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Affiliation is the administrative decision through which the General Treasury of the Social Security grants the status of "being included" in the Social Security System, with the effects provided for in law, to the individuals carrying out a professional activity for the first time that determines their inclusion within its scope of application.

Affiliation has the following characteristics:

• It is compulsory: all people included within the System´s scope of application for contributory benefits are required to become affiliated.
• It is unique for the entire system and for all the schemes, even when people change to from one scheme to another as a result of their activity.
• It is lifelong, because initial affiliation lasts throughout a person´s life, even when their active contributor status is terminated in the Scheme because they have finished the work they were doing.
• It is exclusive, insofar as you cannot have active contributor status in another social welfare scheme outside the System.
• Affiliation alone or together with other requirements is a condition for being a holder of rights and obligations.