Social Security

The retirement pension is a financial benefit included in all of the schemes of the Social Security System, which replaces working income with a single, life, non-terminating pension, when the worker reaches the age for fully or partially ending their working activity.

People affiliated with any Social Security Scheme who meet the requirements for age, minimum contribution period and causal event.

More information on beneficiaries

• Age: To have reached 65 years of age, barring exceptions.
  
• Minimum period of contribution: Fifteen years, of which at least two must have been included during the fifteen years immediately prior to the causal event.
  
• Causal event:
  Affiliated workers: The day of stopping work.
  Workers with assimilated contributor status: The date the application is submitted, except in cases of forced leave, when it is the last day on the job, and transfers outside of Spain, when it is the day the job ends.
  Non-affiliated workers: The date the application is submitted.

More information on requirements

The amount of the pension is determined by the regulatory base which is the result of dividing the updated contribution bases of the interested party during the 180 months immediately prior to the month before the triggering event and the percentage applied to it based on the years of effective contributions, by 210.

Affiliated workers: The day after employment ends, when the application is submitted within the 3 months prior to or following the termination. For all other cases, the maximum retroactivity is set at 3 months from the application date.

Workers assimilated to affiliation or not affiliated: The day after submitting the application, except in certain situations when the worker has assimilated contributor status, when it is the date of the triggering event.

More information on economic effects

The pension is paid monthly with two extra payments that are paid with the June and November monthly payments.

The retirement pension has guaranteed minimum amounts, and it is adjusted at the beginning of each year based on the forecast Consumer Price Index for that year.

Retirement pensions are subject to personal income tax (IRPF).

More information on payments

Collecting a retirement pension is incompatible with carrying out employed or self-employed work, or work for the Civil Service, which give rise to inclusion in a Social Security scheme, except in the case of partial retirement and flexible retirement. Notwithstanding the foregoing, collecting a pension may be compatible with carrying out:

• Self-employed work, for which the annual income received does not exceed the national minimum wage, calculated on an annual basis.
• Part-time work, with the resulting reduction of the pension in inverse proportion to the applicable reduction in working hours.

As a pensioner you are required, before starting work, to inform the respective managing body of such a circumstance. 

The processing of a retirement pension must be completed and notification given to the interested party within a maximum period of 90 days. (The average period is currently 19 days).

Since it is a life pension, it only expires with the death of the beneficiary.

Applying for a retirement pension.

The documentation that must be submitted is listed on the application form.

At the Social Security Support and Information Centres.
Seaworkers at the offices of the Social Marine Institute.

The management and granting of entitlement to a retirement pension is the responsibility of the National Institute of the Social Security, except for workers included in the scope of application of the Special Scheme for Sea Workers, in which case it is the responsibility of the Social Marine Institute.

Early retirement due to the group or occupational activity
Early retirement for disabled workers
Early retirement due to being a member of a Mutual Society before 1/1/1967
Early retirement without being a member of a Mutual Society before 1/1/1967
Flexible retirement
Partial retirement
Special retirement at 64 years of age
Particular conditions of the Special Schemes

You can be entitled to a retirement pension in several schemes in several Social Security schemes if you meet the necessary requirements for each of them. To receive the pension without active contributor status, the accredited contributions in each scheme must exceed at least 15 years.

Retirement Pension Automatic Calculation Program

Frequently Asked Questions