Fredsmith

Hi,

We started talking about this under another thread but I thought it would be better to start a new one (sorry if its already been discussed)

I have been registered as an autonomy in Spain for 7 years and started when I was 50. I was told at the time if I managed to get in 15 years I would get a pension from Spain, I had several different stories, after 15 years you would get hardly anything to a full pension, I was totally confused but thought something was better than nothing and I wanted to work legally here.

I was told last year that the 15 years had been changed to 20, so tough luck you would never get 20 years in. I then saw no this was not the case as it just meant the pension you got was just based on the last 20 years income.

Confusing or what!!

So I asked my accountant, he said he would apply for a pension forecast for me.

When I got this, it listed all my social security payments to date plus all my predicted payments up intil I was 66, as long as I paid them.

I was amazed to see that my predicted monthly pension was 976.00 euros.

So I asked again, saying I would only have 16 years in payments. I was told the law had been changed to the following:

All you needed was the full number of years paid in any EU country to get the full pension of the country you are resident in when you retire.

To me this means, my 27 years contributions in the UK and my 16 years here in Spain would give me a full Spanish pension at the age of 66.

Can anybody confirm this is the case, as everytime I tell people this they say no it can't be right. I hope it is.

Rotor

You need professional advice on something as serious as this, talk to someone like ,
http://www.blevinsfranks.com/EN/content/314/Spain

Chiclanagir

So instead of taking my British pension I can get a Spanish one instead which should be more! Can´t think that is the case.

steviedeluxe

Have you worked the necessary number of years in Spain as autonomo? I know someone who is going down this route, and he has a similar story - once you've got 15 years under your belt in Spain, you can transfer your uk contributions and get the Spanish pension. It sounds feasible, but as mentioned above it's something to check with your accountant. You could gain quite a bit extra money on retirement day.

spainrico

The 'You need 15 years contributions in Spain to get a pension' is a common misnomer and one that the UK Consulates roadshow with the Pension, Benefit and Healthcare team always covers.
As long as you have a minimum of 15 years contributions across all the EU countries that you have worked in then you will be entitled to a pension, the claim process starts in Spain (if you are resident, you will 2 yrs contributions) or the country in which you are currently resident.
See here for more and be sure to understand your entitlements:
http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/help-...s/#entitlement

The roadshows are well worth attending - there is another post on this site about the next dates etc. or see here
http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/help-...fits/open-day/

Chiclanagir

No, it was just that you said this "All you needed was the full number of years paid in any EU country to get the full pension of the country you are resident in when you retire." It didn´t say that you needed to pay in to the country you retired to.

Fred James

Not quite. It might work out even better.

You will get a pension from the UK based on your 27 years contributions and another pension based on your 16 years of Spanish contributions. They will be paid separately.

Here are a couple of FAQs from the EUlisses site http://ec.europa.eu/employment_socia...id=72&name=Faq

How is my pension calculated if I have lived and/or worked in other European countries and paid pension contributions or accumulated pension rights in each country?

First, each country's pension institution calculates your pension according to its own calculation rules, based on the contributions you have paid in that country. Next comes the EU pension calculation. Each country adds together the periods of social-insurance cover from all countries and then simulates how much pension you would get if your contributions had all been paid into its own social security scheme. This amount is then reduced to correspond to the actual time you were covered in that country. Regardless of whether the national or the EU calculation is more favourable, you will always be paid the higher amount.

Are all the contributions I have paid in different European countries added together to determine my pension entitlement?

Under the European (and most national rules, if you have not had social-insurance cover in a particular country for long enough to qualify for a pension there, your periods of cover in other countries will be taken into account. The advantage of this system is that even if you have lived and been covered in more than one European country, you will not lose any periods of cover or contributions. Also, you do not have to transfer periods of cover from one country to another before you retire.
This means that every country in which you paid contributions for at least one year will have to pay you an old-age pension. If you were insured in a country for less than a year, the country where you most recently worked/lived may take over those periods so that they will not be lost.

Rotor

Something else to ask yourself is will the EU still exist in 15 years ??If it breaks up for what ever reason I would not like to rely on Spain paying out my pension come to think of it I would not want to rely on Spain paying out even if the EU dose not dissolve

whitelinen

Never forgetting to wonder if one will actually make it to 66 to be able to draw the pension

Rosemary

One of the things that my OH was angry about prior to his first operation was the fact that if he died as predicted he would have been 8 months short of collecting his pension. When he was about to have his second operation he had collected one whole months pension and was still bemoaning the fact that he had paid all his life and received nothing. He is a bit happier about the whole thing now because he has received more than a years worth.

Rosemary

JLFS

You wont if you eat in Mcdonalds....

jdr

whitelinen

Having recently re-read Die Broke by Stephen Pollan I shall eat what I like where I like and when I like

After all, you cant take it with you so eat up and enjoy yourselves

licinius

I've been contacted a couple of times recently by companies advising me to transfer my UK pension fund to Spain. They claim that if I transfer my fund, I can take my pension tax free in Spain. I'm 20 years off drawing my pension so it's not something i'm going to do (yet) but does anybody know more about this?

Mitzyboy

I'm guessing its a bit like the other way around in reality. Someone qualifying
for their pension payable in the Uk when they are Spanish residents dont get their lump sum tax free, as it is taxable in Spain. Lot of talk about QROPS recently.