Paying voluntarily into social security?

We (myself, husband and 2 children) are hoping to move to Spain (Andalucia) in the near future.  Our only stumbing block is entitlement to Spanish State Healthcare. 

My husband and I are fortunate enough to not have to work (retiring in our 30's!!) and would like to pay voluntariliy into Spanish SS system to benefit from the healthcare system.  Is this possible?  I've trawled numerous websites, all giving conflicting information so quite unsure!!

Does anyone know if anyone does this or do this themselves?

If not what are our other options?

We obviously would consider private healthcare but does anyone know how much this price escalates as you get older?  What would we currently pay per year roughly (2 adults 2 kids, ages 7 and 2)

(I am aware of the E106 - but this only lasts 2 or 3 years - I need to consider the next 30!!)

Thanks,

Claire.

 Hi BB1977  lucky you, being able to retire so early. I envy you but wish you all the best :) I don't see why you can't pay into the system as an autonomo, I don't think you have an obligation to operate a business or declare transaction. You just declare every three months your ZERO VAT return and your anual income declaration and that is it. You can choose how much you wish to pay in. The minimum is 280 euros which will give you cover for all your family but you can boost this as it will also go towards your Spanish state pension plan. But that isn't worth increasing until you are 50 as it is only hte last 17 years now that count, if I am not mistaken..

Re private medicine  expect to budget around 45 euros per adult in their 30's and pretty much the same for children, maybe a little less. Women are slightly more expensive than men so all in all you would probably be paying around €160/month. There are many offers especially if you go with companies like Mapfre. From my experience Sanitas and Mapfre have worked very well. I paid €120 for three of us when I was with Sanitas : two adults and one child.

Hope this helps

Thanks Ian,  that's a great help!!

We wondered about the autonomo route - so it is OK to earn nothing but you can pay the Social Security contributions?

I was surprised the private medical insurance is as inexpensive as your examples.  Our worry is though that as we get older the cost of medical insurnace will drastically increase. 

Thanks again.

Claire.

I know its nosey, but did you win the lottery or something similar?It must be very rare to be able to retire in your thirties!

Ha Ha being nosey is fine.  I am the nosiest person I know!!

Myself and my husband got married a couple of years ago and we had a house each when we met.  We're only just selling his house now so once that is gone that's a fair amount of money in the bank.  We also have a fair amount of savings.  Also. I'm getting made redundant at the end of August so that's more money again.

I'm making it sound like we're rolling in it but we're not honest!!  All the money we have will be sunk into property.  We'll be renting out my house here and my husband has a modest private pension we can live on.  So we'll be mortage free and have a steady income of money.  They'll be no frivolity where money is concerend anyway if and when we get to Spain!!

Claire.

The Spanish Taxman will be happy then!

Well I've certainly never seen a sad taxman!  :-/

 Hi - forgive me, I see you have asked for advice on a different thread and I don't know the answer, so I will pick this one up again.   You said that your only stumbling block was health care entitlement, but you say you have two children?    I would very gently suggest that the cost of education and the type of school they will attend should be - if not a stumbling block - a prime consideration?   I am a big fan of living in Spain so you are not going to get any negativity out of me, but I think moving with children still at school age is not as easy as moving without them.   Are they learning Spanish?    Or are you looking at private education, which is going to eat into your savings quite substantially?    

Good luck anyway - sometimes you just have to dive in - but that is more difficult with children.

Like you say schooling for the children is a prime consideration not a stumbling block.  We are all currenly learning the spanish language as a family and the plan is that our children will be attending spanish state schools.

Moving to Spain is not something we are doing on a whim, and this is why we are making sure all angles are covered and all our uncertainties checked and clarified!

We don't want to make the move the Spain and find out we didn't know or weren't aware of something. 

Claire.

 That is great - I was not being critical or negative - honest!   It is just that people do underestimate the costs of schooling.  Learning Spanish is a great first step to everything.  It is hard - but it really is worth it.  It opens up a whole new Spain.  Someone on the forums put up a link for moving families with kids out - it might be worth having a look to see if that is still there.

Good luck.

eos_ian Wrote;

" I don't see why you can't pay into the system as an autonomo, I don't think you have an obligation to operate a business or declare transaction. "

You can't run what is in effect a 'shell' business. They do not like it & consider it fraud. They will shut it down & fine/prosecute. There used to be loads of people doing it , especially in the Valencia region & the majority were closed down.

In addition you cannot run a proper business continually at a loss. The Hacienda  will shut you down.

Under the new health rules registering after 24th April 2012 there isan option to pay voluntarily into the system & they did announce it would be set up soon.That's a Spanish "soon" of course.

The ages of the children, 7 & 2 , means they will be fluent in Spanish by attending a spanish school in no time.

Thanks for your input guslopez.

This is what we thought by becoming autonomo you would have to demonstrate a viable legit business / self employment of some sort.

"Under the new health rules registering after 24th April 2012 there is an option to pay voluntarily into the system & they did announce it would be set up soon.That's a Spanish "soon" of course."

This is interesting but like you say when is "soon"?  :-/

As I orginally said this issue is such a stumbling block!!  I need some definitive info!!