A retiree must return 17,143.29 euros to Mutua Asepeyo after collecting the retirement pension together with the temporary disability benefit, something incompatible according to the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid. The reason is that the man did not inform the mutual insurance company that he had become retired, so he continued to receive sick leave while he was already receiving a pension of 2,739.86 euros per month.
According to the ruling STSJ M 1136/2026 (can be consulted in the Portal of the Judicial Power), this man began a leave of absence on March 22, 2022 and, after exhausting the 365 days of temporary disability due to a common illness, Social Security extended the situation to the maximum, which is 545 days, with direct payment by Asepeyo. The worker requested this direct payment on May 17, 2023. At the same time, he announced that on June 30, 2023, he would become retired. The event causing the retirement was June 30, 2023 and the economic effects began on July 1. The problem is that he never notified the mutual company of that change, so he was charging for both sites and hence, they claimed such an amount of money from him as it was an improper charge.
Not being satisfied with the claim, they went to court and the Social Court No. 21 of Madrid agreed, although partially, that is, it recognized the worker’s right to collect the IT between June 17 and 30, 2023, the days before the retirement became effective. But he confirmed that the 17,143.29 euros received had been charged improperly. The worker appealed to the TSJ of Madrid, which confirmed the sentence in its entirety.
Retirement pension and temporary disability benefit are incompatible with each other
The key to this ruling is that temporary disability and retirement are incompatible benefits, that is, they cannot be collected at the same time. Once the worker became retired, any amount he continued to receive for IT was improper and had to be repaid.
The worker explained that the improper payment was not attributable to him but to the mutual insurance company, which continued to pay the benefit without verifying it, but the TSJ rejected that argument. The court explains that the worker “continued to receive the IT benefit without informing the Mutual Fund that he received the retirement benefit,” and that for this reason the managing entity has full power to review its own resolution. Article 146.2.a) of the Law Regulating Social Jurisdiction allows managing entities to rectify their actions when the undue payment results from omissions or inaccuracies in the beneficiary’s declarations. Thus, he must return the extra money collected.