Pensioners with total permanent disability can receive the subsidy for those over 52 years of age, but not in all cases. The key is to differentiate which requirement can be met with contributions prior to recognition of the disability and which requires having returned to work afterwards in a job compatible with the pension. This is explained by lawyer Miriam Ruiz Acosta, from Compromiso Legal, where she advises that “if you are a permanent disability pensioner, you must have worked at least 90 days after the recognition of that disability” to be able to access the subsidy when that is the access route.
This comes as a result of the Supreme Court ruling where he confirms that the quotes count, but they do not add up to the same. That is, on the one hand, it does allow contributions to be computed prior to the incapacity to prove the 15 years required for the retirement pension (what is known as a generic grace period). On the other hand, it maintains that the requirements related to unemployment must be met with contributions after the recognition of disability.
In her explanation, Miriam Ruiz summarizes three essential requirements to access the subsidy for those over 52 years of age. The first is to have the minimum contribution to access a future contributory retirement, that is, at least 15 years. The second is to have exhausted a contributory unemployment benefit. The third, in certain cases, having contributed at least 90 days for unemployment.
The difference is in how each of them is credited. The Supreme Court has corrected the criteria that the SEPE had been applying with respect to the first. That is, it cannot be required that the 15 years of contributions have been generated only after the recognition of the permanent disability. For this requirement, previous and subsequent contributions do count, since what is checked is whether the person will be able to access a retirement pension in the future.
However, that doctrine does not apply to requirements linked to unemployment. The lawyer herself recalls that “the contributions that were used for permanent disability cannot also be used for unemployment benefits.” Therefore, if a person wants to access the subsidy for having exhausted unemployment before, they will have to have generated that right with new contributions after becoming disabled.
The 90-day requirement requires post-disability work
Miriam Ruiz explains that if the person wants to access the subsidy for those over 52 years of age by having contributed at least 90 days, these contributions cannot be prior to the permanent disability.
The lawyer insists that “the contributions that help you access a permanent disability cannot be used again to access unemployment benefits or a subsidy.” For this reason, the criterion of the Supreme Court is to demand new contributions to the system after the recognition of the disability and, furthermore, in a job that has been compatible with the pension.
The objective, as stated in the ruling, is to prevent the same contributions from being used twice to obtain different benefits. And that is the idea that Miriam Ruiz explains where she says that “it is necessary to have contributed at least 90 days after the recognition of this disability and also in a job that has been compatible with the pension.”