Social Security

Pension amount

The amount of the TPD pension is calculated by applying the corresponding percentage to the regulatory base (RB), in accordance with the cause of the disability.

If it is the result of a common disease, the amount of the pension  cannot be less than 55% of the minimum contribution base for persons over 18 years of age in force at any given time, calculated in annual terms.

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Percentage

• General rule:
  
  55% of the RB. This percentage may be increased by 20% for beneficiaries over the age of 55 when, due to a lack of overall or specialised preparation and the social and employment conditions at their place of residence, it is assumed to be difficult to gain employment in an activity other than the normal one.
  
• In cases in which a worker aged 65 or over accesses the TPD pension arising from common contingencies, due to failing to meet the requirements for accessing the retirement pension:
  
  The applicable percentage shall correspond to the minimum contribution period established, at any given time, for accessing the retirement pension. The percentage that will be applied to the corresponding RB is currently 50%.

• In the event of work-related injuries or occupational diseases, the benefit will increase, in accordance with the seriousness of the violation, of 30% to 50% when the injury is caused by machines or devices or at facilities, centres or workplaces that do not possess the regulation safety equipment, it is not used or in poor condition, or when basic hygiene standards and occupational health and safety measures have not been observed, or have not been adapted to each person and job, taking into account each worker's characteristics, age, gender and other conditions. This charge will be fully payable by the offending employer.
  
  The surcharge for financial benefits is not applicable to domestic employees in the event of WRI and OD due to lack of occupational risk prevention measures. 

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Regulating base

The calculation of the regulatory base (RB) will change in accordance with the cause of the permanent disability:

If the disability arises from common contingencies:

• Workers over 52 and under 65 years of age on the date of the triggering event:
  
  a) It is the result obtained from dividing the interested party's contribution bases during the 96 months immediately prior to the month before the triggering event by 112. The calculation of these bases will be performed in accordance with the following rules:
  
  
  • The bases for the 24 months prior to the triggering event are calculated using their nominal value.
  • The remaining bases are updated in accordance with the development of the CPI, from the month to which they correspond up to the month immediately prior to the month when the period of non-updatable bases described in the foregoing paragraph begins.
  
  b) To this result, the corresponding percentage is applied, depending on the years of contributions, in accordance with the scale provided for retirement pensions, with the years that remain for the worker before they turn 65 years old on the date of the triggering event being considered as effective years of contributions for these purposes. If 15 years of contributions have not been reached, the applicable percentage will be 50%. This rule is applied to files opened after 01/01/2008. It is not applied when the permanent disability is the result of a temporary disability that started before 01/01/2008.
  
  c) The resulting amount of the foregoing rules will give the RB to which, in order to obtain the amount of the corresponding pension, the percentage provided for the recognised degree of disability must be applied.
  
  
• Workers aged under 52 on the date of the triggering event (for which a contribution period of less than 8 years is required):
  
  The RB will be calculated in the same way as with the previous situation, however the ratio will be obtained by dividing the sum of the monthly contribution bases by a number equal to the number of months of the minimum contribution period required, not counting partial months, by the number of months to which said bases correspond, multiplying this ratio by the coefficient 1.1666, and excluding, under all circumstances, the updated bases corresponding to the 24 months immediately prior to the month before the triggering event.
  
• Workers aged 65 or over on the date of the triggering event, who do not meet the requirements for retirement:
  
  The RB shall be the ratio obtained from dividing the interested party's contribution bases during the 96 months immediately prior to the month before the triggering event by 112, in accordance with the provisions of rule a).
  
• Filling in of gaps:
  
  If during the period to be counted for calculating the RB there are months in which the worker had no obligation to make contributions, these contribution gaps will be filled in, for the sole purposes of this calculation, using the minimum contribution base in force at any given time for workers over 18 years of age.
  
  If during any month, the obligation to make contributions is limited to just a portion of the month, the filling in of gaps outlined in the previous paragraph will apply only to the portion of the month in which there was no obligation to make contributions, as long as the contribution base that corresponds to the contributory period does not reach amount of the established minimum base. In this case, the integration is applied up to the last amount. 
  
  In the case of workers included in the Special System for Domestic Employees,, from 2012 to 2018, only effective contribution periods will be taken into account for the calculation of the RB of the permanent disability pension arising from common contingencies (filling in of gaps will not apply).
  
  In the case of workers included in the Special System for Agricultural Employees, as of 01/01/2012, only effective contribution periods will be taken into account for the calculation of the RB (filling in of gaps will not apply).
  
  In the case of workers on part-time, relief and permanent-intermittent contracts it should be taken into account that:
  • The filling in of periods, during which there was no obligation to make contributions, will be done using the minimum applicable contribution base at any given time, for the number of contracted hours on the date on which the obligation to make contributions was suspended or came to an end. If there was only an obligation to make contributions for a portion of the month, the filling in will only apply to the period of the month in which there was no obligation to make contributions, as long as the corresponding contribution base does not reach the aforementioned minimum base.
  • With the exception of the periods between seasons or campaigns for workers with intermittent contracts, under no circumstances will the gaps in contribution be considered as the hours or days not worked because of the interruptions in rendering services resulting from the part time contract itself.

If the disability is due to a non-work-related injury:

The BR is the ratio obtained from dividing the sum of the interested party's contribution bases during an uninterrupted period of 24 months by 28. This period must be chosen by the beneficiary within the 7 days immediately prior to the date of the triggering event of the pension.

If on the date of the triggering event the interested party has not completed the period of 24 uninterrupted months of contributions, the BR will be determined by using the most beneficial formula for the following two bases: the basis specified in the last paragraph or by dividing the sum of the minimum contribution basis in force in the 24 months immediately before the causal event of the incapacity by 28, including these in the amount corresponding to the last working day contracted by the originator.

If the disability is due to a work-related injury or occupational disease:

The RB is calculated based on the actual salaries, taking into account the fact that they may not exceed the maximum contribution limit or be less than the minimum limit in force at the time of the disability. It is the ratio obtained by dividing the following totals by 12:

• Daily wage and seniority of the worker on the date of the injury or sick leave for 365 days.
  
  For part-time and relief contracts, in which the worker does not provide services every day or when the working day is irregular or variable, the daily wage is the result of dividing the agreed weekly or monthly salary, based on the distribution of the working hours indicated in the contract for each of those periods, by 7 or 30.
  
  For permanent-discontinuous contracts, the daily wage is the result of dividing the wages earned by the worker during the same period by the number of calendar days of harvesting up to the date of the causal event.
  
• Extra payments, benefits or shareholdings, by the total amount in the year prior to the injury.
  
• The ratio resulting from dividing the bonuses,supplementary compensation and overtime hours earned in the year prior to the injury, by the number of actual work days in that period. The result is multiplied by 273, except when the number of actual working days in the activity in question is less, in which case the corresponding multiplier is applied.
  
  The amount of overtime hours calculated cannot exceed the amount resulting from multiplying the average compensation of each overtime hour by the annual maximum limit of overtime hours, as set out in art. 35.2 of the Workers Statute.
  
  For part-time, relief and permanent-discontinuous contracts, the sum of the salary supplements received by the recipient during the year prior to the causal event is divided by the number of hours actually worked during that period. The result is then multiplied by the figure obtained by applying the coefficient for proportionality that exists between the standard working day of the activity in question and the working day indicated in the contract to the number 1826.

For workers included in the Special System for Domestic Employees, the RB will be equivalent to the contribution base for domestic employees on the date of the benefit´s triggering event.

Multi-activity:

When contributions are certified in several schemes and eligibility for a pension is not granted in one of them, in multi-activity situations the certified contribution bases from the previous scheme may be accumulated in those of the scheme in which pension eligibility exists, solely to determine the RB, as long as the sum of the bases does not exceed the maximum contribution limit in force at any given time.

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Lump sum compensation

Requirements:

• That the worker is under 60 years of age.

• It is assumed that the disability injuries are liable to change, giving rise to a future review of the declared disability.

• That the beneficiary carries out self-employed or employed work for another person, or accredits that the compensation amount will be invested in preparing or developing new sources of income as a self-employed worker, as long as the worker is accredited with sufficient capability to carry out the activity in question.

• That it is applied for within the 3 years following the date of the decision or definitive assessment which recognises the right to the pension or, if under 21 years of age on that date, within the 3 years following the day on which that age is reached.

Amount:

• The amount reaches a maximum of 84 monthly payments of the pension under 54 years of age and a minimum of 12 monthly payments at 59 years of age, according to the following scale:
  
  

• The decision must be given by the General Management of the National Social Security Office.
• Compensation will be made following the aforementioned decision.
• Once the substitution has been authorised, the beneficiary may not request its suspension in order to recover the status of pensioner until the age of 60.
• On reaching 60 years of age, the beneficiary will start to receive the pension recognised initially, increased by the corresponding revaluations which have taken place since the date on which the substitution of the compensation was authorised.
• If the beneficiary dies before 60 years of age, there will be a right to death and survival benefits as if he had been a pensioner at that time.

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Payment

• Pensions arising from common diseases and non work-related injuries are paid in 14 instalments, one for each month of the year and two extra payments per year, which are paid together with the June and November monthly instalments, and are the same amount as the ordinary amounts for these months.

• Pensions arising from work-related injuries and occupational diseases are paid in 12 monthly instalments, as the extra payments are prorated among the ordinary monthly instalments, having been taken into account to calculate the regulatory base of the pension.

• In the case of compensation, the appropriate payment is made in a single amount.

• Minimum monthly amounts are guaranteed according to age, with the amount changing depending on the type of cohabitation and financial dependency.

• The total permanent disability benefit and the retirement benefit arising from this, due to a change in name when the interested party turns 65 years old, is subject to taxation in accordance with the terms set out in the Personal Income Tax (IRPF) regulations, and subject, where appropriate, to the general tax withholdings system, with the following exceptions:

• Benefits derived from acts of terrorism are always exempt.
• Total permanent disability (55%) pensions and the retirement pensions derived from them, due to change in denomination are not generally exempt, with the exception of Vizcaya, Álava and Guipúzcoa, if no income is certified.
• Qualified total permanent disability (75%) pensions and the retirement pensions derived from them due to change in denomination, are exempt in Vizcaya, Álava and Guipúzcoa, unless the beneficiaries have certified their income.

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