start a claim in Spain and would be entitled to Spanish pension money from 65.. pension from other countries that would only come when u reach retirement age of those countries...I think that's correct..

Mustard

But Luz Liver said that the Seguridad Social had received no reply from the UK. If that's the case, how did they know that he / she had sufficient years contributions to make the necessary total?

spainandre

Ah..interesting point :-)