It should be. But both UK and Spain have only worked out my entitlement for the years paid in that individual country. Not pro-rata of my combined entitlement years in both countries.

ie Spain has given me say 5 years pension based on the minimum 15 years. Not 5 years based on my total say 30 years in both UK and Spain. (I worked on yachts for many years hence the large shortfall).

How many years did you work in Spain and how many years do you have in UK. ? If you have over 15 in Spain and around 30 in UK my understanding is that you can get the 2 separate ( although I am not sure about as I thought it was capped )
Less than 15 requires each country to pay a portion with you being offered the best mix which usually means taking the 15 in Spain and the difference to 37 from UK.

I agree with comment - over 15 years in Spain and over 30 (? ) in UK gives two separate pensions

What I don't understand is when you go for your Spanish pension they require you to say if you get another public pension abroad. I assumed this is because you are capped and cannot get more than maximum years. For example if you have 14 years in Spain and 35 in UK you only get up to maximum which is 38 years. If you had 15 - do you get two separate and effectively 50 years? Seems rather odd?

Yes you do

But I am right in thinking that if you have less than 15 years you can't get 2 separate pensions only a mix and that is capped at 37 years?
The reason I ask is that my lawyers seemed to think you have to say you already have another public pension as it is one of the boxes that you tick and that is why Spain asks. Admittedly I have no idea

That I don't know .
Yes they asked the question and then they followed up with UK ( which I had done separately ) and other countries where I had worked.

My turn now!! I am living in Spain and have worked here for 17 years. I retire in 4years. and I am thinking about paying for 18 missing years in UK. Am I right in thinking UK do two calculations 1) what you are entitled to, based on UK contributions and 2) UK also does a calculation using total amount of years, not sure exactly what the calculation is (but it's not just adding the two amounts of years together) and the highest amount will be your UK pension. Does Spain do it exactly same as UK?

It is a bit hard to explain but yes , UK does some calculations and so will Spain ( provided you are over 15 years). And they then tell you which is the highest. In your case the more years in the UK you can get is worth buying as your UK pension will be higher than the Spanish one. The Spanish one will depend on how much you worked and the amount of contributions. Unlike the UK one it does not depend on the number of years. So it depends on how much you worked in 17 years and how much you paid in. Often Brits are not full time and not doing high salary work which means the pension can be a bit disappointing. A common misconception is that at 15 years you get a minimum pension which is around €700 but this is only true if you have no other income or pension

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I Have an appointment with INSS hopefully they can tell me how much Spanish pension I should expect. What I do know is that since last September part time work in Spain is classed as full time work with regard to pensions. Plus it is back dated...good news for alot of people!!

You have to understand that whilst Spain records your years it's your Vida laboral that determines your pension. The part time thing doesn't necessarily mean more money as essentially it is all about how much you have paid in not how many days you have. For example I have 12 years of qualifying years on my SS page but only about 3 years ony Vida laboral ( and that's with the new system) so my Spanish pension will be neglible- plus INSS will simply give you a range based on lots of variables and unless you are a few months from retiring they won't give you anything more than the App does- and that assumes you are Spanish and have only worked in Spain.

So if you have been working full time for a good salary then you should have made high contributions ( if your boss had been honest- many small businesses are not paying the right level of contribution for employees). Then you should be getting around about the median.

There is a limit to how many years of voluntary UK contributions you can make. It is only 6 years, but as the UK government screwed up the system, at the moment you can also claim for missed years between 2006 and 2016. However, this option will be removed in 2025.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sa...contributions/

It is important that you get a copy of your "Vida Laboral" and check that it is correct as the days shown and the SS will form the basis of your pension calculation

Yes. But remember the Vida laboral is not the same as qualifying years. You usually have far more years than you will have on Vida laboral and it is VL which determines the amount.

So are you saying that on average over your 12 working years you were only 'de alta' with INSS for 3 months each year?