The S1 and Your UK State Pension in Spain: A 2026 Guide for Britons

The UK State Pension and the S1 are the two links a British retiree in Spain keeps with the UK: one pays your income, the other lets the UK fund your Spanish public healthcare. The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026/27, and it can be paid into a Spanish bank account. The S1 only works once it is registered with the INSS (Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social, Spain’s social security institute). The order of the steps decides whether your cover starts on time. This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

Will your healthcare be covered after the move to Spain?

Only if you hold the right document and register it. Five gaps catch people.

• No pension yet, no pensioner S1. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) says you may be entitled to an S1 if you are paid a UK State Pension and live in or move to an EU country. You can claim the pension only once you are within 4 months of State Pension age. Someone who retires early to Spain needs another route until then.
• An S1 that sits in a drawer. The NHSBSA says you will not have healthcare cover automatically when you get an S1: it must be registered with the authority of the country where you live, often before you can register with a doctor or get a medical card.
• Private care. An S1 gives the same cover as a resident, with the UK paying, and does not cover private healthcare.
• The NHS on visits home. The UK government’s Spain healthcare guidance says UK nationals who move abroad permanently may lose free NHS care. The exemption it describes for S1 holders covers NHS treatment when visiting England for people who lived in the EU on or before December 31, 2020 and hold a registered UK S1, so it does not help anyone moving now.
• A dependant’s cover that lapses. Under the same guidance, a dependant covered by a pensioner’s S1 has that cover cancelled once they claim their own UK State Pension; NHS Overseas Healthcare Services sends a new S1, which must be registered with the INSS to keep the cover going.

The UK GHIC (Global Health Insurance Card) does not fill these gaps. The NHS reserves it for people ordinarily and legally resident in the UK, or living in the EEA or Switzerland with a registered S1, and says it is not a replacement for travel insurance.

From the pension claim to the Spanish medical card

The steps below run in the order the official pages set. Each one names the page it comes from.

1. Check your National Insurance record. You need 10 qualifying years to get any new State Pension; a qualifying year can come from work, credits or voluntary contributions. A record that started after April 2016 needs 35 qualifying years for the full rate, and someone who was contracted out usually needs more.
2. Claim the pension. Within 4 months of State Pension age, claim through the International Pension Centre, by contacting it or by sending its international claim form.
3. Choose where it is paid. The DWP pays into a bank in the country where you live or a UK bank or building society. Payment abroad is converted at the exchange rate at the time of the conversion, after a 0.39 percent conversion charge, every 4 or 13 weeks as you choose.
4. Request the S1. Once your State Pension is paid, the NHSBSA lets you apply online up to 90 days before you move. You need an address in Spain; a temporary one is accepted, but you must give the NHSBSA and the Spanish authority your permanent address once you have it. If your visa application needs the S1, you can ask for it to be sent to your UK address.
5. Register the S1 in Spain. The Seguridad Social’s S1 registration procedure is open to people who live in Spain or plan to move their habitual residence there, hold a right to healthcare in the UK, and can give a Spanish home address. You need an identity document (DNI, NIE, passport or TIE) and the completed S1, and you can apply at any time once you meet the requirements.
6. Collect your Spanish number. If the decision is favorable, the Seguridad Social sends a certificate with your Spanish social security number. The UK guidance says to take it to your local health center, which issues the medical card used at the doctor, the hospital and the pharmacy.
7. Keep the pension running. Report a change of address or bank details to the International Pension Centre by phone or in writing, and return a life certificate when the DWP sends one.

How the State Pension is paid and increased in Spain

The pension itself is the same whether you live in Leeds or Alicante; what changes is the payment route and the yearly increase.

The yearly increase

The new State Pension rises each year by whichever is highest of average earnings growth, price growth or 2.5 percent. The DWP’s rates table shows the effect: the full rate went from £230.25 a week in 2025/26 to £241.30 in 2026/27.

Living abroad can stop that increase. The DWP’s retiring abroad guide says your pension increases each year only if you live in the European Economic Area, Gibraltar, Switzerland or a country with a UK social security agreement, with Canada and New Zealand excluded, and that people living elsewhere get no yearly increase. The page lists the EEA as a block and does not name Spain. Ask the International Pension Centre to confirm your increases when you claim, and keep its answer.

Exchange rate and frequency

A pension paid into a Spanish account is converted at the rate at the time, after the 0.39 percent DWP charge, so the euro amount moves with sterling. Paying into a UK account avoids that charge, and the conversion then happens when you transfer the money yourself; the guide to moving pounds to euros compares the costs of that route. The DWP pays every 4 or 13 weeks, at your choice.

Life certificates

The DWP may send a life certificate to check you are still eligible, and your payments may be suspended if you do not return it. Your witness can live anywhere and hold any passport. The form’s own notes say to send it only when the DWP has asked, and that the witness must not be related to you by birth or marriage or live at your address. Neither page says how often pensioners in Spain are asked, and the pages read do not mention a Spanish residence certificate for this check.

Tax on the pension

The DWP says that where a double taxation agreement exists, you pay tax on your pension once, to the UK or to the country where you live depending on the agreement. Which country that is, and how tax residence moves, belongs to the guide to leaving UK tax residence.

What Spain says about UK-funded healthcare

The Spanish side confirms the arrangement but in older wording. The Ministry of Health’s Brexit healthcare page, which carries no date and still uses the ministry’s former name, says that UK pensioners living in Spain keep their right to healthcare under the EU and UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, in a way similar to the EU regulations. It adds that holders of a Spanish health card, or people who prove a right to care in the UK or Gibraltar, do not pay in the Spanish public system, because Spain or the UK, which reimburses Spain, bears the cost. The same page dates the guarantee to the Withdrawal Agreement until December 31, 2020 and to the Social Security Coordination Protocol from January 1, 2021. The two governments’ pages agree on the substance; plan on the Seguridad Social procedure above, which is the current Spanish step.

Phone form or online request

The UK pages differ on how to ask for the S1. The Spain guidance, last updated July 27, 2022, says a State Pension recipient must request an application form by phone from NHS Overseas Healthcare Services, on +44 (0)191 218 1999. The NHSBSA page, undated but read on October 3, 2026, offers an online application up to 90 days before the move. Plan on the NHSBSA online route, and use the phone line if it does not fit your case. The 2022 guidance also gives the INSS route as an office visit or the INSS online portal.

Britons who arrived before 2021

People living in Spain since before January 1, 2021 are covered by the UK and EU Withdrawal Agreement. The NHSBSA says they can get a UK EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) if they hold a registered UK S1, E121, E106 or E109. For everyone else with a registered S1, the NHSBSA says a UK EHIC or UK GHIC gives access to state-funded necessary treatment on visits to other EU countries, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein. The NHS states that a UK GHIC is free and lasts up to 5 years. The State Pension pages read do not separate the two groups.

Before the pension: Spanish routes and voluntary contributions

A Briton who moves to Spain years before State Pension age has two questions: how to get healthcare now, and how to keep building the pension.

Healthcare in the meantime

HMRC runs a separate S1 application, form CA8454, mainly for the dependants of people working in the UK and for parents on maternity, paternity or adoption leave; it is not the pensioner route. Otherwise, the Spanish routes apply: registration in the public health system where your status allows it, or the Convenio Especial, a pay-in agreement for public cover. The UK’s Spain guidance is clear that someone whose care the UK pays through an S1 can neither join the Convenio Especial nor register as a permanent resident for healthcare, so the two routes do not combine.

Voluntary National Insurance from abroad

HMRC changed the rules for time abroad on April 6, 2026. According to its voluntary National Insurance guide:

The 2026/27 rates are £3.65 a week for Class 2 and £18.40 a week for Class 3. You can pay only for the past 6 years, with a deadline of April 5 each year. A transitional rule lets you keep paying Class 3 under the 3 year test if you applied for 2024/25 or 2025/26 on or before April 5, 2026, pay the contributions you applied for by April 5, 2027, and apply for 2026/27 Class 3 by April 5, 2027; it ends if you return to live or work in the UK. The application for time abroad is form CF83; if you have reached State Pension age or will within 6 months, HMRC says to contact the International Pension Centre, which checks your gaps and tells you how much to pay.

Your next step: line up the S1 dates with your move

Work out your State Pension age and the date 4 months before it, then check your National Insurance record against the 10 and 35 year thresholds. If you are already drawing the pension, request the S1 online no earlier than 90 days before your moving date and give a Spanish address, temporary if need be. Once you hold a Spanish address and an identity document, register the S1 with the Seguridad Social and take the certificate to your health center.

A Briton with a State Pension in payment and a single move date can do all of this alone, online and by phone. Get help from the International Pension Centre on gaps in your record or the yearly increase, and from a qualified adviser if you move years before pension age, mix a pension with work in Spain, or are weighing Class 3 payments against the 10 year test.

The Spain Navigator puts every step of your move to Spain in order, from the visa to settling in.