Is Spain still the best option for retirement abroad?

JWhite.

Yes you are 100% correct, this is what has happened in England and the government has said it is the EU rules, so it's done.

Brussels could say this to Spain and my bet is Spain would say F*** of and nothing would be done.

JWhite, according to reports that I read in the papers, Romanians are by and large the biggest non-Spanish nationality living here, many more than the British.  Some of them have to be getting some sort of handouts.  It may be of course, that the Spanish being the welcoming people that they are let the Romanianns in before the British.

Donlachnagar -

If you believe that, you will believe anything.

The one thing I would agree on is Baz1946's comment, that Spain like the rest of the EU thimbs its nose up at Brussels rules and regulations and does not tow the line.    However much Brussels hates Cameron and the British people, they love our money and they love that we take in all the rubbish of the EU and more or less immediately give them free everything, something Spain along with all the others refuse to do.   They put their people first and who can blame them.

We have traitors for leaders and they are finding out now what the ordinary people really think of their policies, with the recent emergence of UKIP and their taking 2nd place over the Tories in Eastleigh.   This is just the beginning in my opinion.    When the bedroom tax comes in in April and the benefits are cut to £26,000 max for even large families, we will see unemployed people who cannot pay the bedroom tax but may have worked here all their lives, kicked out into 1 bed flats in sink estates full of  drug addicts and criminals to make way for immigrant families just arrived in the country as they can no longer afford to put them up in 4* hotels and next little old ladies kicked out of large council 4 bed properties where they have raised their families into 1 bed multi storey flats (they will not be building them nice little OAP bungalows will they when they can't afford to build family houses?) and there is going to be trouble in this country.   How many families will stand by and say nothing when this sort of thing starts happening.

From the recent posts it sounds like the UK is a real hole. My wife and I are just planning our first visit ever to the UK and are wondering what wewill find?

Rossetti

 Looks like the Daily Mail has a few adherents.  What "bedroom tax" will people have to pay?  There isn't one.  It simply reduces the amount of housing benefit you get depending on the size of the family living in the house.  It only applies to council housing and for those who are below retirement age. I think it eminently fair that people claiming housing benefit should only get the allowances they need, not the amount they think they want so they can live in big houses at the taxpayer expense.

The £26,000 a year cap on benefits would be equal to someone in work earning over £35,000.  I wish I got even half that, thank you, and that's with paying into pensions for last 40 years.  

The EU rules are that a country should treat all other EU citizens the same way as their own citizens.  That the UK has a resident based health service and welfare system instead of contribution based is something governments could change but won't.  Imagine the furore if unemployed British born citizens were refused hospital treatment because they hadn't paid in which is what can happen in Spain.  It's also a little bit Little Englander to assume only the UK gets immigrants, only the UK gives free hospital treatment and welfare.  Denmark is the same, Germany has more immigrants than the UK, France likes to say it is being tough by booting them out but they just get the very next plane back.  Spain tried to get tough with the non-EU citizens from North Africa and doctors all over the country went out on strike saying it's immoral.  And so on and so on.  Voting Lib Dem?   They are strongly pro EU and won't allow the Conservatives to make changes to the ECHR and oppose all welfare cuts.  Voting UKIP?  One way to ensure the Labour party gets in at the next election as it will simply split the vote.  UKIP will also withdraw from the EU so think of the consequences to all the expats in Spain or France or Italy or wherever if all the current benefits of signing on the EU foreigners register are removed.  CGT, IHT, foreigners wealth tax and so on. On the other hand, UKIP says it will stay in the EEA.  Is this a good idea as they would still have to abide by the EU rules but would have no say in any of its policies.  Some people seem to think the Spanish are getting at them by making them complete a list of foreign assets.  You've had to do in UK and the Labour and LibDems seem to think we should go the same route as France by declaring all assets.  In France, you have to list everything, value of cars, other property, bank accounts and other things and have had to do so for years.  

I also very much doubt if the NHS hospitals and doctors surgeries are 80% full of foreigners.  Not from my experience although the waiting room at Torrevieja hospital is full of British expats.  

Amazing that immigrants to one country take great delight in slagging off immigrants to their own country.  And don't give me the old story that "Brits pay their way".  If that were true, why has the benefits agency set up a hotline in Spain to report Brits fiddling the system?  I can't think of any other country that has done that.  Just look at the amount of people on this site alone that try and "get around the rules" every time cars and driving are mentioned.  

And any guesses on which user name Rossetti was previously using?

I don't say I disagree with regard to the benefits system, the £26,000 level is far too high in my opinion now that wage levels have been driven through the floor by immigration.    As for all things being equal in the EU on benefits, it is not, there are qualifying periods in Germany & France, virtually none in the UK plus how much social housing is available to immigrants in Spain, none that I saw whereas in the UK it is the 2nd port of call after the benefits office  ?  NHS too is an open-ended International Health Service and is crumbling under the pressure with hospitals closing all over the place.   We now have to wait a week to see our own doctor as immigrants can demand an appointment after being in the country 24 hrs.    Even Illegal Immigrants get help to a certain degree on money and housing, you don't often see any immigrants here lying on the street with their kids in tow do you?

The bedroom tax does apply at the moment to people below pensioner age but for how long?   Who lives in the majority of larger housing when  their kids leave home - pensioners, so it is only a matter of time.   This government cannot afford to build houses and thereby hangs the problem.    The idea that 3rd world countries can be allowed to pour endlessly into other "better off" countries is a myth because eventually the UK like the rest of Europe will be full and countries like Romania and Bulgaria (3rd world economies) will be left with people who can afford to cream off the assets without any intent to build their countries so will remain undeveloped whilst their governments cream off the cash from Brussels, Greece is a classic example of a country not ready for complete democracy but wanting the spoils of the EU to bail them out.    Come back in another 100 yrs and some things may have changed but the current couple of generations are going to be paying the price for the politicians dreams of a communist Europe where they control everything - wage levels, environment, Laws, Movement of People etc.   I believe the EU will have disintegrated before much longer.   If not there will without doubt be riots here, there is no doubt of that.   The 3 main parties will be history as people move more and more away from the 3 main parties who no longer represent the interests of the people.   

People wanting to defraud the tax system are everywhere and it will get worse, we have a big problem here already with immigrants who work below the radar, car wash organisations, DVD sellers, market traders,  where in the case of car washes etc. their bosses drop them off everyday and pick them up and take the major share of money and give them back pocket money.   People trafficking is in all the big cities.    Immigrants who came here and were given council housing and made enougn money one way or another so that they bought their own houses and rent their council house to friends and relatives.   London even have their own housing inspectors who go around to check on the tenants occupying their houses because it is such a lucrative business there where private rents can pay anythiny thing up to £2000 per month, too much of a temptation for immigrants to give up.

By the way if you would like to visit my local town I will take you to our hospital and show you where the hospital is 80% full of immigrants by both doctors, nurses and patients.   Birmingham is almost an English minority town as is London, others will follow.   There was a picture on Saturday in the Daily Mail of a school where every child in the school could not speak English, not one !    How many schools in spain do you have with that many non-Spanish speaking immigrants in it ?    None I would imagine.

Despite your thoughts about immigration seeming not to be a huge problem, I believe just the opposite, we are on the brink of a revolution and it is sweeping across Europe, we are already seeing civil unrest in the other parts of Europe.   I hope I don't live long enough to see the damage done here when people rise up in their millions but I do fear for my grandchildren's future.