Social Security

General Information:

The Agreement applies to the following:

For Spain

To the following contributory benefits from the Social Security System:

• Permanent disability, death and survival due to common illnesses or non-work-related injuries
• Retirement

For the Republic of Colombia:

To legislation regarding economic benefits under the General Pension System (Average allowance with a definite benefit and Individual Savings with Solidarity), for:

• Old age, disability and survivors, due to a common origin.

For these benefits, you must be aware that:

1) To get the contribution benefits included in the Agreement, periods of insurance completed in Spain and Colombia can be added together, as long as they do not overlap.

2) Economic contribution benefits can be collected regardless of whether the interested party is resident or is currently located in Spain or Colombia.

3) Each country pays its own benefits directly to the beneficiary. However, if the amount corresponding to similar benefit payments is higher than that owed by the Social Security of the other country, it can be deducted from the first payments of the pension granted.

4) The persons who meet the requirements of the legislation of both countries for entitlement to a contribution pension can collect it from both countries.

BENEFITS

Permanent disability or handicap, retirement or old age and death and survival or survivors.

1. Common resolutions to apply Spanish and Colombian legislation.

Each country will examine each application for benefits separately in the following way:

- It will check whether the interested party is entitled to the benefit, taking into account only its own periods of insurance, not those of the other country.

- Likewise, the benefit will be calculated by adding together its own periods of insurance and those of the other country (theoretical pension). In this case, the benefit will not be for the whole amount but a proportion of the periods of insurance in the country granting it and the sum of the periods for Spain and Colombia (prorated pension).

- The benefits calculated as shown in the previous sections will be compared and each country will recognise and pay the benefit that is most favourable to the interested party.

- To receive benefits in certain special schemes (for example, Sea Workers and Coal Mining) only the periods in the other country that were spent in the same profession or employment will be taken into account.

2. Specific provisions in Spanish legislation for recognising entitlement to benefits.

- The Spanish Institution that calculates the pension will consider that the worker is subject to its legislation if that person is insured in Colombia or is receiving a benefit from that country, of either a similar or a different type, for which they were the originator. To grant survival pensions, the fact that the deceased was insured or was a pensioner of the other country will be taken into account.

- If, for a benefit to be recognised, it is a requirement that some periods of insurance accrued before the causal event of that benefit, this requirement will be considered to have been met if the interested party can prove that they took place in the period immediately prior to the acknowledgment of the benefit by Colombia.

- The pension reduction, suspension or cancellation clauses in Spanish legislation for pensioners who work will be applicable even if the work was carried out in Colombia.

- If, in order to recognise a Spanish pension it is necessary to add in Colombian periods of insurance, the pension will be calculated using the actual contribution bases of the insured person for the years immediately prior to the payment of the last contribution to the Spanish Social Security. The amount obtained from this calculation will be increased by the annual revaluations made for the same type of benefit up to the date of the causal event..

3. Specific provisions in Spanish legislation for recognising entitlement to benefits.

-- If, in order to recognise a Colombian pension it is necessary to add in Spanish periods of insurance, the pension will be calculated using the average salary or income for which the interested party made contributions in Colombia for the ten years prior to the entitlement. If the period for making this calculation was in Spain, the period of ten years will be calculated using the last contribution made in Colombia.

The resulting amount will be adjusted up to the date of the accrual of the benefit.

- Workers who are affiliated to a Pension Fund Administration will fund their pensions in Colombia with the accumulated balance of their individual savings and the additional amount from the insurance company. However, if the balance of their individual account is not sufficient to finance the minimum pension, the periods of Spanish insurance can be added in to bring it up to the minimum pension, using the corresponding prorating. In addition, the sum of the Spanish and Colombian proratings will be taken into account if less than the legal minimum wage in Colombia.