Social Security

General Requirements

The general requirements to acquire the right to benefits in the Special Schemes are, in each case, the following:

• Affiliated or in a situation assimilated to being affiliated in the corresponding Scheme. Nevertheless, right to the retirement pension can be caused from a situation of not being affiliated as long as the age and contribution requirements established are met.


• Up-to-date in the payment of the quotas, which the workers are directly responsible for.


• Meet the conditions for inclusion in the agricultural census. This requirement only applies to the Special Agricultural Scheme.

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Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers

The benefit is recognised under the same terms and conditions as for the General Social Security Scheme , with the following differences:

• Age: 65 years old.

Nevertheless, in certain special cases it is possible to retire under 65 years of age for those workers who, throughout their working life, have made contributions to one of the Schemes of the Social Security that recognises the right to early retirement, as long as they meet certain requirements.

• Base Pension:

There is no gap integration. If months were to appear during which there was no obligation to contribute in the period taken into account for making the calculation they will not be completed with the minimum bases in force, corresponding to workers over 18 years of age.

In the cases of exemption from paying contributions, for the periods of activity in which contributions have not been paid in, for the purposes of determining the regulatory base, the following rules will be taken into account:

1. The contribution bases used for determining the regulatory base will be equivalent to the result of increasing the average contribution bases of the previous calendar year up to the start of the contribution exemption period, by the known average variation percentage in the CPI in the last specified year. Bases calculated in this way cannot be less than the minimum contribution base set annually in the relevant General State Budget Act.
   
2. For the purposes of calculating this average, the contribution bases to be used will be those corresponding to self-employed activity, which is contribution-exempt.
   
3. If there were no contribution bases in any of the months of the calendar year prior to the start of the contribution-exempt period, the average will be taken of the existing contribution bases divided by the number of months to which they correspond.
   
4. If there were no contribution in the previous year, the contribution bases of the first year in which they exist will be taken, calculating the aforementioned average in accordance with the rules mentioned in the sections above; this average will be increased by the average known variation percentage of the consumer price index of the previous calendar year or years until the year corresponding to the period of exoneration from quotas is reached.

• Percentage:

The reduction scale for years is not applied, according to the age reached on 1-1-67, to the effects of calculating the years of contribution.

• Causal event of the benefit:

• The last day of the month on which the work ends, for those affiliated.
• The last day of the month on which the application is presented, for those in situations assimilated to being affiliated.
• The date of the application for those not affiliated.

• Financial effects:

The first day of the month following the date of the causal event.

• Compatibility / Incompatibility:

The pension is compatible with maintaining ownership of the business and with carrying out the inherent functions of that ownership.

The regime of incompatibility between the retirement pension and the pensioner's job, shall also be applicable, as of 01/07/2011, with regard to members of professional associations carrying out self-employed work who, under the terms of the provisions of the Fifteenth Additional Provision of Law 30/1995, of 8 November, on the Regulation and Supervision of Private Insurance, as amended by Article 33 of Law 50/1998, of 30 December, are exempt from registering in the RETA, irrespective of whether or not they are members of the social welfare mutual societies which the aforementioned legal provision allows to act as alternatives to registration in the RETA.

This incompatibility shall not be applicable to the events in which the corresponding retirement pension was compatible with members of professional associations carrying out self-employed work prior to 01/07/2011, nor to those persons who had already turned 65 years old on the aforementioned date.

• Exemption from contributions:

The workers are exonerated from contributing to the Social Security except, if this were the case, for temporary disability and professional contingencies in the event that they had reached 65 or more years of age and accredit 35 years or more of effective contribution to the Social Security, without calculating to these effects proportional parts of extraordinary payments. If on reaching 65 years of age the worker does not renounce the requirement demanded, the aforementioned exoneration will be applicable as of the date on which he accredits this.

• Partial retirement: pending regulatory implementation.

• Special retirement at 64 years of age is not protected.

• Early retirement without membership in a mutual society is not protected.

• Early retirement of disabled workers: not protected.

• More information relating to this Scheme:

• Other benefits.
• Basic Regulations.
• Persons included in the scope of application of this Scheme, affiliation, registration and termination and contributions. 

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Special Scheme for Coal Mining

The benefit is recognised under the same terms and conditions as for the General Scheme of the Social Security, with the following particular conditions:

RETIREMENT:

• Age:

The minimum age demanded of 65 years is reduced by a period equivalent to that resulting from applying to the period of time effectively worked in each category and professional speciality in coal mining, the coefficient which corresponds in accordance with the scale which runs from 0.50 to 0.05, according to the danger and toxicity of the activity carried out.

The worker, with a real age under 60 years, may only retire if the theoretical age (real age plus the reductions), surpasses 65 years.

Early retirement due to being an insurance holder: as of 60 actual years of age, with the application of the reduction coefficients, for those workers who were included in the scope of application of this special scheme on 1-4-69 and were making contributions to one of the Coal Workers' Mutual Societies on or before 31 March of said year, or who had been making contributions to one of the Employees' Mutual Societies before 1-1-67.

• Regulatory base:

It will be the corresponding base, but the contribution bases to take into account will be the standardised bases.

• Percentage:

The period of time by which the worker retirement age is reduced will be counted as an effective contribution period for the purpose of increasing the pension percentage for years of contribution.

RETIREMENT FOR ABSOLUTE DISABILITY:

• Recipients:

Pensioners with total permanent disability this Special Scheme will be considered as in a situation assimilated to affiliation for the exclusive effect of being able to gain entitlement to the retirement pension, as long as they meet the following requirements:

• To be 65 real years of age or theoretical years of age resulting from applying to the period of time effectively worked in each one of the categories of coal mining the coefficient which corresponds according to the aforementioned scale.
• That the pension for absolute permanent disability has not substituted, by option, the retirement pension that the interested party would receive in this Special Scheme.
• To have paid in, including the employers and employees contributions, the quotas for the period between the date of the effects of the total permanent disability and the causal event of retirement, with the deduction of the amount of the payments which, during this period, had been paid in the name of the interested party in this Special Scheme.

• Regulatory base:

It is determined by taking, for each of the months that it includes, the standardised bases that have corresponded in these months to the professional category or speciality that the interested party had when the total permanent disability occurred.

• Percentage:

The payments made by the beneficiary for the period between the date of the effects of the pension for total permanent disability and that of the causal event of the retirement, will be calculated.

• To determine the applicable percentage according to the years of contribution.
• For the calculation of the minimum contribution period required to gain entitlement to the pension.

• More information relating to this Scheme:

• Other benefits.
• Basic Regulations.
• Persons included in the scope of application  of this Scheme, affiliation, registration and termination  and contributions. 

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Special Scheme for Sea Workers

The benefit is granted under the same terms and conditions as in the General Scheme, with the following special conditions:

• Age:

The Special Scheme for Sea Workers includes coefficients that reduce the retirement age of certain workers due to the severity, the demanding conditions, distance, etc., of work at sea, which make it possible to reduce the retirement age by up to a maximum of 10 years with respect to the general age of 65.

The reduction coefficients that are applied vary by class of vessel, propulsion type and the nature of the work:

• Work aboard merchant marine ships: 0.40 to 0.20.
• Work aboard fishing vessels. 0.40 to 0.15.
• Port stevedores: 0,30.
• Shellfish and barnacle fishermen and seaweed collectors: 0,10

The period of time by which the retirement age is reduced is considered to be paid contribution time for the sole purpose of determining the percentage applicable to the regulating base. Both the age reduction and the calculation of the period of time for the percentage apply even if the pension is the result of some other Social Security Scheme.

Early retirement due to being an insurance holder: this is granted under the same terms as in the General Scheme, although references to the effective date for the General Scheme (1-1-67) should be taken to mean 1-8-70, as this was the date on which the Special Scheme for Sea Workers (REM) came into effect.

As an temporary right, in the Special Scheme for Sea Workers, workers who were registered in the National Maritime Mutual Society, the National Mutual Aid Society for Costal Fishermen and the Port Stevedores' Pension Fund, on the date that the Special Scheme for Sea Workers came into effect (1-8-1970) or previously, and in accordance with the regulations in effect on that date, who were entitled to retirement pension as from 55 years of age, or 60 in the case of the port stevedores, may gain entitlement to the retirement pension at those ages, without prejudice to the fact that percentage of the pension is reduced by seven hundredths for each year remaining up to retirement age.

Early retirement without being a mutual insurance holder: is recognised on the same terms as in the General Scheme. However, only self-employed workers in the Special Scheme for Sea Workers are eligible for this type of retirement.

• Base Pension:

It is calculated in the same way as for the General Scheme. However, the contribution gaps are not covered for self-employed workers in the period used to calculate the regulating base.

• Percentage:

The period of time by which the workers' retirement age is reduced is computed as having been contributed for with respect to increasing the pension percentage for years of contribution.

Early retirement due to being an insurance holder:  The relevant regulatory base percentage, based on the years of contribution, is reduced by applying the following reduction coefficients:

• When the worker receives the pension due to voluntary retirement or when there are less than 38 years of certified contributions, independent of the reasons for retirement, the amount of the pension is reduced by 7% for each year remaining till the age of 65, at the moment of retirement.
  
  
• When the worker certifies 38 years or more of contributions and received the pension due to contract termination for reasons other than free will, the pension reduction percentages, based on the years of contributions, are the following:

Early retirement without being a mutual insurance holder: This type of retirement is granted on the same terms and conditions as the General Scheme. However, only self-employed workers in the Special Scheme for Sea Workers are eligible for this type of retirement.

More information relating to this Scheme:

• Other benefits.
• Basic Regulations.
• Persons included in the scope of application of this Scheme, affiliation, registration and termination and contributions.

• Processing:
  
  Provincial and Local Departments of the Marine Social Institute (ISM).

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