A friend of mine who has lived in Spain (not legally) for 12 years has decided to get everything in order to be fully legal. He is 70 years old and will be entitled to S1 healthcare.

His question was: As he does not have a Spanish bank account to prove his monthly/annual income, will the annual letter he gets from the UK pension department which includes a statement of his future annual uk pension income be sufficient to satisfy the authorities that he will not become a burden on the state?

I will pass on any advice.

Steve

Yes I believe you have to prove that sufficient money is regularly arriving in a Spain. He will also need residencia, NIE, padron and make a tax declaracion (even if he has nothing to pay) to become fiscally resident.

More useful stuff here
https://www.gov.uk/world/living-in-spain

Thanks Spainrico, it was just the income query i was unsure about.

Perhaps your friend could tell the Spanish authorities that he has lived there illegally for 12 years without being a burden on the state. That should help.

How many hundred thousend would that be

Your reply will get 'burned' in due course no doubt, as its blatant advertising. Before that happens, can I just say that it appears to be a scaremongering load of bo**ocks in any case.