{"id":368829,"date":"2026-01-14T06:23:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/368829\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T06:23:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:23:17","slug":"good-news-for-british-retirees-in-spain-as-state-pension-to-increase-nearly-5-but-theres-a-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/368829\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news for British retirees in Spain as state pension to increase nearly 5% – but there\u2019s a catch"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRITISH pensioners living in Spain will benefit from a generous increase of nearly five per cent to the state pension, with the rise set to come into effect later this year.<\/p>\n

From April, the state pension will shoot up by 4.8 per cent \u2013 representing an annual increase of over \u00a3500 (\u20ac580) for most retirees.<\/p>\n

The new flat-rate state pension for those who reached pension age after April 2016 will be boosted to \u00a3241.30 a week from \u00a3230.25.<\/p>\n

For British expats who reached retirement age before April 2016, the old basic state pension will rise to \u00a3184.90 per week from \u00a3176.45.<\/p>\n

Pensioners can thank the triple lock system for the boost, which sees the state pension increase by inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent, depending on which is highest.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not all good news for retirees with the Labour government saying it will close a loophole and \u2018put an end to those living abroad being able to buy cheap access to a UK state pension\u2019.<\/p>\n

Following an announcement by chancellor Rachel Reeves at last autumn\u2019s Budget, British expats will be blocked from topping up their UK state pension via class 2 voluntary National Insurance contributions (NICs).<\/p>\n

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: \u2018Jody goes to jail\u2019: Notorious CWM pension scammer loses appeal against fraud conviction in Valencia High Court<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"The increase has been guaranteed by the lucrative \u2018triple lock\u2019 system.<\/p>\n

Under existing rules, UK expats living abroad can opt to pay voluntary NICs to top up missing years on their state pension.<\/p>\n

To qualify, you simply need to have lived in the UK for at least three years and worked either as an employee or self-employed before leaving.<\/p>\n

At the moment, there are two ways of topping up.<\/p>\n

Class 3 voluntary NICs cost \u00a317.75 per week or \u00a3923 to buy back a full year of state pension entitlement.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, cheaper class 2 voluntary NICs allow expats to make up a full year of state pension entitlement for the small price of just \u00a33.45 per week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But from April, UK nationals living abroad will only be able to pay into their pot using the more expansive class 3 voluntary NICs.<\/p>\n

Eligibility to class 3 voluntary NICs will also be tightened, with access restricted from the 2026\/27 tax year to those who have lived in the UK or made NI contributions for at least ten years, instead of the current three.<\/p>\n

Over 290,000 Brits are currently registered as living in Spain \u2013 many of whom are pensioners.<\/p>\n

Click here to read more Spain News<\/a> from The Olive Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRITISH pensioners living in Spain will benefit from a generous increase of nearly five per cent to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,420,1634,62876,28055,5107,4174,4175,1445,2221,62877,8183,56,735,27165,140952,54,55],"class_list":["post-368829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour","tag-news-spain","tag-newspaper","tag-pension","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-state-pension","tag-the-olive-press","tag-triple-lock","tag-uk","tag-uk-government","tag-uk-state-pension","tag-uk-taxation","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}