Early retirement when you paid into several Social Security schemes

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. This Law applies when someone has paid into two or more Social Security schemes and does not meet all the requirements for a retirement pension in any of them separately. In that case, the scheme with the largest number of contributions decides on the pension, counting all of the worker's contributions.
2. If the worker has not reached the minimum age in that main scheme, the pension can still be granted if they meet the age requirement in one of the other schemes. To do this, they must have been a member of a mutual society on January 1, 1967 or earlier, or prove foreign contributions before that date that, if made in Spain, would have led to membership in a Labor Mutual Society.
3. In addition, at least one quarter of the worker's lifetime contributions must have been made in schemes that recognize early retirement, or in equivalent foreign schemes. If the total contributions amount to thirty years or more, five years in those schemes is enough.
4. The early retirement pension is reduced by 8% for each year or part of a year the person is short of age sixty-five. The Law does not apply to the State's Clases Pasivas scheme, which is governed by another rule, and it took effect upon publication in the Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado), applying to pensions whose triggering event occurs from April 1, 1998 onward.

Who it affects

• Workers who have paid into two or more Social Security schemes and do not meet all retirement requirements in any of them separately.: They can access an early retirement pension if they meet the requirements of this Law.
• People who do not reach the minimum age in the scheme with the most contributions.: Their pension can be granted if they meet the age requirement in another scheme and meet the mutual society membership and contribution conditions.
• Civil servants and staff under the State's Clases Pasivas scheme.: This Law does not apply to them; they are governed by another rule.

Words worth knowing

Régimen de la Seguridad Social (Social Security scheme)

Each of the groups within the Spanish Social Security system, such as the General Scheme or the Special Schemes, each with its own rules.

Totalización de cotizaciones (totalization of contributions)

Adding together the contribution periods paid into several schemes as if they were one.

Hecho causante (triggering event)

The moment the right to the pension arises, usually the date the person stops working.

Mutualista (mutual society member)

A person who was enrolled in a labor mutual society, a worker welfare entity, before a specific date.

Clases Pasivas (Passive Classes scheme)

The former pension scheme for Spanish civil servants, now managed by the Social Security system.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries