medication and benefits??

[mitchalez]

hello, does anyone know what benefits there are in spain, (if any?) i am currently on disability and i have read incapacity is avaliable in spain but i dont get that one! also if you are disabled and rent over there do you get help? what about child benefit?? sorry for alot of questions!! oh 1 more are the meds the same over there? i would need lithium and levothyroxine! thanks for any help

[jojo]

I dont know much about benefits, but I dont think you'd get anything from Spain, at best you'd only get what you currently get now and it would be from the UK - if that??. We're not entitled to child allowance while we're living here, eventhough my husband works in the UK. If I need medication, I phone my gp in the UK and my husband picks it up when he commutes for work. My son who is 13 has a dental appointment in the UK next month and its cheaper for us to take him back there than to pay for a dentist here!

[mitchalez]

oh wow thanks for the info, where can i start to find out all i need to know? is there any websites i could look at?

[jojo]

I'm sure that someone who knows the answers will be along after the weekend. I only found out the bits I know through trial and error once we arrived. The one thing I have found - for us anyway, is that leaving England makes you realise what a "nanny state" it is back there. In Spain, you kinda have to sink or swim. The beurocracy, red tape and form filling here is mind-blowing! I only wanted to buy a car!!!

Good luck


Jo

[mitchalez]

lol oh dear!! its no wonder everyone wants to live in the uk then, i dont mind getting a job but its if they would employ me! i am not in a position to learn as i go i have to know every little thing is covered or we would end up homeless in each country!! ty for help

[Stravinsky]

Hi there

Firstly to address the dentistry situation. If I have a filling here it will cost me €45. The last one I had in the UK, because we cant find a NH dentist any more, cost me £75. I have found the health service here, with admittedly limited use, better than the UK.

If you are claiming disability benefits in the UK, then you can continue claiming them when you live in Spain. You have to be claiming them before you come here.

Once you are a resident in Spain you are not legally entitled to use the UK Health service any more, and if you are discovered doing it then they regard it as fraud apparantly. The Spanish & UK authorities are working more and more closely together due to the large amount of Brits over here.

I have heard that people have claimed child benefit over here, but you have to be contributing to the system of course, i.e. working. You cant continue to claim most UK benefits here (other than disability) because of course it is benefit fraud.

For info, private health care here is relatively cheap. A couple in their mid fifties can be fully covered for £65 a month, and a little extra gives you full dental cover also.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by Stravinsky

Hi there

Firstly to address the dentistry situation. If I have a filling here it will cost me €45. The last one I had in the UK, because we cant find a NH dentist any more, cost me £75. I have found the health service here, with admittedly limited use, better than the UK.

Thats interesting, I guess cos my son is a child he gets free dental treatment in the UK and because he's not a spanish citizen yet he doesnt here?! Also its correction work as apposed to necessary treatment. However, some friends we've made over here have told us horror stories about the cost of dentists - but apparently vets are alot cheaper LOL!!??

The child allowance thing really annoys me, my OH is still working and paying contributions in the UK and I have been told we cannot claim child benefit now the children are living in Spain. I worked with a polish chap in the UK, who was over here on his own and was entitled to claim child benefit for his four children back in Poland and pay less tax as he was a married man with dependants! That said, my children are only here for an extended holiday for now, so as thats the case we are claiming benefit!!!!??!!!

Jo

[mitchalez]

its all a bit strange, it sounds selfish of me to expect to get any financial help over in spain but i guess its just the norm in the uk to have some help, i could work to pay bills and food but i was struggling to find a way to pay rent, i wasnt sure on the renta rates over there?

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by jojo

Thats interesting, I guess cos my son is a child he gets free dental treatment in the UK and because he's not a spanish citizen yet he doesnt here?! Also its correction work as apposed to necessary treatment. However, some friends we've made over here have told us horror stories about the cost of dentists - but apparently vets are alot cheaper LOL!!??

Well .... I'll tell you how I approached things. Firstly, I badly screwed over by a Brit when I first came here so I decided to steer clear of Brits.

For instance with the dentist, I sat down and learned the main Spanish words I needed, i.e. pain, ache, filling etc etc and then I found a Spanish dentist. My Uk Dentist was brilliant, so I expected little. But she is really good too. My wife has has a crown, which as you know in the UK costs many hundreds of pounds. Here, its was €175. A check up I think was €15. I had two fillings and a clean in the UK before I left and it was nearly £200!

Opticians are an eye opener (scuse the pun). You can get a set of glasses over here for a small percentage of the UK. The last set I had in the UK with varifocals was £500 at Specsavers. The optician here nearly had a coronary when I told him.

I went for a check up when I first moved here with a local doctor. OK it was private, but within 50 minutes I had received full body scans of main internal organs, full blood check and complete examination. I only went in to the surgery to make a booking to see him!!!

Take care jojo with claiming those benefits, the UK tax / DHS offices now have staff over here in Spain comparing notes