Workers who have 35 years of contributions can request voluntary early retirement up to two years before their ordinary retirement age, in exchange for a pension cut that is maintained for life (the reducing coefficients) and that can reach up to 21%. With the arrival of the general elections for next November 29, there are workers who had not planned it and do not know whether to bring it forward to this year in case conditions change and become more harmful. Labor lawyer Ignacio Solsona explains that “if before the end of the year you can request an early retirement under good conditions, go ahead, but do not make a hasty decision for fear of a future change that we do not even know if it will come.”
Solsona does not deny that there will be changes and remembers that the reform approved at the end of 2021 (known as Law 21/2021) toughened early retirements and that a major pension reform came in 2023. “All the political parties that have governed in one way or another have tightened retirement conditions,” he summarizes. His prediction is that the upcoming reforms will improve the situation of some groups, but that in general they will continue to tighten, since demographic data and the European Union point in that direction.
For example, whoever is entitled to a pension of 2,000 euros and advances it for 24 months with less than 38 years and six months of contributions is subject to a 21% cut (according to article 208 of the General Social Security Law), that is, 420 euros less per month throughout retirement.
What does change on January 1, 2027 and does not depend on the elections, is the ordinary age will become 67 years, or 65 with 38 years and six months of contributions (in 2026 it is 66 years and 10 months, or 65 with 38 years and three months), according to the seventh transitional provision.
Furthermore, the percentage charged for years of contributions drops by 0.98 points for careers between 19 years and one month and 35 years and eight months (ninth transitional provision), about 14.70 euros per month with a regulatory base of 1,500 euros. Whoever reaches their ordinary age and retires until December 31 does so with the 2026 rules.
How long does a reform take?
For Solsona, a reform that worsens conditions “should not lose sleep” for those who are going to retire in the coming months or years, since “it does not usually happen from one day to the next.” First, economic reports must be collected, a consultation period opened and negotiations are held with unions, employers and self-employed associations, and “this can last for months or even years.”
Afterwards, the text has to go through Congress (and the Senate if it is a law) and be published in the BOE. After the elections, the current Government is in office and the Government Law (can be consulted at this link) prevents it from presenting bills to Congress, although it can approve a decree-law if it proves that it is urgent. The new Cortes will meet for the first time on December 23, according to the convocation decree.
Major reforms, adds the lawyer, usually take effect from January 1 of the following year or even two years later, and are applied little by little. The ordinary age went from 65 to 67 years with small jumps between 2013 and 2027, and the years that count to calculate the pension rose from the last 15 to the last 25, one more each year until 2022 (eighth transitional provision).
The current extension, towards a period of 29 years from which the 24 worst months are discarded, is also gradual, but slower, and adds four months each year until 2037 (fortieth transitional provision).
The safeguard clauses
The last reason for peace of mind are the safeguard clauses, “transitional rules that maintain the previous retirement conditions for certain people who meet certain requirements.” Solsona gives the example of 2022, when the tightening of voluntary early retirement came into force and the previous rules were maintained for those who no longer had a contract before January 1 of that year. This exception, included in the thirty-fourth transitional provision, applies only to those who would have a pension higher than the maximum and requires not having been registered for more than 12 months since then.
In addition to the one cited by the lawyer, another clause of this type works today for those who retire between 2026 and 2040. Social Security also calculates the regulatory base with the formula of the last 25 years and applies the one that gives the most money (fourth transitional provision).
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Solsona asks for calm from those who retire in one, three or five years, because they will not be “seriously harmed” by a reform that is published in 2027 or 2028. “Those of us who can be harmed are those who retire in 2050, but hey, when that date arrives, we will see how we deal with it,” concludes Ignacio Solsona.