# S1 Healthcare form and dependants



## martint (Sep 14, 2011)

I am planning early retirement to Spain next year. I am not at state pension age (only 47). Although I qualify for the S1 form based on my NI contributions, my wife does not, as she has some NI contribution gaps over the last 3 years.

Is she covered anyway as my financial dependant, or does she need her own S1 form to access healthcare in Spain for 30 months based on her personal contributions?

If this is the case then, presumably I will need to pay her NI up to date for the last 3 years before we apply.

Of course I have tried to get this question answered through DWP in Newcastle but only got a canned response to an email that didn't answer my question and no response at all to the 2 letters that i sent. Hopefully someone here can help?


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Hi there

I'm pretty sure she will need her own form, or at least her own contributions; that was the case when we came over three years ago (it was the S106 then).

I found that if I rang Newcastle fairly early in the day I usually got to speak to a helpful human, but things might have changed by now.


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## martint (Sep 14, 2011)

Alcalaina said:


> Hi there
> 
> I'm pretty sure she will need her own form, or at least her own contributions; that was the case when we came over three years ago (it was the S106 then).
> 
> I found that if I rang Newcastle fairly early in the day I usually got to speak to a helpful human, but things might have changed by now.


Thanks for the fast response. I suspect you are correct but obviously don't want to stump up the missing contribution if its not necessary. I'll take your advice and give them a ring to get the definitive answer.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

martint said:


> I am planning early retirement to Spain next year. I am not at state pension age (only 47). Although I qualify for the S1 form based on my NI contributions, my wife does not, as she has some NI contribution gaps over the last 3 years.
> 
> Is she covered anyway as my financial dependant, or does she need her own S1 form to access healthcare in Spain for 30 months based on her personal contributions?
> 
> ...



You arent of pensionable age though are you, so the SI only allows you temporary health cover? If you were of pensionable age your wife would be covered as well.

Paying to upgrade your payments iirc when I asked was about £350 a year, although that may be out of date. So that would be £1000 for a possible 30 months Spanish health care. Private health care, depending on her age is relatively cheap here compared to the UK


Newcastle : 0044 191 218 7777


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## youngagepensioner (May 18, 2009)

She might need to keep her NI payments up to protect her British State Pension, she will need 30 years to get a full one.


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## agua642 (May 24, 2009)

Some useful information which I found out recently, if you have paid into Spanish S.S and English S.S and then return to UK. On retiring and applying for Pension the yearly country contributions can be added, to go towards the 30 years.
Also in Spain not so many years required, I think it s recently gone up from 15 to 20 years.


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## lynn (Sep 25, 2008)

martint said:


> I am planning early retirement to Spain next year. I am not at state pension age (only 47). Although I qualify for the S1 form based on my NI contributions, my wife does not, as she has some NI contribution gaps over the last 3 years.
> 
> Is she covered anyway as my financial dependant, or does she need her own S1 form to access healthcare in Spain for 30 months based on her personal contributions?
> 
> ...


She should be covered by your S1, as she is a dependant. However, when we tried to get myself and my three children added to my husband's S1 earlier this year, we had a devil of a job pursuading the INSS office here in Spain that separate S1 forms were not required. They batted it back to the DWP in the UK, who rightly said that they do not issue separate S1 forms for dependants (only in the case of retirees). Anyway, how can an S1 be issued to a minor!!. To cut a long story short, after many visits to the INSS office, I did manage to get the children added to my S1. I'm in the process of renewing it now, so am fully expecting to have the arguement all over again. 
Stick to your guns, and get the British Consulate involved. They promised to sort out access to healthcare for myself and children should we need it during the long period of time we technically had no access to Spanish healthcare.
Good luck
x


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

lynn said:


> They promised to sort out access to healthcare for myself and children should we need it during the long period of time we technically had no access to Spanish healthcare.
> Good luck
> x


How does that work Lynn?

To my knowledge if you are not retired and you move here you get a temporary card (SIP here) which expires after a period of time. When you go back to the Social office here to renew, then they tell you it is not possible because it has expired.

That's what happened to us, and then when my wife reached retirement age of course we were both covered by permanent cards, even though it took us a year to sort it out.


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## lynn (Sep 25, 2008)

Stravinsky said:


> How does that work Lynn?
> 
> To my knowledge if you are not retired and you move here you get a temporary card (SIP here) which expires after a period of time. When you go back to the Social office here to renew, then they tell you it is not possible because it has expired.
> 
> That's what happened to us, and then when my wife reached retirement age of course we were both covered by permanent cards, even though it took us a year to sort it out.


I meant the long time it took for the INSS to accept us as dependants on my OH's S1, not till we retire! If we had had need of medical help in that time, the Consulate promised to help ensure access to medical assistance. Thankfully, we were all well, but it was conforting to know that we had some sort of safety net in place.

We are now applying for an S1 from HMRC as we continue to make NI contributions in the UK, and therefore the S1 should continue indefinitely until such time as the NI contributions stop. I have heard that the HMRC are much trickier to deal with than the DWP, so I'm gearing up for a battle on this one!


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