Spain remains the favourite retirement destination for Britons: Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol, the Canaries. Since Brexit, though, every step of the paperwork —the visa, residency renewals, dealings with the Spanish tax office— requires proving your pension with documents issued in the UK, in English. And when an English-language document enters a file before a Spanish authority, the translation must be a sworn translation signed by a translator accredited by the MAEC, Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This guide covers what each document is, who issues it, and which Spanish procedures will ask for it translated.
What the P60 is and who issues it
The P60 is the annual certificate of the UK's PAYE system: it summarises your income and the tax paid during the UK tax year (6 April to 5 April). It is issued by whoever pays you, not by HMRC directly:
- If you are employed, your employer must give it to you by 31 May, on paper or electronically.
- If you receive a private or workplace pension with tax deducted, your pension provider (Aviva, Legal & General, Scottish Widows…) issues a P60 showing the pension paid and the tax taken off.
A detail that surprises many retirees: the State Pension does not come with a P60. The DWP pays it gross, without deduction; if you owe tax on it, HMRC collects it through the tax code applied to your other pensions. That is why the State Pension is proved with different documents.
How to prove your State Pension
The usual documents evidencing the UK State Pension:
- The award letter from the Pension Service, setting the amount when your pension is granted.
- The annual uprating letter the Pension Service sends each year with the new amount.
- The official proof letter: the Get proof of your benefits and State Pension service on gov.uk lets you download, with a GOV.UK One Login account, a letter certifying your current amount on the spot.
For Spanish files, the official proof letter or a recent uprating letter are the cleanest options: current figures on DWP letterhead.
Private and workplace pensions
Personal and workplace pensions are evidenced with:
- The provider's or scheme's annual statement.
- The P60 issued by the provider.
- A letter from the provider confirming the regular amount you receive.
If you draw several pensions —the common case: State Pension + workplace pension + personal pension— a Spanish file usually needs a document for each one.
The State Pension is payable in Spain and rises every year
Two facts verified on gov.uk worth keeping in mind:
- You can claim the State Pension while living in Spain if you have paid enough National Insurance contributions. It is handled through the International Pension Centre and paid every 4 or every 13 weeks, including into a Spanish bank account.
- It is uprated every year just as in the UK, because Spain is in the European Economic Area. The post-Brexit agreements between the UK and the EU guarantee the annual uprating regardless of when you moved: unlike Canada or Australia, your pension is not frozen.
Which Spanish procedures ask for these documents translated
1. The Non-Lucrative Visa. The classic route for British retirees after Brexit. The Spanish Consulates in London, Manchester and Edinburgh require foreign documents to be apostilled and accompanied by an official translation into Spanish, and point applicants to the list of sworn translators. Pension Service letters and private pension certificates are central pieces for proving financial means. Full guide: Spain's Non-Lucrative Visa for British applicants and our non-lucrative visa service.
2. Residency renewals. At renewal time you prove again that your means are still there: updated pension letters, statements, and their sworn translation. If you are a pre-Brexit resident with a TIE the scenario differs, but pension documents come up there too: renewing your TIE after Brexit.
3. The Spanish tax office and double taxation. If you become tax resident in Spain, your UK pensions matter to the AEAT. A double taxation convention between the UK and Spain exists (signed in 2013, in force since 12 June 2014) allocating which country taxes each type of pension. How it applies to you depends on your specific case: that is a job for a tax adviser, not for this blog. When the file requires UK documents —P60s, pension letters or HMRC's certificate of residence, which deserves a post of its own— that is where sworn translation comes in.
In short
A British retiree in Spain deals with three families of documents: the P60 (from an employer or pension provider), the Pension Service letters for the State Pension, and the statements from private pensions. All are issued in English, and all end up, sooner or later, in a Spanish file requiring a sworn translation valid in Spain. At Textualia we translate DWP letters, P60s and UK pension certificates every day, with MAEC-accredited translators and delivery as an electronically signed PDF, ready for the consulate, the immigration office or your gestoría.