Rafael, a 68-year-old worker, has been denied his retirement pension despite having contributed more than 47 years to Social Security throughout his working life. The reason, according to the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, is that he was not up to date with his Social Security payments at the time of requesting the benefit, since he had a debt of 1,624.97 euros in unpaid installments as a self-employed person.
According to the ruling STSJ CAT 4467/2024 (can be consulted at this link), it all begins when this worker, born in 1952, requests a contributory retirement pension from Social Security in 2020, since at that time he had 47 years, 4 months and 4 days in the Social Security system, of which 793 days correspond to a multi-activity regime, which is equivalent to 45 years, 2 months and 2 days countable for benefit purposes.
But it is denied, the reason being that he was not up to date with Social Security payments, that is, because he had those unpaid installments whose amount was 1,624.97 euros. Not compliant, I submitted a claim to the INSS, but it was denied, making it clear that the outstanding debt continued to exist in the RETA, so the right to a contributory retirement pension could not be recognized, as stated in article 28.2 of the Royal Decree 2530/1970.
Faced with this situation and seeing the possibility of being left without a pension, he decided to go to court, since he understood that after having contributed for more than 47 years, he had sufficient merit to access the pension. Now, the Social Court number 21 of Barcelona ruled in favor of Social Security.
It is not enough to have contributed for more than 47 years
In its ruling, the court explained that this worker did not meet all the requirements to access the retirement pension. On the one hand, he was not up to date with the payment of Social Security contributions, something essential when it comes to workers included in the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers. On the other hand, he continued to be registered and working until April 2021, which was incompatible with the recognition of the pension at the time in which he defended having generated the right, which he established in 2017.
Even so, this worker decided to file a petition before the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia with the aim of revoking the first instance ruling. But the Catalan high court once again ruled in favor of Social Security and confirmed that he did not have the right to receive the contributory retirement pension.
The ruling explains that, although he had a long career of contributions, that was not enough in itself to access the pension. The court explains that the regulations require being up to date with the payment of contributions when requesting retirement, as stated in article 28.2 of Decree 2530/1970, which regulates the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers.
Furthermore, the TSJ of Catalonia indicates that the worker had an enforceable debt of 1,624.97 euros, to which were added other prescribed debts in the amount of 16,661.30 euros, although the latter were not decisive in resolving the case. What was relevant for the court was that there was an outstanding and unpaid debt, sufficient to prevent the recognition of the pension.
Added to this was another circumstance. The withdrawal from the Self-Employed Regime had been annulled and the worker continued to be registered until April 2021, so he could not maintain that he had the right to collect the pension since 2017 while continuing to carry out his activity. For all these reasons, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia concludes that he did not comply with all legal requirements and confirms the denial of the retirement pension.