Benefits included in the Agreement

General information

The Agreement applies to the following benefits:

Relating to Spain:

To the following  economic benefits from the Social Security System:

• Benefits for temporary disability due to common disease and non-work-related injury.
• Maternity benefits and benefits for risk during pregnancy .
• Benefits for permanent disability, retirement and death and survival.
• Benefits for work-related injury and occupational disease.

Relating to the Philippines:

To the following economic benefits:

• Maternity benefits and benefits for illness.
• Retirement benefits.
• Disability benefits.
• Benefits for death and survival.
• Benefits for work-related injury and occupational disease.

Regarding these benefits, remember that:

• To acquire the contributory benefits set out in the Agreement, the insurance periods completed in Spain and the Philippines can be added together.
• The contributory economic benefits can be received whether or not the interested party resides or is currently in Spain or the Philippines, except for  benefits for temporary disability and non-contributory benefits, which will not be paid when the beneficiary resides in the territory of the other country.
• 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.

Temporary disability, maternity and risk during pregnancy

The economic benefits are recognised by the country in which the beneficiary is insured, taking into account, in necessary,  insured periods in the other country, provided they do not overlap.

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 the Philippines (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 insurance periods accredited in each of the two countries do not add up to one year, they will be added by the country in which the interested party meets the requirements for entitlement to the benefit, and in this case applying the "pro rata temporis" clause.

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 either country requires a maximum duration of insurance periods for the recognition of full benefits, the amount of which depends on the insurance periods, the Authorised Institution of that country will take into account, when adding periods together, only those contribution periods in the other country needed for 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 the recognition of entitlement requires some insurance periods to have been completed immediately before the causal event of the benefit, this requirement will also be considered to have been met if the interested party accredits them in the period immediately before the recognition of the benefit in the other country.

If the legislation of one of the signatory countries contains clauses which reduce, suspend or eliminate the pension in the case of pensioners who work, these clauses will be applicable even if the work is performed in the other country.

If insurance periods in the Philippines had to be added to reach entitlement to a Spanish pension, the calculation of the pension will be based on the real contribution basis accredited by the insured party in Spain in the years immediately before payment of the final contribution to the Spanish Social Security system. 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.

For entitlement to the benefits of certain special regimes (for example, Seafarers or Coal Mining), only the periods in the other country spent in the same profession or job will be taken into account.

In the case of a Spanish Social Security retirement pension that considers a total of insurance periods accredited in the Philippines, this total shall also be used to determine the age of entitlement to the pension.

The benefit will be determined by the country where the worker was subject to the legislation at the date of the accident or during the time they were exposed to the risk of occupational disease.