A widowed woman managed to have her right to a widow’s pension recognized after Social Security refused her the benefit, considering that her husband was not in a state of discharge at the time of his death.
The case, which occurred in Spain, ended up being decided by the Superior Court of Justice of Murcia, which understood that the administrative reading was too rigid given the specific circumstances: a short work break and a return to work already scheduled.
According to ruling no. 1192/2024 of the Superior Court of Justice of Murcia (Social Room), cited by Noticias Trabajo, a Spanish website specializing in legal and labor matters, the death occurred on March 4, 2020, when the worker was on a three-month voluntary overstay and had been discharged from Social Security on December 12, 2019.
At the time of death, there were only eight days left until the end of this period and the expected reintegration into the company.
A refusal based on a strict reading of the law
The Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social (INSS) refused the pension, maintaining that the deceased was not on discharge or in a situation similar to discharge.
In this scenario, and in accordance with article 219 of the Spanish General Social Security Law (Real Legislative Decree 8/2015), the attribution of the pension depends, as a rule, on a minimum period of contributions throughout working life.
According to the process, the INSS considered that the worker did not reach the required level, falling short by around a year and a half.
The widow contested the decision, but initially the court of instance maintained Social Security’s understanding, taking the case to appeal.
Court applied a flexible criterion and recognized an “assimilated” situation
In the appeal, the Superior Court of Justice of Murcia rejected the strictly formal interpretation and applied the jurisprudential line that allows a flexible criterion in the discharge requirement, to avoid situations of lack of protection when there is an objective connection to the system and a desire to continue in the job market.
In the decision, the judges valued the short duration of the exceedance, the proximity of the return to work and the fact that it was not possible to see in the worker’s behavior an intention to definitively leave the system.
With this framework, the court recognized the widow’s right to a pension and ordered payment with effect from March 4, 2020.
The sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of Murcia also allows an appeal to the Supreme Court, through revocation for unification of doctrine, as explained by .
And in Portugal, how does it work?
In Portugal, the equivalent benefit is the survivor’s pension. Under the general regime, the right depends, firstly, on compliance with the guarantee period: 36 months of contributions, in accordance with article 16 of Decree-Law no. 322/90.
This means that, contrary to what happens in many cases in the Spanish system, the attribution is not, as a rule, dependent on the deceased beneficiary being “in good standing” on the date of death, but rather on having a sufficient contributory career to be entitled to the benefit.
Even so, specific situations can raise doubts when there are long interruptions in discounts or incomplete contribution careers and, in these cases, the administrative decision can be challenged, as happened in Spain, with the framework always depending on the facts and the applicable regime.
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