Government sponsored moves to Spain?

Reply to the comment left by "terry sullivan" at "12/12/2016 - 13:24":

For pensioners there is an NHS in Spain. You complete form S1 from UK pension department and hand it to medical authorities in any EU country you are moving to. NHS pays a monthly fee to that country to cover your medical needs. Not sure about working emigrants, presumably you qualify after paying in for a period, and use your EHIC card meantime?

ehic gives nothing other than access--you pay one way or another

Reply to the comment left by "terry sullivan" at "17/12/2016 - 09:50":

Just as well I am retired then, and will be completing my SI in the new year.

Can't see that system surviving the Brexit disaster, though.

I think it's a great idea. I am a frequent visitor to Spain and France and it's always a shock coming home to our awful weather and stressful lifestyle. Many of my friends already live and work in other countries either seasonally or permanently and others have second homes there. Bulgaria is rapidly becoming a popular choice and I have one friend who bought a property there from eBay for 2K and has turned it into a lovely second home for a further spend of £12k. Now he is looking forward to retiring there in a few years time. I think many more people would retire overseas with a little bit of encouragement and reassurance that it is not a risk. What puts people off is the concern that it may be hard to sell up and come home should they need to at some time in the future.

Reply to the comment left by "Neil Patterson" at "12/12/2016 - 10:04":

The two countries do work together as part of the EU into which, unlike Spain we pay handsomely. Britain has a welfare state - Spain does not. The only people that could live in Spain are retirees who already take their wealth with them and as soon as their health fails or their money runs out, many of them come back to the UK penniless as there is no-one to change their incontinence pads, no state paid invalid car or care packages.

Unless or until all EU countries have exactly the same taxes, pay in the same sum per capita, the same health care systems and benefits, co-operation between them is always going to fail, so let's stop dreaming of what can never be.

Reply to the comment left by "r01 " at "17/12/2016 - 11:26":

and that will never happen which is why the eu was always a stupid idea--monnet was a fool

Reply to the comment left by "r01 " at "17/12/2016 - 11:26":

Actually, I imagine anyone with a reasonable UK pension could afford to employ someone in Spain as a care worker

My late mother lived to age 88 on the widow's pension from my father's employment in what had been a nationalised industry with an excellent self-financing superannuation scheme (BCSSS), from which he retired at age 54 in 1980. Her income as a widow was still in excess of the national average wage! I was able to pay for a carer to visit four times per day and run the house out of that.

I suppose there are still plenty of people with pension income as good as that - they don't need to invest in property to provide for themselves 🙂

Reply to the comment left by "Jerry Jones" at "17/12/2016 - 12:11":

I think either I or some other people are missing the gist of the orignal comment. Comfortably off pensioners are not the class of people that such a scheme would be aimed at now - is it? Saying that people will be able to pay for carers in Spain is rather niaive as costs there have been rapidly increasing exactly the same as here and before long, especially with the ageing population over there increasing whilst all their young are coming here, before long costs there will be just as prohibitive.

Those needing government sponsorship as suggested in the original post are not likely to have a la-la land pension, and those pensions are all but at an end except for Government employees nowadays and have been for many years. Those with such pensions already own holiday homes in Spain or wherever & certainly don't need & probably won't qualify for sponsored housing.

And, since when did Brits get free health treatment in Spain, or for that matter any other European country? Unlike the UK with it's pathetic, lazy NHS administration systems, Spain passes the bill for all treatment given to UK citizens back to the UK under the EHIC scheme (and I'm prepared to bet they put a handsome mark-up on it too). I know a doctor who has just taken a job in Hong Kong because she is so sick of the NHS's "dog in the manger" crazy attitude to charging (or almost complete lack of it). Along with many others, she treated an American holiday maker who was insured and happy to pay, so she informed the office and despite him paying a number of outpatient visits they completely failed to even raise an invoice, so we all helped the American economy - yet again.... When will the madness stop?? I recon it is long before time that everyone had to pay for treatment and then claim it back to put an end to free treatment for all from around the world.

The point is that it need not cost the government very much to encourage older people to live overseas and that would free up housing in the UK for younger working age people. The nationality of the latter is not very important. What matters is that there are enough of them to cover the massive state pension bill that threatens to cripple this country. A consequence of decades of poor planning by every government since the fifties.