We did the same - we moved here but my husband continued paying as self employed in the UK for the first 2 years and then changed to the Spanish autonomo. He pays around 240 euros per month for the whole family and we all have social security cards to carry.

We were advised that he could choose whether to continue paying into the UK system or change to the Spanish system. We decided to choose Spain as this is home now and we're settled here so it just made more sense.

The only reason he didn't switch immediately was incase he couldn't get work here and needed to work back in the UK. At the time (2004) the Inland Rev. were changing the rules for the self-employed, in the building trade, and he didn't want to give up his card, incase it became difficult to get back, if things didn't work out here.

Maya