# Thinking of moving back to Spain & few questions



## annmac45 (Dec 5, 2016)

Hi thinking of moving back to Spain. Interested in Benahavis area 
Few questions we obviuosly would require private health insurance. Is this possible for couple in 70‘s & one of us has pre existing cardiac condition.
Any advice please.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I was informed by Sanitas last week that you can get insurance at any age and with any pre-existing condition. You'll pay higher premiums though, and there may be a delay period before you can get treatment relating to the condition.

Are either of you getting a UK state pension? In which case you are entitled to free healthcare in Spain.


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## tebo53 (Sep 18, 2014)

annmac45 said:


> Hi thinking of moving back to Spain. Interested in Benahavis area
> Few questions we obviuosly would require private health insurance. Is this possible for couple in 70‘s & one of us has pre existing cardiac condition.
> Any advice please.


As you are both in your 70's you are obviously officially retired so you will get free healthcare here in Spain. You will however have to obtain a form S1 from Newcastle which you present to the INSS office where you will be living in Spain. They will give you the paperwork to take to your nearest health clinic. They will then register you with a doctor and give you a healthcare number and card.

Steve


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## annmac45 (Dec 5, 2016)

Alcalaina said:


> I was informed by Sanitas last week that you can get insurance at any age and with any pre-existing condition. You'll pay higher premiums though, and there may be a delay period before you can get treatment relating to the condition.
> 
> Are either of you getting a UK state pension? In which case you are entitled to free healthcare in Spain.


Thank. You i will keep that in mind. We receive our pension from Australia.


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## annmac45 (Dec 5, 2016)

tebo53 said:


> As you are both in your 70's you are obviously officially retired so you will get free healthcare here in Spain. You will however have to obtain a form S1 from Newcastle which you present to the INSS office where you will be living in Spain. They will give you the paperwork to take to your nearest health clinic. They will then register you with a doctor and give you a healthcare number and card.
> 
> Steve


Thanks for your reply. Although we arw UK citizens we have dual citizenship of Australia & dual passports. Australia pays our pension which we also used to receive & still would if we returned to Spain. Australis shares reciprocal social security agreements with 19 countries. Spain does not have to pay anything， all money is paid from Australia into a bank account held in whichever country we are residing.
We were told previously we were entitled to health coverage as UK citizens under some agreement so would we apply for this with a S1. What is a S1? Parden my ignorance.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

annmac45 said:


> Thanks for your reply. Although we arw UK citizens we have dual citizenship of Australia & dual passports. Australia pays our pension which we also used to receive & still would if we returned to Spain. Australis shares reciprocal social security agreements with 19 countries. Spain does not have to pay anything， all money is paid from Australia into a bank account held in whichever country we are residing.
> We were told previously we were entitled to health coverage as UK citizens under some agreement so would we apply for this with a S1. What is a S1? Parden my ignorance.


I don't think Australia has an agreement with Spain, to fund the healthcare of Australians resident in Spain? Australia would simply pay your pension into a Spanish bank account.

If I'm wrong - how does it work? 

The S1 is a form issued by one EU country, usually to those in reciept of a state pension, which is then taken to another EU country & states that the first country will fund the healthcare of the holder, now resident in the second country. 

Unless you get a pension from the UK, (or other EU country) you won't be entitled to an S1.


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## tebo53 (Sep 18, 2014)

annmac45 said:


> Thanks for your reply. Although we arw UK citizens we have dual citizenship of Australia & dual passports. Australia pays our pension which we also used to receive & still would if we returned to Spain. Australis shares reciprocal social security agreements with 19 countries. Spain does not have to pay anything， all money is paid from Australia into a bank account held in whichever country we are residing.
> We were told previously we were entitled to health coverage as UK citizens under some agreement so would we apply for this with a S1. What is a S1? Parden my ignorance.


A S1 is an official document issued by the UK Healthcare department in Newcastle, UK. You can apply for it over the phone if you like. Have your UK national health number available and previous addresses. You will be asked other personal questions to prove who you are. They will send the forms to you and you will need to present those forms along with passports to the INSS office where you are going to live. You can either get these forms separate or be named on one form.


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## annmac45 (Dec 5, 2016)

xabiachica said:


> I don't think Australia has an agreement with Spain, to fund the healthcare of Australians resident in Spain? Australia would simply pay your pension into a Spanish bank account.
> 
> If I'm wrong - how does it work?
> 
> ...


Ok thanks for that.


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## annmac45 (Dec 5, 2016)

tebo53 said:


> A S1 is an official document issued by the UK Healthcare department in Newcastle, UK. You can apply for it over the phone if you like. Have your UK national health number available and previous addresses. You will be asked other personal questions to prove who you are. They will send the forms to you and you will need to present those forms along with passports to the INSS office where you are going to live. You can either get these forms separate or be named on one form.


Thanks we were told by government health dept in Cyprus we would be covered for health care as UK passport holders under some agreement. Not sure what it was. However we paid our medical & pharmacy requirements ourselves. We found the cardiologist ridiculously cheap compared to same in NZ 70€ for 3 visits & that was in a private hospital! Here we pay over $300 for 1 consultation & wait weeks to get an appointment.
Our meds here are subsized so 3 months of each prescribed item cost $6 in Cyprus buying over the counter (which you cannot do in NZ or Australia， need a doctors prescription but same item was 76€ in Cyprus & Tenerife. So swings & roundabouts.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

tebo53 said:


> A S1 is an official document issued by the UK Healthcare department in Newcastle, UK. You can apply for it over the phone if you like. Have your UK national health number available and previous addresses. You will be asked other personal questions to prove who you are. They will send the forms to you and you will need to present those forms along with passports to the INSS office where you are going to live. You can either get these forms separate or be named on one form.


However, the UK will only issue S1s if the OPs are in reciept of a UK pension, & they apparently aren't.


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

If your only pension is from Australia, you will not be entitled to an S1 and *Australia will not pay your health care costs in Spain.* (I'm UK/French/Australian citizen with only an Australian pension.)

I would have thought you would have received a letter from Medicare after you moved to Malta advising you of that.

Australia's social security agreements with both Spain and Malta only enable you to claim your pension from those and to combine your pensions if you have a pension entitlement from those countries. AFAIK it's only where you have a pension entitlement from either Spain or Malta (or another EU country) that your health care costs might be covered (whatever applies to pensioners in those countries). Malta may have made an error.


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## Aussie 1 (Oct 20, 2016)

If you hold UK passports did you ever work in the UK and pay National Insurance? Even for a few years you could claim a part State pension. We were in Australia for 30 years, but topped up our contributions until we became entitled to a full pension.


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## annmac45 (Dec 5, 2016)

Aussie 1 said:


> If you hold UK passports did you ever work in the UK and pay National Insurance? Even for a few years you could claim a part State pension. We were in Australia for 30 years, but topped up our contributions until we became entitled to a full pension.


Yes we have held UK passports all our life & worked in the UK in our 20‘s & again in our 60‘s. They told us unless we had 40 years of stamps we were not entitled to anything.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

annmac45 said:


> Yes we have held UK passports all our life & worked in the UK in our 20‘s & again in our 60‘s. They told us unless we had 40 years of stamps we were not entitled to anything.


When was this?


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

annmac45 said:


> Yes we have held UK passports all our life & worked in the UK in our 20‘s & again in our 60‘s. They told us unless we had 40 years of stamps we were not entitled to anything.


That sounds more like the Australian system than the UK system.


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## Aussie 1 (Oct 20, 2016)

Apparently it depends on which pension you qualify for. I recall that the minimum NI payment years for the old State Pension when I did it was 11 years (do not need to be consecutive years) and for that you would qualify for 11/30ths of the pension. The new State Pension is for those that were born in 1951 or later. For that, the minimum NI years is 10.
As I said, we topped up our NI payments by lump sum, until mine reached the full 30 years and then my wife (who only had a few years) could also use mine. I do not know when that top-up time runs out.
Just check with UK Gov. On line. You can ask for a pension forecast where they will check how much NI you have paid and tell you what you can expect to receive. Hope that helps.


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## annmac45 (Dec 5, 2016)

xabiachica said:


> When was this?


This was in 2000. On leavng Australia the previous year we were told by the Australian Pension Dept ( Centrelink) we could get a UK pension even though we had spent 32 years working in Australia. This was because the UK & Australia had a reciprocal agreement. However the UK did not honour the agreement & because there was an inbalance in payments with so many retired Brits joining children in Australia under family reunion & qualifying for the Australian pension ( which was greater than the UK pension) immediately yet the UK still insisted on 40 years of NI stamps for any Brit moving back to the UK. At the time the Australian government took out full page advertisements in UK papers explaining the situation & gave the UK government 18 months notice to rectify the situation which was ignored. So then any retired Brit moving to Australia under family reunion had tobwait a qualifying 2 year period before they were entitled to the Australian pension. The UK government stance was zero pension for any returning Brit unless 40 years NI stamps ， that was the situation when we enquired in 2001 it seems to be different in the case of all the illegals/refugees since!


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## annmac45 (Dec 5, 2016)

Aussie 1 said:


> Apparently it depends on which pension you qualify for. I recall that the minimum NI payment years for the old State Pension when I did it was 11 years (do not need to be consecutive years) and for that you would qualify for 11/30ths of the pension. The new State Pension is for those that were born in 1951 or later. For that, the minimum NI years is 10.
> As I said, we topped up our NI payments by lump sum, until mine reached the full 30 years and then my wife (who only had a few years) could also use mine. I do not know when that top-up time runs out.
> Just check with UK Gov. On line. You can ask for a pension forecast where they will check how much NI you have paid and tell you what you can expect to receive. Hope that helps.


Fortunately after 32 years working in Australia we are entitled & receive the full Australian pension & it is fully transportable with 19 o5her reciprocal countries.


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## annmac45 (Dec 5, 2016)

EverHopeful said:


> If your only pension is from Australia, you will not be entitled to an S1 and *Australia will not pay your health care costs in Spain.* (I'm UK/French/Australian citizen with only an Australian pension.)
> 
> I would have thought you would have received a letter from Medicare after you moved to Malta advising you of that.
> 
> Australia's social security agreements with both Spain and Malta only enable you to claim your pension from those and to combine your pensions if you have a pension entitlement from those countries. AFAIK it's only where you have a pension entitlement from either Spain or Malta (or another EU country) that your health care costs might be covered (whatever5 applies to pensioners in those countries). Malta may have made an error.


I never mentioned Malta? never been there.


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

annmac45 said:


> I never mentioned Malta? never been there.


Must have been someone else.


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

Re the Australian aged pension for those living overseas (relevant to those who have lived in Australia for less than 25 years after they turned 16):



> Can I get the Age Pension while living overseas?
> 
> Australia is an expensive country, so it's easy to see why many Australians reaching pension age or already receiving a pension may consider countries with cheaper living costs such as Thailand or Bali.
> 
> ...


Can I get the Age Pension while living overseas?


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## Aussie 1 (Oct 20, 2016)

I would suggest that you contact the UK government pension web site and ask for a pension forecast. It is a totally different matter if you are already resident in Australia and receiving an Aussie pension. UK pension is an entitlement for NI payments made whereas Australian pension is welfare and subject to an assets test. We lived in Aus for 30 years and paid a bucket load of tax but now would not qualify for a dollar. But that is fair.
You can call for the forecast by mail. It costs nothing and may be the answer to your health cover with an S1 plus pay you a few bucks as well.
I made my request in 2006 and was provided with the amounts needed to top up my payments. From memory it was in the region of 3-400 quid per year.


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