British Expats - Retirement move

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Re: Retirement move

Quote:

Originally Posted by UK.FRED (Post 11792142)

I think I'll look into the pension side of things and see how it works. This new lump sum pension payments scheme we've had here since April are confusing. How does the health care system work? I take it we need private medical insurance as we won't be working. What's the best way to arrange that?
Thanks for all your replies.
FRED.UK

If you are UK pensioners you will qualify for 'free' healthcare in the Spanish sytem, in the same way their own pensioners do. I put free in inverted commas because it's not totally free, but is still very cheap, you will have to pay a small percentage of prescription charges, no doubt someone will be along to say just how much. You just need the S1 form from the DWP to show you are of retirement age.

Re: Retirement move

The prescription charge is 10% of what the medication costs but I do not know if there is an upper limit to what you pay as I only have two very cheap ones.

Rosemary

Re: Retirement move

These two UK government websites will give you loads of helpful info.
Living in Spain

Healthcare in Spain

Re: Retirement move

Hi Fred,

I believe that if you have enough money to live in the UK, then you have enough money to live in Spain, and in fact, you're highly likely to have more disposable income in Spain.

Probably one of the biggest issues for people retiring to Spain is that they don't get free state healthcare if they are retiring early. You will need to have some kind of private cover (or buy into the state system, which is possible in some regions) to fill the years between your actual retirement and reaching the official retirement age.

The move will be of most financial benefit to you if you do it on the basis of permanent living in Spain. Being a "swallow", as those who go back and forth are often called, is fine, but you have to maintain properties in two places and bear the costs that come with doing so.

There are a couple of other issues that can arise. Integration with your fellow expats and locals is not as easy if you're back and forth all the time. My wife joins classes and clubs and then misses attendance, and sometimes doesn't bother getting involved as a result. Your choice of property might also be impacted. You might not feel comfortable leaving a villa unoccupied for several months of the year and will feel forced to go the route of a lock-up-and-leave apartment. You might then feel uncomfortable leaving the UK house (if you keep one) unoccupied and have to make some changes there too.

These are all things that we've come up against so there's a chance you will too.

Re: Retirement move

Quote:

Originally Posted by UK.FRED (Post 11791511)

Thanks for clearing up the pension issue. That's good to know. We would have to use our savings to live on with our UK pension as we'd have no other regular income. Our Â£150,000 would not be worth as much in euros and we don't want to live frugally. Calculating the cost of our retirement in Spain is going to be the most challenging thing to calculate.
Thanks Mike

We changed some Â£ yesterday at â‚¬1.41 to Â£1 Stirling so 150k would be worth a lot more well over â‚¬200k. We don't smoke I drink one 33cl bottle of beer each day with lunch she has a bottle of water and our lunch costs between â‚¬8 and â‚¬12 each including the drink and coffee after. We spend an average of â‚¬20 a day on food. Date night is Friday when we go to the cinema â‚¬12 for two saw Spectre last week Intern the week before. The last 10 days has been amazing Autumnal weather cool evenings and mornings 15-20*C afternoon temps of 25*C but in the sun it is mid thirties. What's not to like about Spain?

Re: Retirement move

I'm pleased to be getting lots of positive feedback. Our move is going to be permanent so all these tips are appreciated.