Social Security

Originators / requirements

• People included in the General Scheme of the Social Security, who are affiliated and with active contributor or assimilated contributor status and who have completed the minimum required contribution period:
  
  • If death is due to a common disease:
    
    500 days within an uninterrupted period of 5 years before the death of the worker, or before the date on which the worker´s obligation to make contributions came to an end, if the originator had active contributor status or assimilated contributor status with no obligation to make contributions.
    
    However, the requirement to pay contributions for orphan´s pension has been eliminated if the originator died with active contributor status or assimilated contributor status.
    
    For workers on part-time, relief and permanent-intermittent contracts, in order to accredit contribution periods, only the contributions made based on regular and overtime working hours are counted, calculating the equivalence in theoretical days of contributions:
    
    
    • The number of hours effectively worked will be divided by 5, equivalent to the daily calculation on 1826 annual hours.
    • The 5 year period in which these 500 days must be contained will be increased in the same ration in which the actual work hours are reduced with respect to the regular full-time hours for the corresponding professional activity.
    • A fraction of a day, when appropriate, is calculated as a full day.

    To this end, in the case of workers included in the Special Scheme for Domestic Employees, from 2012 to 2018, the hours actually worked in said Scheme shall be calculated based on the contributions bases referred to in numbers 1, 2 and 3 of section 2.a) of the 39th Additional Provision of Law 27/2011, divided by the amount set for the minimum hourly base of the General Scheme by the LPGE for each of said financial years. 

  • If death was caused by an accident, whether it was work-related or not, or by occupational disease, no previous contribution period is required.
    
  • Previous contribution periods are also not required for coverage of funeral expenses.

• People receiving benefits for temporary disability, risk during pregnancy, maternity, paternity or risk during breast feeding who fulfil the contribution period that may be set for that case.

• Retired pensioners receiving contributory benefits.

• Pensioners with permanent disability. The death of a person with absolute permanent disability or outstanding disability will be considered to be caused by work-related injury or occupational disease if either was the cause of the disability.

• Workers who stopped working and had the right to collect a contributory retirement pension but died without requesting it.

• Workers who disappear as a consequence of an accident, whether or not it was work-related, in circumstances in which death can be presumed, and those from which no news is received during the 90 calendar days following the accident. In this case, there is never any entitlement to funeral expenses.

• Workers who are entitled to a total permanent disability pension, and opted for the special lump sum compensation for people under 60 years of age.

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Recipients / requirements

In addition to the general requirements (affiliation, registration and contribution) required from the originator in each situation, in order to access the widow's pension, the beneficiaries must prove other specific requirements in certain circumstances.

• The surviving spouse, in the event of death arising from common disease prior to the marriage, must prove one of the following requirements:
  
  
  • That there are children in common.
  • That the marriage took place one year prior to the death. Said duration of the marriage is not required when it can be proved that, on the date of the wedding, there had been a period of cohabitation in which the originator was a partner in a de facto couple which, when added to the duration of the marriage, exceeded two years.

If the spouse does not prove one of these requirements, they may access a temporary widowhood benefit, as long as they have met the rest of the compulsory requirements. 

• Legally separated or divorced persons, as long as in the latter case they have not remarried or formed part of a common-law marriage, if they are entitled to the compensatory pension described in |Art. 97 of the Civil Code, and this shall be terminated upon the death of the originator. As of 01/01/2010, in the event that the amount of the widowhood pension is greater than the compensatory pension, the former will be reduced to the amount of the latter.
  
  In any event, even if not entitled to the compensatory pension, women who can prove they have been victims of gender-based violence at the time of legal separation or divorce by final judgment, or record of the circumstance arising from extinction of criminal liability due to death; in the absence of a judgment, through the protection order issued in their favour or report from the Public Prosecution Service stating that there is evidence of gender-based violence, as well as any other means of proof admissible by Law (applicable to deaths occurring after 01/01/2008).
  
  When the legal separation or divorce occurred before 01/01/08), the granting of the entitlement to the pension shall not be conditional on the divorced or legally separated person being entitled to the compensatory pension, as long as:
  • A period of over 10 years has not passed between the date of divorce or legal separation and the death of the originator.
  • The marriage tie has lasted for a minimum of 10 years.
  • Furthermore, one of the following conditions must be fulfilled: there are common children from the marriage; the beneficiary is aged over 50 on the originator's date of death.
  The amount of the resulting pension will be calculated in accordance with the regulations in force prior to 01/01/2008 (entry into force of Law 40/2007, of 4 December).
  
  The aforementioned provisions are also applicable to the deaths occurring between 01/01/2008 and 31/12/2009, as long as the divorce or legal separation occurred before 01/01/2008. 
  
  A divorced or legally separated person who had been a debtor of the compensatory pension shall not be entitled to a widowhood pension.
  
• A survivor whose marriage had been been annulled, who has been granted entitlement to compensation under the terms of |Art.  98 of the Civil Code, as long as they have not remarried or formed a duly certified common law marriage.
  
• The survivor of a de facto couple, as long as they prove:
  
  
  • That the death occurred after 01-01-08.
  • The registration of the de facto couple in one of the specific registries of the Autonomous Communities (CCAA) or Town Councils of the place of residence or the signing of a public record that certifies the establishment of this couple, in both cases, for a minimum of 2 years before the date of death of the originator.

  In the CCAAs with their own Civil Law, the consideration of a de facto couple and its certification will be performed in accordance with their specific legislation, satisfying the cohabitation requirement.

  • Stable and patently obvious cohabitation immediately upon the death of the originator, for an uninterrupted period of no less than 5 years.
  • That, during the period of cohabitation, neither member of the couple was prevented from entering into marriage or had a marital tie with another person.
  • That their incomes:
    • During the calendar year prior to the death, did not reach 50% of the amount of their own income plus the income of the originator in the same period, or 25%  in the event that there are no children in common with entitlement to orphan's pension.
    • Or, alternatively, is less than 1.5 times the amount of the SMI  in force at the time of death. This requirement must apply both at the time of the causal event and during the receipt of benefits. The specified limit will increase by 0.5 times the amount of the SMI in force for each shared child with entitlement to orphan's pension that lives with the survivor.

Earnings from work, capital gains and assets, according to the terms under which they are calculated for the recognition of the minimum pension supplements, will be considered as income.

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Assimilated Contributor Situations

For the purposes of these benefits, assimilated contributor situations are:

• The legal status of unemployed, totally and receiving benefits, as well as when workers have been made voluntarily unemployed, once contributory and welfare benefits have been used up, as long as they continue to be registered as unemployed at the employment office.

• The situation of the worker during the period corresponding to paid annual holidays that were not taken before the contract ended.

• Forced leave.

• The period of time when a worker goes on leave to care for a child, foster child or other family members, which exceeds the period considered as an effective contribution period in Article 180 of the LGSS.

• Transfer of the employee by the company outside of Spain.

• Signing of a special agreement  of any type.

• Periods of inactivity between seasonal jobs. 

• Prison terms served as a result of the cases outlined in the Amnesty Act 46/1977, of 15 October, under the terms governed in Law 18/1984, of 8 June.

• The periods when aid is received for early retirement and before ordinary retirement. 

• A situation of temporary disability that continues after the contract has expired.

• The situation of extended conditions  of temporary disability.

• In the case of workers affected by toxic shock syndrome who, as a result, stopped their job or professional activity at a particular time during the tax year and have not been able to resume their job during that year, and had active contributor status in one of the Social Security schemes, the assimilated contributor status and common contingencies will be subject to the terms of the scheme that the workers were included in when they finished work.

• The period that the employment contract is suspended due to the female worker's decision to leave their job as a result of being a victim of gender-based violence. 

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