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The retirement pension is a financial benefit that is granted, after having reached the established age, to those people who stop or have stopped working, totally or partially, in the activity for which they were included in the Social Security System and have proven the set contribution period. There are different types of retirement:

Ordinary Retirement

This occurs when the worker stops working due to their age and meets the general eligibility requirements for the pension.

Partial Retirement

This is retirement that starts after turning 60 years of age, at the same time as having a part-time contract, irrespective of whether or not it is linked to a relief contract. A distinction must be made between workers who are older and younger than 65 years of age:

Workers over 65 years of age

Workers who are 65 years of age and meet the eligibility requirements for the retirement pension, can qualify for partial retirement without needing to have entered into a relief contract, provided that there is a reduction in their working hours ranging from a minimum of 25% to a maximum of 75%.

Workers under 65 years of age

Full time workers can qualify for the partial retirement pension, provided they have simultaneously entered into a relief contract with a term that is equal to the time remaining until the replaced worker turns 65 years of age and meet the following requirements:

• Be 61 years of age, or 60 if the worker was a member of a mutual society on 01/01/1967.
• Prove a period of service in the company of at least 6 years immediately prior to the retirement date.
  
• The reduction in their working hours must be between a minimum of 25% and a maximum of 75%, or 80% in the cases in which the relief worker has been hired on a permanent full-time contract, and they must prove 6 years service in the company and 30 years of Social Security contributions.
• Prove a previous period of 30 years of contributions.
• In cases where the job that the relief worker is going to do cannot be the same as or similar to that of the partial retiree due to the specific requirements of the latter's job, the contribution bases for the two different jobs must correspond and the base for the relief worker may not be less than 65% of the base at which the worker who is taking partial retirement was making contributions.

Flexible retirement

The situation of flexible retirement is considered to arise from the option to make the retirement pension compatible, once in effect, with a part-time contract (reduction in working hours between 25% and 75%-85%), with the resulting reduction of the pension being inversely proportional to the reduction applicable to the pensioner's working hours, in relation to that of a comparable full-time worker.

Early retirement

• For workers with active or assimilated contributor status, the age of 65 can be reduced, under certain circumstances, even to 60 or below (disabled persons, transitional rules, arduous work, mining, railways, etc.); special retirement aged 64.
• Since 1 January 2002, there has been the possibility of taking early retirement from 61 years of age, when the worker has proven 30 years of contributions, the termination of the employment contract has not occurred due to a reason attributable to them and they have been registered as a job seeker for a period of at least 6 months immediately prior to the retirement.

General requirements for retirement

The beneficiaries are workers who meet the following requirements:

• Scope of application and active contributor status. They are or have been included in the scope of application of the System, affiliated and with active contributor status (or not) when qualifying for the pension.
• Age. As a general rule, and apart from the specified exceptions, an age of 65 is required.
• Contribution period: The minimum contribution period required is 15 years, of which, at least 2 must be included within the 15 years immediately prior to the time of gaining the entitlement; in the cases in which the worker qualified for the retirement pension with active contributor or assimilated contributor status and with no obligation to make contributions, the 2-year period must be included within the 15 years prior to the date on which the obligation to make contributions came to an end.
• Triggering event. The triggering event, that is, the end of work for the worker with active contributor status, or the submission of the pension application in the other cases, must occur.