A Saragoça woman, who lived for 24 years with her partner until her death in 2023, has seen the right to receive the pension of widowhood. The decision was confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon (TSJA), which considered that the relationship did not comply with legal requirements, because it was never formalized as a factual union in the official registration.
According to the Spanish regional newspaper Hoy Aragón, the National Institute of La Segurado Social (INSS), a Spanish homologist of Portuguese Social Security, had already attributed the pension to the first wife of the deceased, mother of her three daughters, refusing her to the companion who shared with him more than two decades of life.
The justification was simple: in the two years prior to death there was no administrative record of the relationship, a condition considered mandatory by Spanish legislation.
Court confirms decision
The woman contested the decision in court, first in the JUZGADO of social number 6 of Zaragoza, court of first instance, and later in TSJA. However, in both instances, the judges considered that the law is clear: they are entitled to the pension of widowing the legally married spouses or officially registered unions.
According to the sentence, there was no legal impediment so that the couple had registered the Union. The court stressed that the absence of this administrative step prevents the application of social protection rules.
Objective criterion without margin for exceptions
The decision also underlines that this is an objective requirement, leaving no room for interpretations based on the time of coexistence or the solidity of the relationship. Although it was proved that the couple shared housing and life in common for more than two decades, the court stressed that the law does not allow exceptions when there is no registration in the register.
According to the same judgment, coexistence alone is not sufficient to generate rights in pension, if not formally recognized.
Open legal question
The case brings to debate the legal void that affects many stable unions in Spain and can leave unprotected companions in death situations.
Associations linked to Family Law have warned of the need to reinforce public information and ensure greater legal certainty for these relationships, preventing long -term situations from running out of legal recognition on central issues such as the widowhood pension.
According to this, this decision of the TSJA ends the judicial way to the woman of Saragoça, who is now unintentionally supported, despite more than two decades of life shared with his partner.
And in Portugal?
In Portugal, the village of widowhood is foreseen in the Social Security Social Protection regime, regulated by Decree-Law No. 322/90, of 18 October, with subsequent amendments, and Law No. 7/2001 of 11 May, which recognizes the Union of fact. The former spouse with food is entitled to this provision, the former spouse with the right to food, and the surviving member of a de facto union, provided it has been proven for at least two years.
According to the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, this proof can be made by different means, such as common children, joint tax statements, invoices that show shared residence or testimonies of neighbors. The law does not require prior administrative registration of the Union, which differentiates Portugal from Spain, where this requirement is indispensable to access the pension of widowhood.
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