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I am a Spanish citizen who has been living in UK for the past 7 years. During this period I have always worked here and I haven't received any income from Spain.

I have also regularly contributed to a pension scheme that my company has setup and where the company contributes as well.

The question I have is what happens to my state pension contributions and my personal pension scheme in the event that I will leave the UK before I actually start getting retirement benefits?

For simplicity, let's say I am 35 and I will stay here in UK other 3 years (so a total of 10 years of contributions in UK) and I decide to move back to Spain to work the remaining years until retirement.

When I retire, will I be eligible for a state pension from the UK even if I am then in Spain? And would that cumulate to the one I will get from Spain?

I guess my personal pension scheme won't be a problem and I should be entitled to get the all money out as I want based on UK rules even if I am in Spain at that point.

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After 10 working/qualifying years in the UK you will receive an UK pension as things currently stand. The amount will increase to the full amount as you accumulate more qualifying years.

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated

If you take it abroad, it may not be index-regulated, however, which seems rather unfair

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  • Hi, if the pension is not index-regulated that means is not getting adjusted by inflation? The link gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad/… suggests that there is an increase in case of Spain. – opt Oct 21 '19 at 15:11
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    For the time being it is written in the section State Pension and benefits on the page https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-in-the-eu-prepare-for-brexit that uprating is only guaranteed until 2023. It may of course be continued, but they haven't decided yet as far as I understand. – nsandersen Oct 22 '19 at 11:13
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    @nsandersen It’s not something the UK government can decide unilaterally. It will uprate pensions only as part of a bilateral agreement where Spain agrees to do the same for its pensioners living in the UK. Which I expect they will do, since there are far more UK pensioners in Spain than vice versa. – Mike Scott Apr 13 '20 at 9:55
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[...]

When I retire, will I be eligible for a state pension from the UK even if I am then in Spain? [...]

Probably.

[...] And would that cumulate to the one I will get from Spain?

[...]

Likely so.

[...] I guess my personal pension scheme won't be a problem and I should be entitled to get the all money out as I want based on UK rules even if I am in Spain at that point.

Very likely.

And you'd input such stuff in your modelo 100 because law will likely demand something similar to current Ley 35/2006, de 28 de noviembre, del Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas, which is [...] renta [...] con independencia del lugar donde se hubiesen producido [...]. Unless you are somehow eligible to the IRNR law or any other future replacing it.

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