Contenido principal

Legal Relationship with the Social Security. Scope of Application Affiliation, Registration, Acquiring and Terminating Active Contributor Status, Schemes

The aims of this unit are:

To frame the Social Security System within a social and democratic state governed by the rule of law.
To highlight the need to fulfil obligations in order to acquire rights.
To define the types of legal relationships between citizens and the Social Security.
To set out the requirements for being included in the scope of application of the Social Security System.
To define the concept of Affiliation: its compulsory nature, its procedure and its effects.
To define the concept of Registration; its compulsory nature, its procedure and its effects.
To establish the difference between Affiliation and Active Contributor Status in the Social Security.
To define the concepts of Acquisition of Termination of Active Contributor Status: rates, procedures and effects.
To define how the contributory level of the Social Security is organised in the different schemes and their specific features.

The Social Security System is a State mechanism for providing protection in situations of need.
The rights and obligations arising from the system, and its management, are "public".
It is the law that determines and regulates the "relationship" between citizens and the Social Security. It is not at the free discretion of parties.
Orientation towards the principle of universality: contributory and non-contributory level.
Affiliation and the subsequent acquisitions of active contributor status are the mechanism for determining who is responsible for making contributions and the rights that the worker is acquiring through their "contributions" to the System; if the worker does not have active contributor status and the Social Security is not aware of this circumstance, they cannot be provided with protection. It is very important to control the fulfilment of this obligation.
Affiliation is unique, lifelong and exclusive.
Affiliation, registration and active contributor status must take place prior to starting work.