In Spain, two ordinary retirement ages coexist in 2026. On the one hand, 65 years for those who prove at least 38 years and 3 months of contributions. On the other hand, 66 years and 10 months for those who do not reach that contribution period. However, the General Social Security Law contemplates an exception that allows access to ordinary retirement at age 65 with only 15 years of contributions and without any reducing coefficient being applied.
This is explained by the lawyer Miriam Ruiz Acosta, creator of the channel Legal Commitmentwhich details the two cases in which this exception can be used. The route is recognized in the fourth transitional provision, point 5, of the General Law of Social Security, the consolidated text approved by Royal Legislative Decree 8/2015, which enables certain groups to benefit from the legislation prior to Law 27/2011, which is more beneficial, as long as the pension is accrued before January 1, 2027.
The first group, explains the lawyer, is made up of workers whose employment relationship was terminated before April 1, 2013 and who since then have not returned to contribute to any of the Social Security regimes, neither self-employed nor employed. The condition is strict. To maintain the right to apply the 2011 regulations, anyone who ceased their activity before that date cannot have subsequently been included in any regime.
The second group is made up of people affected by an employment regulation file (ERE) signed before April 1, 2013. And here Ruiz Acosta introduces the most relevant nuance, which has practical consequences for thousands of early retirees: “For the second group of people, that is, for those who had an ERE done before April 1, 2013, it does not matter if they have returned to work afterwards, because if you had an ERE done before that date you will be able to continue to accept that transitional provision.”
The provision itself also extends this same effect to those who saw their employment relationship suspended or terminated by virtue of collective agreements in any field, company collective agreements or bankruptcy procedures approved, signed or declared also before April 1, 2013. The expert focuses her explanation on the ERE as it is the most frequent case among her consultations, but the regulatory framework expressly includes these other means.
The difference is in the subsequent employment
Workers who only ceased their activity before April 2013 lose their advantage as soon as they are registered in the system again. Those affected by an ERE prior to that date, on the other hand, retain the right to the previous regulations even if they have subsequently restarted their working life.
This particularity, explains the lawyer, is explicitly regulated in the norm. “Specifically, it is the fourth transitional provision in point 5 of the General Social Security Law,” says Ruiz Acosta, who insists that it is one of the numerous exceptions that coexist in current legislation and that go unnoticed by the majority of workers close to retirement.
Regulatory base calculated over 15 years instead of 25
The practical advantages of adhering to the previous regulations go beyond the age and the minimum contribution required. Ruiz Acosta herself explains that “these two groups of people can benefit from retirement with the previous regulations, that is, that of 2011, which allowed you to retire at age 65 with only 15 years of contributions without applying any type of penalty and also calculating your regulatory base on the average of the last 15 years and not the last 25 as is done now.”
Compared to the 25 years (300 months) required by the general rule in 2026, the calculation over the last 15 years (180 months) can be decisive in profiles with irregular trajectories at the end of their working lives, when unemployment bases fall, special agreements that are underpriced or lower salaries in the last sections before retirement.
“This law has many particularities and some transitional provision may also apply to you in your retirement pension that you are not taking into account,” the lawyer ends the video.