General Information:

The Agreement applies to the following benefits:

Relating to Spain:

To the following contributory benefits of the Spanish Social Security System, except for the schemes for civil servants and the military:

• Benefits for permanent disability, retirement and survival
• Benefits for work-related injury and occupational disease

In relation to Cape Verde:

• To the general social security scheme for workers employed by another person and self-employed workers with regard to pensions for disability, old age, survival and
• To the insurance scheme for work-related injuries and occupational diseases.

Regarding these benefits, remember that:

• In order to qualify for the contributory benefits included in the Agreement, periods of insurance completed in Spain and Cape Verde can be added together.
• Contributory financial benefits can be collected regardless of whether the interested party is resident or is currently in Spain or Cape Verde.
• Each country will pay its own benefits directly to the beneficiary.
• Those who meet the requirements of the legislations of both countries for entitlement to a contributory pension may receive it from either country.

Permanent Disability, Retirement and Survival

Each country will examine the pension application separately, as follows:

• They will check whether the interested party is entitled to the benefit, taking into account only their own insurance periods, without adding those of the other country.
• Then the benefit will be calculated by adding together their own insurance periods and those accredited in the other country (theoretical pension). In this case, the whole benefit amount will not be paid, but according to the proportion of the insurance periods completed in the paying country compared to the sum of the periods in Spain and Cape Verde (pro rata pension).
  
  There is an exception for cases where the total duration of the insurance periods accredited in one of the two countries is less than one year, and they alone do not entitle the worker to a pension in that country. They may be accepted as its own by the other country if necessary, but without applying the "pro rata temporis" clause.
  If the periods of accredited insurance in both of the countries is less than one year, they will be added together by the country in which the interested party meets the requirements for being granted a pension. In the event that the worker is entitled to a benefit in both countries, this will only be granted by the country in which the worker has their most recent accredited periods of insurance. In none of these cases will the “pro rata temporis” clause be applicable.
  
• The benefits calculated as indicated in previous sections will be compared, and each country will recognise and pay the benefit which most favours the interested party.
  

The recognition and calculation of the pension will take into account:

• If the legislation of one of the countries requires a maximum duration of insurance periods in order to grant a full benefit, the amount of which is based on the insurance periods, when adding them up, the competent Institution in that country will take into account only the contribution periods in the other country needed to qualify for the entitlement to that pension.
• The Institution calculating the pension will consider the worker to be subject to its legislation if they are insured in the other country, or receive a benefit in that country based on its own insurance periods. For the recognition of survivor's pensions, it will be considered whether the deceased was insured in or received a pension from the other country.
• If some periods of insurance must have been accrued before the causal event of a benefit in order for said benefit to be granted, this requirement will also be considered to have been met if the interested party accredits these insurance periods in the period immediately prior to the recognition of the benefit by the other country.
• If the legislation of one of the signatory countries contains pension reduction, suspension or cancellation clauses for pensioners who work, these will be applicable even if the work was carried out in the other country.
• If insurance periods completed in Cape Verde had to be added in order to grant a Spanish pension, the pension will be calculated using the actual contribution bases accredited by the insured person in Spain in the years immediately prior to the payment of the last contribution to Spanish Social Security. The amount obtained will be increased annually according to the established revaluations until the date of the causal event for benefits of the same kind.
• To qualify for benefits in certain special schemes (for example, Seafarers and Coal Mining) only the periods in the other country that were spent in the same profession or employment will be taken into account.
• In the case of a Spanish Social Security retirement pension that considers a total of insurance periods accredited in Cape Verde, this total shall also be used to determine the age of entitlement to the pension.

Work-related Injury and Occupational Disease

The benefit will be determined by the country whose legislation the worker is subject to on the date when the accident occurred or the disease was contracted.