Justice has recognized a 55-year-old gardener with a total permanent disability pension after Social Security denied it up to three times. The National Social Security Institute (INSS) claimed that his illness was not serious enough, but the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country has ruled that his mental health prevents him from working in his usual profession, especially if he uses dangerous machinery.
As the ruling explains, this gardener named Bernardino already had a recognized disability of 38% and due to his condition he decided to apply for a permanent disability pension in March 2023 due to a personality disorder that he had been experiencing for years. But, after being assessed by the Assessment and Disability Team (EVI), it decided to deny the request, considering that the pathologies he suffered did not reach “a sufficient degree of decrease in his work capacity” to constitute a benefit.
Not only once, but up to three times, he was denied disability and for this reason, and after several complaints, he decided to go to court. According to the ruling, the medical history showed a “torpid evolution with a tendency toward clinical worsening in all areas,” including two serious suicide attempts that required, in the last case, hospital admission.
Despite this background, Social Security insisted in the appeal that the plaintiff had already had other files previously denied by the same gardening profession. Even so, justice has been clear in pointing out that the worsening of his current mental state cannot be ignored.
Incompatibility with the operation of machinery
The court ruled to grant him disability due to the danger that the job of a gardener entails for a person with this clinical condition. The ruling explains that the actor’s usual tasks include the use of specific machinery such as mowers and cutters, tools that require absolute control of the worker’s capabilities.
In this sense, the magistrates explain that the psychological pathology and its associated symptoms “are incompatible with the performance of the gardening profession, which in any case requires significant doses of concentration to handle the machinery necessary for its performance.” Furthermore, the court recalls that the development of any work activity cannot involve an “increase in physical risk, either to oneself or to others”, something that in this case could not be guaranteed due to the plaintiff’s anxiety crises and dissociative responses.
For all reasons, the court rejects the Social Security appeal and agrees with Bernardino, recognizing that he receives a pension calculated on a regulatory basis of 897.77 euros per month. If you are 55 years old and have difficulties finding employment, the amount of your benefit will be increased by an additional 20%, as established by law for these cases of qualified total disability.