To collect a retirement tax pension in Spain, a minimum price must be fulfilled, both throughout working life and in the last years prior to retirement. Not complying with these can lead to Social Security to denies it, even if we have more than 20 years quoted. This is what happened to a worker, Elisenda, who after having contributed more than 20 years to Social Security has seen how social security denied the pension, since he did not comply with the specific lack, that is, not to quote two years in the last 15 years prior to the application.
In October 2022, Elisenda requested the retirement pension from the National Social Security Institute (INSS), but this was denied, since according to the letter of resolution he did not comply with the period of specific lack required. That is, despite having been quoting for more than 20 years, this worker had not completed the two years of contribution (730 days) necessary within the last 15 years before his application, having only 651 days.
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According to her working life, this worker had a total of 7,957 days quoted to Social Security, of which 540 days were for the care of minors, which is known as fictitious contributions or contribution assimilated by children’s care. For each child, 270 days are applied, and as this worker had two, because it was 540 days.
The reason for this denial is that, although Elisenda had quoted a total of 7,417 days, in the final stretch of his working life, from May 30, 1994 until September 11, 2001, he was not registered as a job seeker or made contributions to the system. In addition, current legislation requires that, in the 15 years prior to the pension request, at least two years have been quoted, which was not the case of Elisenda.
Not in accordance with this Social Security decision, it decided to go to court. Thus, in the first instance, the Social Court no. 8 of Zaragoza failed against him and subsequently, he filed an appeal for the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon, which also dismissed his appeal. Despite this, in a last attempt, he decided to take the case to the Supreme Court.
Parenthesis doctrine
In the Supreme Court, this worker explained that he had quoted more than 20 years and that due to the lack of quotes in recent years, I request that he will apply the known as “Doctrine of the parenthesis”, a legal principle that allows, so to speak, not take into account those sections in which it could not be quoted for reasons outside the worker’s will.
In other words, that the “parenthesis doctrine” is designed to protect workers who, due to circumstances outside their control, could not quote during certain periods. In spite of this, the Supreme Court explained that Elisenda’s situation is not part of the exception to apply the standard, since for more than seven years it was not registered as a employment applicant or made quotes, and there were no indications that its labor cessation had been involuntary. Therefore, the high court considered that this doctrine could not be applied due to the prolonged inactivity and the lack of evidence that justified an involuntary interruption in their working life.
For its ruling, the Supreme Court was based on article 205.1.b) of Royal Legislative Decree 8/2015, of the General Social Security Law. This article is clear and explains that, of the minimum quoted 15 years, at least two must have been within the last 15 years prior to the pension request. In the case of Elisenda, this requirement was not met, which led to the denial of its retirement pension. This does not mean that you are no longer entitled, but must meet the necessary requirements to be able to be entitled to the retirement pension.