Requirements

General rule: 

From 1-1-2013, the age to access the retirement pension depends on the age of the person concerned and the contributions accumulated throughout their working life, needing to have reached the age of:

• 67 years or
• 65 years when 38 years and 6 months of contributions have been made. (See phased implementation table below).

This requirement shall be applicable in any case when the pension is received without being registered or in a situation assimilated to that of being registered.

The retirement ages and the contribution period referred to in the preceding paragraphs shall be applied gradually, as shown in the following table:

Exceptions:

The age of 65 is maintained for those for whom the legislation prior to 1-1-2013 is applicable, in accordance with the provisions of the fourth transitional provisionof the LGSS.

The minimum age can be lowered or brought forward only for workers who are affiliated or in a situation assimilated to affiliation, in certain special cases:

• Early retirement after 60 years of age due to being a member of a mutual society.
• Early retirement after 61 years of age without being a member of a mutual society.
• Partial retirement.
• Special retirement at the age of 64, for those for whom legislation prior to 1-1-2013 is applicable, in accordance with the provisions of the fourth transitional provision of the LGSS.
• Retirement of personnel of the Mining Statute, aerial work flight personnel, railway workers, artists, bullfighting professionals, firefighters and members of the Ertzaintza corps.
• Flexible retirement.
• Retirement of workers affected by a disability equal to or greater than 45% or 65%.

Under no circumstances will the application of the coefficients reducing the ordinary retirement age give rise to the interested party being able to access the retirement pension at an age lower than 52; this limitation will not affect workers of the special regimes (Coal Mining and Seafarers) who, on 01-01-08, had recognised coefficients reducing the retirement age, to whom the previous regulations will apply.

Determination of the contribution period:

• The months shall be counted from date to date starting from the date of birth. If there is no day in the month of maturity equivalent to the initial day of the calculation, the age shall be deemed to be reached on the last day of the month.

• The contribution periods credited by applicants for the retirement pension, for the purpose of qualifying for the retirement pension on reaching the age applicable in each case, shall be shown in days and, once all the computable days have been accumulated, without taking into account the proportional part corresponding to special payments, shall be converted into years and months, with the following rules of equivalence:
  • The year takes on the fixed value of 365 days and
  • the month takes on the fixed value of 30.41666 days.
• For the purpose of calculating years and months of contributions, full years and months shall be taken, and fractions thereof shall not be treated as a year or a month.

• For the purpose of determining the contribution periods to be taken into account for determining the age of entitlement to a retirement pension, account shall be taken not only of the days actually contributed by the person concerned, but also of the days for which contributions have been paid:
  • The days that are considered to have been effectively contributed, in accordance with the provisions of  Art.237 of the LGSS, as a result of the periods of leave enjoyed by workers, in accordance with Article 46.3 of the revised text of the Workers' Statute Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015 of 23 October.
  • The days that are counted as a contribution period for benefits for the care of children or foster children, in accordance with the provisions of the fourteenth transitory provision of the LGSS and in Article 6 of  R.D. 1716/2012 of 28 December.
  • The assimilated contribution periods for childbirth that are calculated in favour of the worker applying for the pension, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 235 of the LGSS.

Workers in a situation of affiliation or assimilated:

• Generic contribution period: 15 years (5,475 days), as of 25-05-2010.

• Specific contribution period: 2 years must be within the 15 years immediately preceding the time of the causal event or the date on which contribution was no longer mandatory, if claiming a retirement pension from registered employment with no obligation to contribute.

Workers not in an affiliated situation nor assimilated:

• Generic contribution period: 15 years (5,475 days), as of 25-05-2010.

• Specific contribution period: 2 years must be within the 15 years immediately preceding the time of the causal event.

For the purpose of accrediting the minimum contribution period:

• Only contributions actually paid or those deemed equivalent by law or regulations will compute.

• The proportional part corresponding to special payments shall not be taken into account.

In the case of part-time workers and workers with a fixed-term contract:

To accredit the contribution periods necessary for entitlement to the benefit in the case of part-time workers, the different periods during which the worker has been registered with a part-time contract will be taken into account, regardless of the length of the working day worked in each of them.

In the case of discontinuous permanent workers, the entire period during which the worker has been on a permanent-discontinuous contract shall be taken into account and multiplied by a coefficient of 1.5, without the total number of days contributed annually exceeding the number of calendar days in each year.