General Information

The Agreement applies to the following benefits:

Relating to Spain:

To the following benefits in the Social Security System:

• Health care during maternity, common or occupational diseases and injuries, whether work related or not.
• Economic benefits for temporary disability due to common illnesses and non-work-related injuries.
• Economic benefits for maternity.
• Benefits for permanent disability, retirement, and death and survival.
• Economic benefits for work-related injuries and occupational disease.

In relation to Andorra

To the following benefits in the Social Security System:

• Health care during maternity, common illnesses and work-related injuries.
• Economic benefits for temporary disability due to common illnesses and work-related injuries.
• Economic benefits for maternity.
• Benefits for permanent disability, retirement, death, widowhood and orphanhood.

Regarding these benefits, remember that:

• To get the contributory benefits included in the Agreement, periods of insurance completed in Spain and Andorra can be added together, if they do not overlap.
• Contributory economic benefits can be collected regardless of whether the interested party is resident or currently located in Spain or Andorra.
• Each country will pay its own benefits directly to the beneficiary. However, if the amount corresponding to the benefit payments made 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.

Healthcare

Entitlement to health care is granted, according to national legislation, by the country where the worker is insured and, when necessary, the periods of insurance in both countries are added together by the country that is paying the pension, if they do not overlap.

Normally, health care is provided by the country that recognises it, but when workers move to or reside in the other country it can also be received under the following circumstances:

• Workers insured in one country and their family members, who temporarily move to another country and need immediate health care.
• Insured workers from one country who are sent to work in the other for a period no longer than two years, or one year for self-employed workers, as well as the family members who accompany them.
• Family members of a worker insured in one country who are resident in the other country.
• Pensioners of one country and their family members who are currently located or are resident in another country. During a temporary stay, they are entitled to benefits for immediate needs.
• Sick workers who have been authorised to move to another country. 
• Workers who are resident in one country and work in the other can receive health care in either country.

Health care is provided: in the country where the recipient is currently located, according to the health legislation, by the Public Health Services of that country, for the time authorised by the Institution of the country where the worker is affiliated or which pays his or her pension, and at the expense of that institution.

Maternity and temporary disability

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.

Permanent disability, retirement, 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 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 Andorra (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 will be accepted by the other country as being its own period, but without applying the "pro rata temporis" clause.
  
  If the insurance periods accredited in the two countries are less than one year, the general rule for aggregation and pro rata will apply.
• 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 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. The same criterion will be applied to granting survival pensions.
• 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 it was necessary to add in Andorran periods of insurance to grant a Spanish pension, the pension will be calculated using the actual contribution bases of the insured person 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.
• 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 Andorra, this total shall also be used to determine the age of entitlement to the pension.

Work-related injury and occupational disease

The right to benefits deriving from work-related injuries or occupational diseases will be determined by the country whose legislation was applicable to the worker on the date of the accident or onset of the ailment.