The discussion surrounding the conditions necessary to access retirement due to age has gained relevance, especially when situations arise of workers with long careers who, despite many years of contribution, face legal obstacles when applying for retirement. This article addresses precisely the contributory requirements associated with the pension, based on a recent case analyzed by the Spanish courts.
The Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia decided to maintain the decision of the Spanish Social Security, refusing to grant retirement due to age to an 82-year-old man who, despite more than 45 years of contributions, did not meet a fundamental technical requirement: the so-called specific grace period, which requires a minimum of deductions in the last 15 years before the request.
The analysis revealed that, although he had accumulated 16,542 days of contributions, the worker had only 160 days of deductions in the 15 years prior to the request, a value much lower than the 730 days required by Spanish legislation. This non-compliance ended up preventing the granting of the pension, regardless of the long contributory career, according to the Spanish digital newspaper.
Influence of accumulated debt
The worker’s career included more than 11 thousand days in the general regime and more than 5 thousand in the autonomous regime. Even so, a debt of more than 26 thousand euros to Spanish Social Security affected his career, delaying the submission of his retirement application.
Despite this, the court highlighted that the decisive factor for refusing the pension was not the existence of the debt, but the absence of recent contributions, according to the same source. As the request was submitted in December 2020, it was concluded that the contributory activity had ceased much earlier, which prevented compliance with the specific grace period provided for in article 205.1.b of the Ley General de la Seguridad Social.
Legal battle
After the initial refusal, the worker appealed to the Córdoba Labor Court, which confirmed the Social Security decision. Subsequently, he filed a new appeal with the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia, trying to change the date of the triggering event to December 2012, corresponding to the last day of work.
If this argument were accepted, the previous 15 years would include periods with a greater number of contributions. However, the court considered that this was not possible, since, to use the date of termination of activity, the worker would have to be in a discharged or similar situation, which was not the case. Therefore, the judges determined that the reference would have to be 2020, confirming the existence of only 160 days of discounts in the period under analysis.
Final Court Confirmation
Given these elements, the Superior Court of Justice concluded that the worker did not meet the legal requirements to access the pension. He also highlighted that, although there is jurisprudence that allows access to pensions from different schemes even with debts in others, this possibility only applies when the essential contributory requirements are met.
According to Noticias Trabajo, the court closed the process by confirming the refusal, although the worker can still appeal to the Supreme Court.
What if it happened in Portugal?
If a similar situation occurred in Portugal, it would be analyzed based on the Social Security Basic Law (Law no. 4/2007), the Code of Contributory Regimes (Law no. 110/2009) and Decree-Law no. 187/2007, which regulates access to the old-age pension in the general regime.
In Portugal, to access the old-age pension, you must:
- Have at least 15 years of remuneration records (article 19 of Decree-Law no. 187/2007);
- Have reached the legal retirement age, currently set at 66 years and 7 months in 2025, with annual update;
- Have your contribution situation regularized with Social Security, making it possible to access retirement if there is an agreement to pay the debt (article 186 et seq. of the Contribution Code).
It is important to note that, unlike Spain, Portugal does not require a specific waiting period in the years immediately preceding the request.
How would the case be evaluated?
If a Portuguese worker with more than 45 years of deductions requested retirement without having contributed in the previous 15 years, this would not, in itself, imply the rejection of the request. The relevant criterion is compliance with the minimum 15 years of contributory career, and not its distribution over time.
The only situation that, as a rule, could prevent immediate access to the pension would be the existence of active debt without a settlement agreement. If there was a payment plan in place, the pension could be awarded.
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