Mourinho you are quite correct.....the Spanish in Britain don't live their lives the way many, but not all, expats do in Spain. Many of them work hard and pay taxes. Many of them also manage to acquire council flats and housing benefit and play the system for all they can get. Recently there was much publicity for the cost of providing interepreters and translators for non English speaking residents in Britain. The annual bill is many millions and questions are being asked. Britain is a truly multi-cultural country, London especially so. If Brits in Spain are living outside the system then they are quite rightly being denied the care offered to those who conform. What was not made clear by the programme was the precise status of those featured. It was extremely vague about which of the participants were legal residents and which were not. I think the target audience was those people who watch the 'dream in the sun' programmes and sell up....showing them in simple terms that there is another less well featured side of the coin...

Perhaps you can enlighten us rather than ranting at us.....what are the qualifying criteria for obtaining treatment on the Spanish health service for pre retirement expats?? If they head to Spain with private incomes, and get taxed on these incomes in Spain do they qualify?? If they work in Spain, what is the minimum period they have to be employed to qualify ? And is this qualification then a permanent status or does it lapse after a while and have to be renewed by further periods of employment??
Don't rant and rave......educate, so people know what to expect and how better to fit in...

Well It seems Moronio .....or what ever the name is has a bee in their bonnet. So Both my husband and myself worked all our lives in the uk, paid into the system.... ( Spain IS part of the eu now isnt it??? ) same system??? I beleive the spanish living in the uk ( and there are many) will receive the benefit... no matter how long theyve paid in or lived there. Is that tit for tat??
law or no law, you paid in your entitled to help... Wether the spanish system claims it back from the uk or not is another matter. Or is it the fact that were all part of the EU unless you learn the local lingo?????
Learning spanish has bugger all to do with bieng entitled to good health care.
Its about receiving help into a system you have maintained and paid into most of your life.

I think you qualify as soon as you start work. I applied for my Social Security card when I started working - when it arrives, if you turn it over on the flipside there is a green "health card". there is no expiry date, so I guess it is valid forever!

I suppose it is a bit like the NHS medical card that we had in the UK. ÇThere is no expiry date, unless of course you leave the country and reside elsewhere.

Well, as I said before you have a jaded view of the Brit in Spain as the majority of Brits I know aim to integrate as best they can

You're not putting a reasonable arguement forward, just generalising / Brit knocking I'm afraid.

I have not come across one person from the UK that doesnt have the basic spanish language, or who isnt willing to try!
Where are all the Uk people who wont speak Spanish???
I have been here 3 years and have yet to meet one that complains about the system or never tries to speak some of the language. Are thay hiding???

Thanks for the info.


It would appear anybody who has been resident in the UK for 12 months is entitled to free healthcare. I cannot see any reference to the cost of this being paid back to the UK goverment as in the case of UK citizens living in Spain. What a totally unfair system.

Yes it seems unfair Mitzi, but the circumstances could be different. To be fair to Mourinho very few Spanish are retiring to Britain. They usually come to work to earn better salaries so they can aspire to the same lifestsyles as the expats in Spain. Yes some do exploit the benefits system. I think his rant is aimed at Brits who retire to Spain before pensionable age to live the good life, but don't actually buy into the tax system etc. So we have two sets of people, one choosing to live in Spain, British, the other Spanish choosing to live in Britain. Both pre retirement on private incomes. Where do they pay their tax, or national insurance if indeed they pay it at all ? It seems like the Spaniard in Britain would get all the health benefits of the NHS whether he paid in or not, and the Brit in Spain wouldn't. Or does it cease for both of them after the statutory two years ? It's these anomalies that need sorting out.

If I had stayed in the UK when I retired early then I would have been entitled to full state care and possibly other benefits without any further contribution.
I paid into the UK system for 37 years and have never claimed any benefits apart from healthcare.

I would be more than happy to contribute into the spanish system, but because I do not intend to work that is not possible. You cannot pay voluntary contributions or direct pay into the system. I assume spanish nationals who cannot work are entitled to benefits??

The crazy thing is that early retired expats who do become ill and have no savings or insurance are likely to return to the UK and then live off the state which is probably far more expensive than sorting out a system that enables them to buy into the healthcare system here.

Yvonne

Although i missed the programme, a friend phoned us about it to voice concerns over our rapidly aproaching move to Spain. Maybe as pointed out earlier the UK will not reinburse Spain after 2 years, as if it would pay indefinatley Spain would continue treatment. I think 2 years is sufficient to intigrate in the spanish system, (or run out of money and come home, not including early retirees) if you are of workable age. I agree that what we have come to see as normal with the UK social and health system may not be the norm throughout Europe, in the UK we have a massive tax burden on every family to pay for these services, income and stealth, one major reason for brits leaving, my UK council tax 3 bed house £1200 pa, my five bed house in Spain 160 euroes pa. All europeans are intitled to housing and benefits as soon as they arrive, its written into our law and the rest of europe makes us uphold it. As far as i know you can voluntary register with the Spanish social security and pay the minimum national insurance to go towards your pension and health care. You need 35 years contributions to receive a full Spanish pension, 15 years for a half pension. The EU country holding the greater pension fund at retirement pays the pension and claims the rest from the lower paid country. The Spanish state pension is the second highest in Europe, you can choose the amount you receive by the amount you input. I think the main point of frustration with this thread can only be with people taking early retirement in the UK and moving to Spain, people of retirement age are covered as are workers. If you retire early, factor in your private health care payments before buying in spain, i bet they will still be cheaper than your UK council Tax per year. You pay in the UK by stealth, or know what your paying in Spain. There are no threads on here about paying the 7% purchase tax on property in Spain, because thats the way it is.
I have paid massive NI payments over the years in the UK, and will have to work in Spain, I am fully aware of what is ahead of me. If the EU ever unites under 1 constitition like the US every one will be equal, until then its a place we can work and relocate as europeans with some concessions, but they are still seperate countries with there own rules.

written without bias or arqument to state my views,

Regards and best wishes to all

I´m no expert on the matter, but I think spanish unemployment benefits vary enormously to the UK.

As I understand it, if you are a young person out of work and have never worked, you get zero benefits. If you have worked and are then sacked, you receive income benefit. If you have worked and then voluntarily choose to leave your job, you receive nothing.

Spain is not as generous as the Uk when it comes to dishing money out for free.

How do I register for Social Security

The Spanish social security system is much like the British one, in that you pay your contributions every month, and that entitles you to a pension, unemployment benefit, sick pay, maternity pay and the right to receive free healthcare. The amount of pension or benefit you receive depends on the level of contributions you have been paying. You should be a little careful too: some small businesses pay all their staff cash in hand and those staff will not be eligible for Social Security benefits, including health care. Other employers may register you, but claim you are working less than you are, thus saving themselves some money in contributions. In this situation you will still be eligible for health care, but if you become unemployed or have to take sick leave, your benefits will be lower. Obviously you may not have much of a choice as to who you work for, but we would strongly recommend that you do not work cash-in-hand.

If you are self-employed you will have to go to the local Social Security office and fill in all the paper-work yourself. Unless your Spanish is very good, then it is probably advisable to get a gestor (official agent - a bit like a lawyer for menial bureaucracy) to do this for you. The minimum monthly contribution for the self employed in Spain is currently 225EUR per month.

If you have been employed in Spain for 6 months and you lose your job, you will generally be entitled to Spanish unemployment benefit. If you are employed or self-employed, you will also be entitled to sick pay, maternity pay and, when you retire, a pension. All benefits are paid at variable rates depending on the level of your contributions. If you have been paying minimum social security contributions the amount you will receive in benefits is currently around 750 EUR per month. If you are planning to live in Spain long term you should contact the DSS overseas department (above) in order to get your UK NI contributions transferred to the Spanish system.

No, you can't do this. In Spain you have to be legally working ie employed or self-employed to be able to make contributions. There is no voluntary arrangement.

Yvonne, without intending to pry into your personal circumstances, if you have some income, presumably from Britain as you infer that you are not working in Spain, be it an early retirement pension or otherwise, and you are a Spanish resident, then presumably you are taxed in Spain, and therefore are part of the system and entitled to healthcare benefits. If you are taxed in Britain despite being a Spanish resident then surely under the double taxation rules you are entitled to offset the British tax against the Spanish. Unless of course you are not a Spanish resident and still hanging on to your British residency, which I suspect might have been the case for some of the people featured in the programme. I know of people who maintain a home in England, and are not Spanish residents despite having lived in Spain for the better part of 20 years. They retain their NHS entitlement, but pay for private medical insurance in Spain.

Can some one answer this question for me then.
My spanish friends, women friends all work for the council for 2 weeks every 6 months, it can be in the fields, cleaning the street or even doing construction work.
I dont understand fully how it is explained to me, but my understanding is that if they work for these 2 weeks every 6 months they keep there unemployment benefit. My best friend showed me a leaflet once that explained it and set out the guide lines, and I am almost sure it stated something in excess of 500 euros a month ?????
any one shead any light on this ?????

Hi Poolounger
I wish it was as easy as that! We are resident here, pay tax here but are not entitled to healthcare until I am of retirement age.
My husband works 2 days per week for a UK employer and is still paying NI in the UK. Not because he wants to but because we and our spanish fiscal advisers can find no way for him to contribute to the system here. You can not legally be self employed here if working for a UK employer under PAYE.

As the Newcastle office said when I spoke to them yet again this week, we are in a grey area. We have written to the Madrid head office and I have made contact with a Euro MP about the situation. (they even replied!)
The UK are now saying that he may have to stay in their system and they will issue an extended E106 unless spain can come up with a solution. A spanish person working in the UK under the same situation can direct pay into the UK system.
We cannot purchase private medical insurance because my husband has a pre-existing condition.

I think you can read as much as you like before you get here but it only when you try to do something that you have been told is standard that you find out , like many things in life it is not that simple.

After about a year of trying to sort this out, I am reasonably confident that we are nearing a solution. We very much enjoy our life here and are trying hard to do everything correctly but it does appear as some of the people on the TV programme said you do get penalised for doing it that way.
Yvonne