Spain must urgently change rules for almost 300,000 British expats ‘or face economic ruin’

A leading British expat has warned that if Spain does not urgently change their legislation on how much money UK pensioners need to earn to live there, then there will be economic ruin for the country.

There are some 108,000 British expat pensioners that live in Spain out of a total of just under 300,000 Brits in total.

Also, there are potentially thousands of British expats who face deportation over the post-Brexit withdrawal agreement.

The 108,000 pensioners who provide an invaluable contribution to the country could be forced to return back to the UK if Spain does not act quickly to relax the current rules.

Moira Carmenate, of the Expat Centre in Costa Blanca South, warned that if Spain does not drop their requirement for pensioners to prove an annual earning of more than £21,000, there could be an exodus of expats leaving.

The UK’s state pension is just over £6,500 a year, this will inevitably force thousands of British pensioners could be forced to return home.

There is no indication that the Spanish government are going to lower the threshold any time soon, whilst British tourism in the country brings in £12bn a year, which could dramatically fall.

Carmenate told the Express, “We kind of expected them to have changed the rules by now, but then who knows what they’re thinking?

“I’d be surprised if they don’t change it but you can’t second guess what they’re thinking.

“Maybe they want to attract younger people.

“But that’s the requirement at the moment and it’s not something that a lot of pensioners will be able to achieve.

“If it stays it will undoubtedly change the landscape of who will apply.

“You wonder why they haven’t changed it considering how much this group contributes to Spain’s economy.

“It’s not in good shape anyway and with Covid every economy in the world has taken a knock.

“It would make you think the Spanish would want all the money it could get.

“But that’s not happened so far and there’s no indication anything will change.”