# Social Security number ?



## tal1

Hi Folks,

My wife and I have just bought a house in the Coimbra area near Penela , I already have residency and looking to get registered for Healthcare . My wife and I are from the UK,55 years old and early retirees on a private pension . Are we going to have to have social security numbers for this and if so how do we go about getting these ?


Thanks very much for any advice .


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## Janina k

Hello

Fred and I retired a little early and when we arrived we just went to the local Camara to take out residency. We registered at the local Health centre and neither of us had to give in and Social security number. We are now officially retired on our state pension and still no problems with healthcare.

Krystyna


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## In 2 bikes

tal1 said:


> Hi Folks,
> 
> My wife and I have just bought a house in the Coimbra area near Penela , I already have residency and looking to get registered for Healthcare . My wife and I are from the UK,55 years old and early retirees on a private pension . Are we going to have to have social security numbers for this and if so how do we go about getting these ?
> 
> 
> Thanks very much for any advice .



Hi guys....

we're also early retirees and on a U.K. Gvnmnt pension in Viseu. This question comes up a lot and there have been recent changes in the acquisition of health care and also varying experiences according to the area you are in. 

We did in fact have to obtain a social security number to get in to the health system because as you have probably found out that the S1 from the D.W.P doesn't exist for us any more and if it did it would have a very short date range on it. 

Also, once you're a fully badged up resident here, you automatically lose your Brit E111 ( tourist ) health care cover. Your options are: you need to either be working here and therefore paying in to the health system like the U.K's national insurance system, or, pay for your own private health care insurance to cover all medical treatment bills, including outpatient treatments.

We obtained our social sec number with a little help from our Portuguese solicitor at the time these things were still a grey area for the Portuguese officials, ( June 2014 ).

Some expats have managed to be accepted in to their health system without a social sec number but they have been here longer than us and things would have been different.

Here's one link of interest Living in Portugal: Health Systems | Portugal

This link is a little more explanatory https://www.justlanded.com/english/Portugal/Portugal-Guide/Health/The-National-Health-Service

The free system appear to be geared for guys who are EU citizens and are 66+ years in receipt of an EU state pension, or as we said paying in to the PT soc sec system. Us youngsters are an oddity.......


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## travelling-man

You do indeed need to get the SS number before you can register for PT NHS and it seems to vary from area to area how easy it is to get both number and registration........... and from what I've heard from friends, Penela region is often less co-operative than many other areas and that persistence is the key.


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## tal1

Thanks very much for the replies folks, I clearly need to find a way of getting our SS numbers then . It would be interesting if I could find anyone that's registered for healthcare fairly recently.

Thanks again


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## bom dia lisbon

I simply went to the Seguranca Social office, filled out the form they gave me, and my number (no card) arrived in the mail shortly thereafter.

Armed with the number, I went to my neighborhood Centro de Saude and they signed me up on the spot.

I'm in Lisboa, so your mileage (kilometerage) may vary


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## travelling-man

Fro my experience it seems to not only vary from area to area but also category to category (retired/working etc).

FWIW, We registered about 3 years ago and took several weeks to get the SS number but once we had it, getting registered with the GP etc took about an hour.


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## zakooo

tal1 said:


> Thanks very much for the replies folks, I clearly need to find a way of getting our SS numbers then . It would be interesting if I could find anyone that's registered for healthcare fairly recently.
> 
> Thanks again


hi,we have both registered with our health centre.my wife is getting a uk pension and had no problem at all.form s1 and she got a ss number.me i don't get a pension for 18 months and the uk would not give me a s1 form.the same portugal office my wife used refused to give me a ss number until i can get a s1 form from the uk.i did a bit of research and found that in portugal the health service is like the uk.it is resident based,so you do not need a ss number.after obtaining a copy of a letter from the british console explaining this my health centre excepted me without a ss number.this was last month,i hope that helps,cheers dave.


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## tal1

zakooo said:


> hi,we have both registered with our health centre.my wife is getting a uk pension and had no problem at all.form s1 and she got a ss number.me i don't get a pension for 18 months and the uk would not give me a s1 form.the same portugal office my wife used refused to give me a ss number until i can get a s1 form from the uk.i did a bit of research and found that in portugal the health service is like the uk.it is resident based,so you do not need a ss number.after obtaining a copy of a letter from the british console explaining this my health centre excepted me without a ss number.this was last month,i hope that helps,cheers dave.


Thanks very much for all the replies everyone they're a great help.


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