“Our life is much more comfortable in Spain with the state pension compared to the UK”

Two pensioners from Oxford, Sue and Steve Wilson, have no regrets about their drastic move to Spain when they both reached retirement age. The couple moved in 2007 after selling their Oxford home for £400,000.

They swapped their English home for a Spanish villa near Valencia with a pool and garden for £135,000. However, it’s not just the price of property that has lured Brits abroad for retirement as, looking at their current income, 70-year-old Sue told me they would “struggle to survive” in the UK with their state pension.

This is not to say that the Alcossebre couple made some unfortunate financial decisions that made life in the UK unaffordable for them. Steve previously worked as an IT consultant and has a pension of around £9,500 a year, while Sue opted into the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) and receives £11,5000 after completing her career in sales, training and project management.

This, along with their combined UK state pension of around £340 a week, allowed the couple to feel “more comfortable” and “more financially stable” in Spain. Sue was adamant that they “won’t be able to experience the same quality of life” on the same budget in the UK amid the rising cost of living.

Sue particularly welcomed the free healthcare, noting that she is still in touch with some of her British friends who “have been on waiting lists for months”, while she found healthcare in Spain to be ” fast, excellent and well staffed’. There’s also plenty of fresh fruit and veg, revealing the couple spend around £68 on electricity and £84 on food per month.

British Gas estimates that the average medium-sized home requires £72.32 of electricity per month, and MumsNet claims that the average UK household spends £82.60 on food per week for the two vegetarians. Not only did they get their act together, but the Wilsons managed to fund a £145,000 renovation of their Spanish home.

The financial implications spilled over into their social life as Sue noted how much cheaper socializing in Spain can be, removing some of the obstacles to a thriving circle of friends. She credited the warm climate and Mediterranean diet for naturally encouraging a healthier lifestyle.

The Wilsons have such praise for the Spanish lifestyle that Sue is chairman of the Bremain campaign group in Spain. The group aims to protect “the rights of British migrants living in Spain and across Europe”.

Speaking about the impact of Brexit, which the couple managed to avoid by nine years, Sue admitted it was a bit of a shock as they expected to have EU citizenship rights for life. Although it had less of an effect on the couple as they don’t want to work or live elsewhere, she shared a touch of sympathy for those who missed the deadline: “If we had tried to move after Brexit, we have not reached the income threshold of the Spanish pension.”