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1. Your Healthcare Rights Before Receipt of Your Pension
As we understand that you are considering becoming resident is Cyprus.
Under Article 11(3)(e) of Regulation 883/2004 on social security coordination, you would be subject t to the Cypriot rules on social security and healthcare.
Regrettably, since you would not be working in Cyprus (and not yet in receipt of a pension), you would not be automatically affiliated to the Cypriot social security system and therefore you would not have a right to obtain free healthcare.
When residing in another EU country and not employed, under Directive 2004/38, you must have comprehensive sickness insurance cover in the host Member State . There is no requirement that healthcare insurance needs to be private cover or that it needs to be in place prior to your arrival in Cyprus.
However, we understand that the conditions for cover by the Cypriot public health scheme requires you to have contributed at least three years into the Cypriot system. However when calculating this three-year period, we consider that regard should be had to the contributions you have made in the UK in order to count then as assimilated periods :
Further information can be found here:
If you do not meet the conditions, you and your wife would therefore need to arrange for separate healthcare cover until you start receiving your pension.
However, if before receiving a pension, you have acquired permanent residence after living continuously for a period of 5 years in Cyprus, we consider that you should be able to obtain healthcare benefits in the same way as all other Cypriot citizens who are not economically active.
This is because the Directive gives you an unconditional right to equal treatment with all resident Cypriot citizens in a comparable situation.
You may therefore want to shop around for international healthcare until age 65 by contacting an insurance broker.
By way of example, the following companies provide international healthcare cover:
2. Your Healthcare Rights After Receipt of Your Pension
If you have a right to sickness benefits in Cyprus before being in receipt of a pension, then you would continue to be covered by the Cypriot system from the time you start receiving a pension. Note that social security contributions are not payable by persons aged over 65 in Cyprus. You should also be issued with a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) by the Cypriot authorities
According to Article 24 of the Regulation on social security, where you and your wife start receiving a pension from one or more countries (in your case the UK) and you have no right to obtain sickness benefits in kind under the legislation of the country where you reside (Cyprus), you should be entitled to receive healthcare (termed sickness benefits in kind ) in Cyprus insofar as if you would have been entitled to obtain such healthcare in the UK were he living in the UK. Healthcare will be provided to your uncle in Cyprus at the expense of the social security institution of the country from which you receives your pension (Article 24(2)(a) applies). Therefore, you will remain subject to social security in the UK and your healthcare will be provided to him in Cyprus at the expense of the UK authorities. Once you receiving you UK state pension, you will have a right to register with the Cypriot healthcare system using Form S-1 (previosuly Form E-121). You should also be issued with a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) by the UK authorities.
You can get the forms from The Pension Service at the following address:
The Pension Service
International Pension Centre
Tyneview Park
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE98 1BA
Tel: 0191 21 87777
TVP-IPC-Customer-Care@thepensionservice.gsi.gov.uk
Once you have obtained form S-1, you should use it to register with the Cyprus health service:
You can find out more how the Cypriot system works on the UK s DoH website:
We hope this answers your query.
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