Add NewsWork in 
The total permanent disability pension is designed for those workers who, due to illness or accident, are unable to carry out their usual profession. Now, to access this benefit it is not enough to have a limiting clinical condition. The General Social Security Law requires that, to be entitled to a pension within the General Regime, people must be affiliated and registered in said Regime.
This is stated in article 165.1 of the General Social Security Law (consultable in this BOE). This means that, if the person is in a “non-discharge” situation when the accident occurs or the illness worsens, Social Security will deny the request for total permanent disability.
Social Security is granting permanent disability pensions ex officio and without workers asking for them in these situations.
A labor lawyer explodes over the poor functioning of Social Security: “It is godless and we are all paying”
Now, Social Security is aware that a worker is not always active and can still maintain that figure in order to be entitled, in this case, to a disability pension. For this reason, the Social Security Law equates certain situations with real discharge to protect the citizen in case of misfortune. For example, the legal situation of total unemployment during which the worker receives benefit for said contingency will be assimilated to that of registration.
Likewise, cases of forced leave, transfer by the company outside the national territory or the signing of a special agreement with the Social Security Administration will also be considered a situation assimilated to registration. If the applicant is in any of these scenarios, they will be able to process their total permanent disability, since the law protects them with the same guarantees as if they were working.
A practical example
To understand this situation, let’s take the example of a 55-year-old worker who was fired five years ago, exhausted the SEPE unemployment benefit and did not sign any special agreement with Social Security (pay the contributions out of pocket to continue contributing).
In this case, if you suffer from a common illness that prevents you from working in your usual profession, the pension will be denied by Social Security. The reason is that, when the protected situation arose, the citizen did not meet the general requirement of being affiliated and registered, nor was he in a situation assimilated to that of registration.
The exception to the general rule
The General Social Security Law explains in its article 165.1 that the requirement of being in a registered or similar situation is always mandatory, “unless expressly provided by law to the contrary.”
In this way, in cases where the degree of disability is Absolute or Major Disability, Social Security does allow you to request a pension even if you have been outside the system for some time, that is, in a “non-registration” situation. Now, the only condition is to have contributed a minimum of 15 years of contributions, of which at least 3 years must be within the last 10 years immediately preceding the moment in which the illness or the causative event occurs (the moment in which the illness worsens or the injury occurs).