Social Security

For Pensions Below the Minimum

Beneficiaries of contributory pensions from the Social Security System , who do not receive capital or work income or if they do and the income received does not exceed the annually established amount  (6,993.14 euros per year for 2012), will be entitled to receive the supplements required to reach the minimum amount of the pensions.

For the sole purpose of guaranteeing the minimum supplements, public pensions that do not come from any of the basic social security schemes are considered employment earnings.

Earnings limit:

• Minimum supplements cannot be consolidated and will be absorbed with any future increase in the interested parties' earnings, whether through revaluation or the granting of new periodic benefits  that give rise to concurrent pensions. In this event, the absorption of the minimum supplement will take effect on the first day of the month after the date when the new benefit recognition is determined.

• Minimum supplements will be incompatible with the pensioner receiving a full working income as an employee or a self-employed worker, and/or capital income, or any other type of income, when the total amount of this income, not including the pension that is going to receive supplements, exceeds 6,993.14 euros per year.
  
  To this end, this income will also include any capital gains or profits from assets, valued in accordance with tax law.
  
  For the sole purposes of granting minimum supplements for Social Security contributory pensions and calculated in accordance with the terms provided for in tax law, the following will be excluded from the full income received by the pensioner:

• In full earnings from employment, deductible expenses in accordance with tax law.
• In full earnings from business, professional and agricultural or stockbreeding activities, deductible expenses in accordance with tax law.

The full income of the pensioner, calculated in accordance with the foregoing paragraphs, is taken using the value received in 2011, and must exclude the income no longer received due to the triggering event of the pension, as well as the income proven not to have been received in the 2012 tax year. 

• However, when the annual sum of the income and the pension is less than 6,993.14 euros plus the annual sum of the minimum amount established for the pension category in question, a supplement will be granted equal to the difference and distributed between the monthly pension payments.

• It is presumed that the requirements indicated in the above sections are met when the interested party has received earnings equal to or less than 6,993.14 euros in 2011. This presumption may no longer apply as a result of tests obtained by the administration directly or through the interested parties themselves.

• The pensioners receiving minimum supplements who during 2011 have received an income greater than 6,993.14 euros, must submit an express declaration of this circumstance before 01.03.12. Without prejudice to this obligation and in order to certify income and earnings, the Managing Body may at any time request a declaration of this income, as well as their assets and, where appropriate, any tax statements that have been submitted. 

• The granting of the minimum supplement, when requested after the pension has been recognised, has the following financial effects: 

• If applied for within 3 months, the effects will be produced the day after all the requirements for receiving the supplement are met.

• If requested after 3 months, there will be retroactive effects for a maximum of 3 months, starting from the application submission date, as long as all of the requirements are met at that time. 

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Depending on the form of cohabitation and financial dependency.

• The pension holder is considered to have a dependent spouse, for the purposes of recognising the minimum established amounts, when said spouse is living with and financially dependent upon the pensioner.
  
  Cohabitation is assumed, except in the event of legal separation, for as long as the marriage continues, without prejudice to the fact that this assumption may be overridden by the investigative activity of the Administration.
  
  The spouse is considered to be financially dependent when the following circumstances are present:

• That the spouse is not also the holder of a pension from a basic social welfare scheme, which includes minimum income guarantee and third-party assistance benefits, both set out in Law 13/1982, of 7 April, and welfare pensions governed by Law 45/1960, of 21 July.
• That the pensioner's and spouse's income or earnings of any kind are less than 8,157.57 euros per year.
• When the sum of the yearly income referred to in the section above and the yearly amount of the pension to be supplemented is less than 8,157.57 euros and is less than the annual amount of the corresponding minimum pension with a dependent spouse, a supplement equal to the difference is granted, divided between the relevant number of monthly payments.

• The pension holder is considered to have a non-dependent spouse, when said is living with and not financially dependent upon the pensioner under the terms provided for in the foregoing paragraph.

• The pensioner is considered to be a single-person financial unit, when, certifying their entitlement to minimum supplements based on their income, they are not included in any of the circumstances provided for in the foregoing paragraphs.

• Recipients of the dependent spouse supplement are required to declare, within one month of this occurring, any change in their marital status that affects this supplement, as well as any change in the spouse's financial dependency status.
  
  Without prejudice to the provisions of the foregoing paragraph, the competent Managing Body may request, at any given time, the personal details of the spouse, as well as the income statements of both spouses.

• Loss of the right to the dependent spouse supplement will take effect from the 1st day of the month following the month in which the right to receive it ceases to exist.

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Widowhood with dependent family members

• Beneficiaries are considered to have dependent family members when they live with children under the age of 26 or older with disabilities, or foster children aged under 18, when the joint income of this family unit, divided by the number of members in the unit, does not exceed 75% of the SMI , not including the proportional amount of the two extra payments.
  
  To this end, older children with disabilities are deemed to be those who have a certified degree of disability greater than or equal to 33%.

• The calculable income is made up of any assets and rights obtained from employment or capital, as well as that resulting from benefits. The aforementioned income is calculated at the value received the year prior to one in which the supplements are to be applied, excluding those no longer received as a result of the causal event of the benefits and those which it is proven should not be received in the year in which the minimum supplements are to be applied.

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