Tenerife
property
Retiring to Tenerife
By David J. Wilson
With approximately 1 million British already retired to Spain and
its islands and another 1 million predicted to do so over the next
10 years, it is perhaps important to consider some of the consequences
of such a move.
Benefits of retiring to Tenerife
I receive many calls from people who are thinking of leaving the UK
for Spain upon retirement and there is always confusion as to benefits
they can expect.
If you leave the UK at current retiring ages you will immediately be
entitled to enter the Spanish National Health Service providing you
complete the requisite processes.
Leaving the UK
Step one is to contact the International Services Department for National
Insurance Contributions of the Inland Revenue (0845 915 4811 or +44
191 225 4811 from outside the UK) and inform them of your proposed
move. This will ensure state pension payments are dealt with correctly
and enable them to transfer you to the other country. You will be
entitled to any state pension increase by virtue of residence in
any EU country.
Moving to Tenerife
When you arrive in Tenerife, you’ll need to do two things:
1. Apply for permanent residence status
2. Visit your local Social Security office with your papers from the
Inland Revenue.
You will then be allocated a doctor at your nearest clinic.
Thereafter, if you return on holiday to the UK you will be entitled
to emergency treatment without charge and provided you have obtained
an E1-11 form from your local Spanish Social Security Office you will
receive general medical services.
A semi-permanent move
A more complex situation arises when considering the position of swallows,
i.e. people who spend considerable periods in Spain during the winter
months and return to the UK for summer. The British Government has
recently announced its proposal that free NHS care is to be denied
to British pensioners who live in other European countries for more
than six months a year. Proposed changes follow a review of the NHS
charging, which discovered there was already an obscure legal requirement
to make pensioners pay if they stayed out of the UK for more than
three months at a time, which did not appear to have been applied.
People working abroad would be able to claim if they spent no more
than five years away. Free NHS treatment would still be provided
if someone fell ill while visiting the UK.
Therefore if you spend more than six months in Spain you should be
registering with the authorities and obtaining a Spanish doctor.
Under current rules if you are leaving the UK for more than three months
you should return your medical card to your health authority and on
return to the UK visit your former doctor and obtain a new medical
card. This system seems cumbersome and in fact has not often been complied
with in the past. However, the UK Government is endeavouring to limit
the abuse of the system by so called health tourists and everyone is
being dragged into the net to limit fraud.
As was stated earlier the UK Government is holding further consultations
with interested parties so undoubtedly there will be further developments
in due course.
Thinking ahead
If you are retiring early to Spain and are a few years short of the
official retirement age, it’s important that you obtain a statement
of your likely entitlement upon retirement from the Inland Revenue
office mentioned earlier. It may well be that you will need to make
annual voluntary contributions to obtain your full pension, and is
well worth doing.
If you are younger and switch to the Spanish system you will need to
contribute for at least 15 years to obtain a State pension which would
be much lower than the equivalent UK pension. David J. Wilson is a consultant for several major organisations located
in Spain, offshore and the UK. For a private consultation call (+34)
922 390 851 |
