Benefits included in the Agreement

The Agreement applies:

Relating to Spain:

To the following benefits of the contributory Social Security System, with the exception of the State Passive Classes Scheme:

• Retirement
• Permanent disability not resulting from a work-related injury or occupational disease
• Death and survival not resulting from a work-related injury or occupational disease

In relation to Korea:

To the National Pensions Law

Regarding these benefits, remember that:

• In order to receive the contributory benefits provided for in the Agreement, completed periods of insurance in Spain and Korea can be added together, as long as they do not overlap.
• Contributory financial benefits can be collected regardless of whether the interested party is resident or is currently in Spain or Korea.
• Each country pays 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.

Retirement, Permanent Disability, and Death and Survival Benefits from Spanish Social Security.

The Spanish Institution will examine the application for benefits in the following way:

• It will check that the interested party is entitled to the pension, taking into account only periods of insurance in Spain.
• In addition, it will calculate the benefit by adding the periods of insurance completed in Spain to the periods certified in Korea, as long as they do not overlap (theoretical pension). In this case, the benefit will not be for the full amount. Instead, it will be calculated based on the proportion of periods of insurance completed in Spain to the total amount of the Spanish and Korean periods (prorated pension).
• There is an exception for the cases in which the total duration of the periods of insurance certified in Spain is less than one year. In these cases the competent Spanish Institution will not grant any benefits.
• The benefits calculated as specified in the previous paragraphs will be compared and the competent Spanish Institution will grant and pay the benefit that is most favourable to the interested party.

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

The Spanish Institution will consider the worker to be subject to its legislation at the time of the causal event, if at that time they are insured in Korea or receiving a Korean pension based on their own periods of insurance. The same criterion will apply to the granting of survival pensions, with regard to having insured status or being a beneficiary of the deceased.

If some periods of insurance must have been completed immediately prior to the causal event of a benefit in order for this benefit to be granted, this requirement will also be considered to have been met if the interested party can prove that they took place in the period immediately prior to the granting of the benefit by Korea.

The pension reduction, suspension or cancellation clauses provided for in Spanish legislation for pensioners who work will be applicable even if the work is carried out in Korea.

If Korean periods of insurance must be added in order for a Spanish pension to be granted, the pension will be calculated using the actual contribution bases accredited by the insured person in Spain for 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 Korean periods of insurance that were spent in the same occupation 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 Korea, this total shall also be used to determine the age of entitlement to the pension.

Korean pension System Benefits.

It provides for this to be added together with Spanish periods of insurance if a person does not have sufficient periods of insurance to qualify for entitlement to Korean benefits and as long said periods do not overlap.

If Korean legislation requires that a person is covered when the insured contingency occurs in order to be entitled to disability or survival benefits, this requirement will be considered as fulfilled if the person is insured in accordance with Spanish legislation during the time when such an event occurs.

If the granting of certain benefits in accordance with Korean legislation depends on completing insurance periods in certain professions or jobs, only those Spanish periods that have been accredited in the same professions or jobs will be taken into account.

When Spanish periods of insurance are taken into account in establishing the entitlement to a Korean pension, the amount of this pension will be calculated in proportion to the ratio between the duration of the insurance periods accredited under Korean legislation and the total duration of the insurance periods taken into account under the legislation of both countries. In order to calculate the pension amount, the competent Korean Institution will take into account the person's standard average monthly income while they were insured under Korean legislation.

When the insurance periods accredited in Korea are less than one year, the competent Korean Institution will not pay out any benefit for such periods.