The possibility of accessing early retirement without the usual cuts associated with early retirement, at a minimum age of 52, for workers with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 65%, is generating attention in Spain and is also beginning to raise questions in Portugal. At issue is a special regime that does not apply the reduction coefficients for the value of the pension typical of early retirement in the general regime: the amount is calculated according to normal rules, taking into account the contributory career.
The topic has been highlighted by the Spanish press, namely by Noticias Trabajo, a Spanish website specializing in legal and labor matters. Even so, the basis of the regime is described in official sources: the Spanish Social Security portal and the applicable legal framework.
How the Spanish regime works for disability equal to or greater than 65%
According to the Spanish Social Security portal, the ordinary retirement age can be reduced when the worker proves a degree of disability equal to or greater than 65%. This reduction is made through the application of a multiplier coefficient to the time actually worked and paid for with the disability recognized.
According to Royal Decree 1539/2003, published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado, the coefficient applied is, as a rule, 0.25 on the time worked with disability. In situations where the disabled worker proves the need for assistance from a third person for essential acts of daily life, the coefficient may be 0.50.
In any case, according to official information from Spanish Social Security, the application of these mechanisms cannot result in a pension access age of less than 52 years.
Why there are no “cuts” as in early retirement from the general regime
Unlike voluntary or involuntary early retirement in the general regime, where there are reductions in the value of the pension depending on the months of anticipation, in a framework adjusted by reforms such as Ley 21/2021, in this regime what is anticipated is the legal age applicable to the worker, via the coefficients provided for disability.
In practice, this means that no reduction coefficients are applied to the value of the advance pension. Furthermore, according to Royal Decree 1539/2003 and the explanation of the Spanish Social Security, the period corresponding to the reduction in age is considered as time allocated only to determine the percentage applicable to the calculation of the pension, preventing the anticipation from penalizing the percentage allocated due to lack of years.
Requirements and certification
To benefit from this regime, the worker must have their disability duly certified by the competent authorities and comply with the general requirements for access to the pension in the Spanish system, including the minimum contribution periods.
It is also important to distinguish this regime from that applicable to disabilities of 45%: in this case, according to Spanish Social Security, access depends on specific conditions and pathology falling within the regime foreseen for that threshold, unlike what happens when the criterion is a degree of 65% or more, where what counts is the certified degree.
What the Supreme Court says (and what it doesn’t say) about “counting discounts”
Reference has been circulating to decisions of the Spanish Supreme Court handed down in 2025 regarding the calculation of previous contributions. However, these decisions concern another issue: access/compatibility of the subsidy for those over 52 years of age in beneficiaries with total permanent disability and not the early retirement regime for disability equal to or greater than 65% provided for in Royal Decree 1539/2003.
And in Portugal, is there something similar?
In Portugal, the framework is substantially different. There is no regime that allows access to the old-age pension at the age of 52 without penalties based exclusively on a 65% degree of disability.
The specific scheme for bringing forward the age of the old-age pension due to disability was created by Law No. 5/2022 and regulated by Decree-Law No. 18/2023, but applies to those who are, cumulatively, 60 years old or more, a degree of disability equal to or greater than 80% and at least 15 years of a contributory career with this disability situation.
In the flexibility regime provided for in Decree-Law No. 187/2007 (in its consolidated version), early retirement requires, as a rule, a minimum age of 60 years and 40 or more years of remuneration records, being subject to the calculation rules and applicable factors.
There is also the disability pension, which depends on a medical assessment and verification of lasting inability to work, but does not correspond to an “automatic early retirement” based on a percentage of disability, nor does it replicate the Spanish model of legal age reduction due to disability.
Thus, although the Spanish regime allows the retirement age to be reduced to the minimum limit of 52 years in cases of severe disability (≥65%), in Portugal a similar solution, with this age threshold, is not provided for in the current legal framework.
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