Retirement or voluntary retirement

Civil servants covered by the Civil Service Pension Scheme may retire or take voluntary retirement from the age of 60, provided they have completed 30 years’ recognised service to the State.

If, in order to complete the required 30 years, contributions to other social protection schemes are to be taken into account pursuant to the rules on the reciprocal calculation of contributions between social security schemes (Royal Decree 691/1991 of 12 April), it shall be required, where retirement or early retirement takes place after 1 January 2011, that the last five years of service taken into account for the calculation of the retirement or early retirement pension be covered by the State Civil Service Pension Scheme. This requirement shall not apply to civil servants of the State Administration who are on active service, on special assignment, on leave to care for family members or on leave due to sex-based violence and who, as a result of successfully completing the recruitment and promotion procedures set out in the general civil service regulations, change their social security scheme.

This rule shall also apply where, in order to complete the required thirty years of service, periods of insurance, residence or equivalent periods completed outside Spain must be taken into account, arising from the application of bilateral agreements or community regulations on the coordination of social security systems, unless such periods relate to activities which, had they been carried out in Spain, would have resulted in the mandatory inclusion of the person concerned in the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

Staff of the Spanish Parliament may take voluntary retirement upon reaching the age of 60 or upon having completed 35 years of recognised service to the State.

The procedure shall be initiated by the civil servant concerned by means of a written application, which must specify the date on which they wish to retire or take early retirement, and must be submitted to the relevant retirement authority at least three months before the requested retirement or early retirement date.

In addition to the retirement or voluntary retirement scheme applicable to all civil servants covered by the Civil Service Pension Scheme (aged 60 and with 30 years’ service to the State), members of the academic staff at universities and judges, judges, prosecutors and legal officers within the administration of justice, for whom the mandatory retirement age is set at 70, may retire once they reach the age of 65 and can demonstrate 15 years of effective service to the State. In the case of magistrates, judges, public prosecutors and court clerks, they must apply for this type of voluntary retirement six months before their retirement date.