I try not to get hopeful anymore, especially when dealing with government institutions, so this is a cautious tale of maybe sorta kinda feeling like some good stuff might happen this year. I told you the other day that before going to the calçotada I had been at the Social Security office to make an appointment (impossible to do by phone or online) and today was the day. Why was I there, you ask? 

Well, it’s because I finally went back to my lovely Defensor del Pueblo guys last week as I had received a reply from Servicio Andaluz de Salud (SAS) following the official complaint I registered with them in December, with the help of DdelP. They told me back then that I had to send in the initial complaint myself but if I wasn’t satisfied with the reply THEN they could step in and help further. Well, not satisfied doesn’t even begin to cover it. The reply was condescending (and frankly insulting) and ignored most of the points I’d made, basically only mentioning two of them and focusing on how my waiting time during the visit to emergency had only been fifteen minutes, as in, hey nothing to complain about. Except I hadn’t even mentioned the waiting time, the problem had been (as with almost every medical appointment I’ve had over the past year and a half) that I RECEIVED NO TREATMENT.

Anyhow, I saw a different guy at the DdelP this time, who was just as lovely as the first guy I spoke to back in December (must be a job requirement, to be lovely and kind) and after carefully reading over everything he commenced writing a rebuttal to SAS on my behalf, telling me it would be sent to them via the Office of the Defensor del Pueblo, which will hopefully (there’s that word again) make them sit up and take notice.

Then he asked me if I was receiving any benefits due to having been unable to work since last August and I explained that being autónima (self-employed) I didn’t qualify because my work is seasonal. Then he said… how old are you? When I told him he asked me why I hadn’t applied for a pension. Well, same story. As a mostly seasonal self-employed person I simply haven’t clocked in enough “employed time” to qualify for a pension. And he said… but we have a convenio with Canada. And I said… huh?

Here’s the thing. Last year I looked at the possibility of getting a pension from either here or there, heck maybe a little something from both? But then I saw I wasn’t eligible for a Spanish pension. And when I checked the Canada website it looked like it was the same deal. It seems that dividing your life between two countries and having a patchy work history does not make for a robust government pension in your old age. Or even any at all. So I gave up.

Until I heard the magic word CONVENIO. And so lovely DdelP guy got back on his computer and went into my official work history at the Treasury Dept online. Taking out a pad and pen and calculator he started adding up every single month I had been contributing since I’ve lived here and omg it was frankly adorable how much he got into it saying LOOK… I found this here, another six months, and you also did a stint at King’s College… stuff like that. But alas, once it was added up I still came up short. And so I was sent off to the Social Security office to ask them how I could apply for a pension via the convenio.

After a fraught hour and a half this morning (the computer system had lost my appointment and wasn’t accepting that I had one, even though I had a text message on my phone saying it was at 11.00)… I finally got in to see someone. I’d previously called Service Canada and apparently they are sending me a record of my contributions by certified snail mail and, to be honest, I thought this appointment today would just be to tell me what papers I needed to bring in and then I’d be back to square one. But no. A young man who looked like Alice Cooper’s son sat me down and proceeded to go through my stuff. He even remembered me “oh, you’re the one who had the appointment problem” (oops… I’d made a bit of noise about it) and I smiled hoping he wouldn’t hold it against me.

I’d say “long story short” at this point, but it’s already too late for that. Alice Jr started staring at his computer screen seemingly not acknowledging me at all and just when I was about to say HELLO WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE the printer went into action and I was presented with a mountain of forms to fill out. I was like, are you kidding me? He said, well, that’s your homework (with a wink, he was actually very nice). Then he said hang on… and printed out six more pages. And then he said, why don’t you go and fill these out now and when you’re done come and wave at me when you see the next people leave my desk I’ll see you straight away. Which I dutifully did and then suddenly I heard “where’s the Canadian?”

The upshot is that Alice Jr said we can do it all from this end with the information and documents I’ve provided but whatever pension ends up being possible between the two countries probably won’t be processed for several months. Then he said that he hoped it would come through before the invasion. Again with a wink.

And so, that’s it? Looks like it. Now… I could get all happy and think OMG I’M GOING TO GET A PENSION AFTER ALL!!! (I mean, I know whatever it is won’t be much, but something is better than nothing) Or I could do what I am doing now, which is bore you all to death with all the details and then try to forget about it until… whenever it does or doesn’t happen. But it still does feel somewhat hopeful. And it’s all thanks to that lovely DdelP guy. I wouldn’t even have known about the convenio without his help. Also a shout out to Alice Jr for making me laugh today, more than once.