Proof of Working in EEA State WITHOUT a contract (Surinder Singh route)

[nat & owa]

Dear all

I hope you can advise, I have spent time across the forum trying to find a similar thread or FAQ without resolve so I do hope this isn't repetitive.

Husband about to make PR application via SS route (he was issued residence card 5 years ago as the family member of EEA national, renewal date in 5 months time). I am British Citizen, we met and lived together in Spain where I worked.

My question is, will HO accept bank statements and emails from employer confirming employment (type of employment, hours and pay rate) as official employment, ie Exercising a Treaty Right..? during my time in Spain, I was a private inclusive needs carer and nanny. Two out of my three employments there did NOT issue me with a contract, or to my knowledge take their responsibility to register me as an employer in the home with Spain's social security system. The only evidence I have of this work is, as above, emails and bank statements.

Would the application be penalised for including this (because it wasn't 'official'?) Our concerns about this led us to not include this employment in the first application 5 years ago for the EEA Residence Card. We only included evidence of the one employment that did actually register me with social security. I was in Spain for 2 years, nearly always working, but frustratingly only 7 months out of those 2 years was I officially contracted with rights. (A large reason for leaving Spain).

Obviously only evidencing work for 7 months was enough for the Residence Card 5 years ago, however the PR application of course asks for more detail of what British Citizen was doing in EEA state the whole time and the truth is I WAS always working for 2 years, just didn't have the contract/social security papers to formally evidence it, I didn't think emails were acceptable last time but now having learnt that it was always the employers responsibility to register a worker in the home, I'm thinking its ok to include.

Now we also question whether it will be criticised for including this employment in this PR application when we didn't include it 5 years ago.. Help!

Thank you very much in advance.