Common provisions

The special agreement is a situation assimilated to inscription, deriving from a voluntary agreement between the subscriber and the Social Security General Treasury, with the subscriber's obligation to pay the corresponding contributions at their own expense, in order to pay contributions and be entitled to the benefits derived from the contingencies covered in the special agreement.

However, there are exceptions, such as the ERE agreements whereby the contribution is paid by the company until the worker included in the ERE reaches 61/63 years of age, or the agreements for non-professional carers, which are currently financed by the IMSERSO.

The special agreement is the legal instrument by means of which people in the situations specified in the regulations in force are allowed to make voluntary social security contributions in order to generate, maintain or extend their entitlement to social security benefits.

In general, in the situation of being registered in a special agreement, contributions are paid for the following contingencies:

• Retirement.
• Permanent disability derived from common contingencies (common illness and non-work-related injury).
• Death and survival (widow/widower's pension, orphanhood and other benefits in favour of family members) derived from common contingencies.

The person responsible for fulfilling the obligation to pay social security contributions during the term of the special agreement is, as a general rule, the person who signs the agreement. However, there are exceptions, such as the special ERE agreement in which the contribution is exclusively paid by the company until the worker reaches 61/63 years of age, or the special agreements for non-professional carers, which are currently financed by the General State Administration.