Exactly worked before retirement in Spain but took 2 years unemployment benefit before claiming pension as this meant 2 extra years contributions.
UK pension mainly via voluntary contributions when working in Spain.
Pensions not combined paid as 2 separate amounts

Can you register as unemployed after voluntary leaving your job and still be seen as qualifying even though you wouldn't receive Paro? I assume that is what happened to you because I though Paro was only for a year although you can obviously still be registered

Sorry to confuse. To clarify the messed up dates: I’m 64 now, so my retirement age in the UK is July 2026, and in Spain May 2027. So I have a while to go. And I have accessed my forecasts for both countries, so I know what I should get separately: the full UK pension, and 24 years in Spain. But my doubt was about voluntary contributions, as you mentioned you had paid them too. My voluntary UK contributions obviously overlap with my compulsory Spanish contributions, and some have suggested that could actually reduce my pensions, sort cancelling each other out to some extent. My understanding was that under the EU coordination regulation, I would get the full UK pension, and Spain would simply ignore the UK voluntary contribution in its calculation and give me a pension here based on the 24 years. Just wondered if your experience tallies with this.

Exactly what happened with my 2 pensions.

I don't understand why some people imagine that voluntary payments to the UK system would be 'deducted' from the total of contributions paid into the Spanish system.

Why then wouldn't UK private pensions or civil service pensions have the same effect. Even Spanish ´planes de pensiones'. There is no means testing.

The truth is that the UK voluntary contributions are an incredible bargain. They are an exception to the rule 'If someting is too good to be true then it probably is"

I receive a UK State Pension based on my contributions (including voluntary ) and a Spanish State Pension based on my working record here. Totally separate. NO mixing.

How many years contributions have you in each country?

As far as I'm aware, the only reasons for Social Security co-ordination initiatives are to ensure that if you've worked in more than one country, you don't lose out in one or more of them when your contributions are tallied up as a ratio of their system. So they ask that each country considers the contributions into their system as a stand-alone scenario, and also as a part of a whole contributed to elsewhere as if it were in their own system. You still only get a payout from each country for the number of years contributed there. But they have to calculate it both ways (so that if there's a higher rate for more years of contributions, or a lower limit you don't reach in any one country, you don't lose out compared to someone who worked all their life in the one country). You get the better of the 2 rates if there's a difference.

Just spoken with a pension advisor in Spain. Up shot is. While the 15 year rule is perfectly true it would only apply to someone who has simply made less than 15 years any where in EU. In other words if you worked 20 years in UK and only 10 in Spain you still qualify in Spain for pension by using the 20 in UK to get you over the 15 year rule. So in this case you basically would get 20 years paid by UK government and 10 years by Spanish. I originally thought that you needed 15 years contributions all in Spain but apparently you don't.

But good luck with both the UK and Spain getting the figures right.

I actually found the Spanish system quite transparent. Everything based on your "Vida Laboral" which is easily available from the Social Security . This followed by a detailed calculation of your entitlement. As I was only doing voluntary contributions for part of my working life UK experience similar - a flat figure similar to everyone else with 35 years of contributions.

Do you have experience of this?

I claimed my pension in UK. Despite stating that I had lived and worked in Spain giving my NIE and Social security number. DWP just gave me my UK pension based on NICs there. After ages on the phone I managed to get through and point out they hadn't been given my Spanish entitlement. Yet another form. I eventually got a reply from Spain and cheques for my Spanish pension.
I don't think Spain has calculated it properly. But as I will be retiring in Spain (as soon as our NLVs come through). I decided to leave challenging the figures until I was once again living in Spain.

Unfortunate that - as I mentioned the key document is your "Vida Laboral" obtainable directly from the Spanish SS that way you can cross-reference your working history and your level of contributions. Assuming you have no missing "work time" your calculation should be straight-forward

Unfortunately whereas your vida laboral is available to see the INSS will not give you a forecast if you are also going to get a UK pension. If you go to their page you can see that they tell you the conditions of current forecast and that automatically defaults to thinking your whole working life is in Spain. You can't tick the box for work abroad so would need to actually go to INSS in person to give them that information. Without this it is impossible to know what you might receive

Wasn't aware of that - did it all in SS office