Special Schemes

The general requirements to gain entitlement to permanent disability benefits in  the Special Schemes, in each case, are as follows:

• Being affiliated or assimilated to affiliation in the corresponding Scheme. Nevertheless, the individual may be entitled to an allowance for absolute permanent disability or serious disability arising from common contingencies, when not affiliated.
  
  
• Fulfilling the minimum contributory period required, where applicable.
  
  
• Being up-to-date with all contribution payments for which the workers are directly responsible, even if the benefit is recognised as a consequence of a reciprocal contribution calculation in a scheme for workers employed by another person.
• To this end, the payment request mechanism provided for in |Art.  28.2 of Decree 2530/1970, of 20 August, will be applied irrespective of the Social Security scheme that the interested party was a part of when accessing the benefit or in which the interested party has gained entitlement.
• When it is deemed that the interested party is up-to-date with the payment of contributions in order for entitlement to an allowance to be recognised, by virtue of a deferral in the payment of contributions due, but he/she later fails to fulfil the deadlines or conditions of said deferral, he/she will no longer be considered as being up-to-date with payments and, as a result, the allowance to which he/she was entitled will be immediately suspended. Said allowance will only be restored once the debt held with the Social Security Service is credited in full. To this end, the body responsible for managing the allowance may deduct the corresponding contribution due from each instalment payable to the interested party.
• For the purposes of recognising acknowledgement to an allowance, the contributions that correspond to the month of the allowance's causal event and the preceding two months, for which income still does not appear in the Social Security IT systems, it will be assumed that they have been deposited without the interested party having to provide documentary evidence, provided that the worker proves that the minimum contribution period has been met, excluding the three-month period to this end .
• In such an event, the managing body will review all allowances recognised during the immediately preceding year on an annual basis, working on the assumption that the individual is up-to-date with all payments, to check the timely and effective payment of said contributions. Failure to do so will result in the immediate suspension of the allowance, with the monthly payments retained serving to repay the contributions due until the debtor balance is settled, with payment of the allowance restored thereafter.

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

• Joint evaluation of the condition of the worker for the initial declaration of the permanent disability or its review:
  
  Both the initial as well as subsequent reviews of the disability classification will be carried out by evaluating the condition of the beneficiary resulting from the whole set of anatomical or functional reductions determined by the different contingencies that may have arisen.

• Regulatory base:

When permanent disability arises from common contingencies, the regulatory base will be the corresponding base in each case, although the contribution bases to be taken into account will be the standardised bases.

• In the event of total permanent disability the age allowances are applied, both for the purposes of the special replacement of the life pension for compensation amount up to 20% higher than the relevant total permanent disability benefit.
  
  These allowances result from applying to the period of time effectively worked in each professional category of coal mining, the corresponding coefficient, in accordance with a scale that runs from 0.05 to 0.50 according to the danger and toxicity of the activity carried out.
• Amount of the pension for absolute disability and serious disability on reaching retirement age:
  
  Beneficiaries:
  
  Pensioners with absolute permanent disability or serious disability in this Special Scheme who meet the following requirements:
  
• To have a real age of 65 years or the theoretical age resulting from applying the age reductions referred to in the point above.
• Not to be the holder of any other Social Security pension or having renounced it.
• That the pension for absolute permanent disability or outstanding disability has not substituted, by option, the retirement pension that the interested party would receive in this Special Scheme.

Amount:

The new amount will be equivalent to that which would correspond, on the first day of the month following that in which the interested party exercises their right to a specific retirement pension in accordance with certain specific rules, as long as this amount is greater than that they had before.

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.