General Information:

The Agreement applies:

In relation to Spain

To the following contributory benefits from the Social Security System:

• Economic benefits for temporary disability due to common illnesses and non-work-related injuries
• Economic benefits for maternity
• Benefits for permanent disability, old age, and death and survival
• Economic benefits for family protection
• Economic benefits for work-related injuries and occupational disease

In relation to Paraguay

To the laws regulating Social Security for:

• Economic benefits for temporary disability due to common illnesses and non-work-related injuries
• Economic benefits for maternity
• Economic benefits for disability, old age, and death and survival
• Economic benefits for work-related injuries and occupational disease.

For these benefits, you must be aware that

• To get the contributory benefits included in the Agreement, periods of insurance completed in Spain and Paraguay can be added together, if they do not overlap.
• Contributory economic benefits, except those for temporary disability due to common or occupational diseases or accidents, whether work-related or not, can be collected regardless of where the interested is resident in or currently located in Spain or Paraguay.
• Each country will pay its own benefits directly to the beneficiary. However, if the amount corresponding to similar benefit payments is higher than that owed by the Social Security of the other country, it can be deducted from the first payments of the pension granted.
• 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 and maternity

Economic benefits for these contingencies are granted by the country where the recipient is insured, taking into account, if necessary, any periods of insurance in the other country, if they do not overlap.

Disability, old age, and death and survival

Each country will examine each application for benefits separately in the following way:

•  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 benefit will not be for the whole amount but a proportion of the periods of insurance in the country granting it and the sum of the periods for Spain and Paraguay (prorated pension).

There is an exception for cases in which the total length of  the periods of accredited insurance in one of the two countries is less than one year and therefore there is no entitlement to a pension from that country. They will be accepted by the other country as being its own period, but without 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:

•  The Institution that calculates the pension will consider that the worker is subject to its legislation if that person is insured in the other country or is receiving a benefit from that country of the same kind or another kind, but originated by the recipient themselves. To grant survival pensions, the fact that the deceased was insured or was retired and/or a pensioner in accordance with the legislation of the other country will be taken into account.

• If, for a benefit to be recognised, it is a requirement that some periods of insurance have been accrued before the causal event of said benefit, this requirement will be considered to have been met if the interested party can prove that the insurance periods were 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 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 it was necessary to add in periods of insurance in Paraguay to recognise a Spanish pension, the pension will be calculated using the actual contribution bases of the insured person in Spain for the years immediately prior to the payment of the last contribution paid 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 Paraguay, 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.