The shadow quotes They allow projecting the years that a worker would have contributed if he had continued to be active from the date of the causal event (the termination or the application) until what would be his ordinary retirement age. Now, many are confused and think that these can be used to increase the pension or add years of contributions, which is not the case. In this sense. Lawyer Ignacio Solsona, a specialist in retirement pensions, explains it and says that this “operates only for the purposes of retirement age.”
He article 210.2 of the General Social Security Law allows you to add up to two years in a voluntary early retirement, four in an involuntary one and three in partial retirement. The entire time from the date on which the worker wants to retire until his or her ordinary retirement age is considered to have been contributed. And this fictitious projection is what allows, for example, someone with 36 and a half years of contributions to access voluntary early retirement at 63, despite not yet reaching the 38 and a half years required by the regulations as of 2027.
Solsona illustrates this with a specific case. “A person who requests early retirement at the age of 63, if they have 36 and a half years of contributions and also add 2 years of shadow contributions, does comply with those 38 and a half years of contributions,” he explains. The calculation adds up. What doesn’t add up is what comes next.
The percentage stays where it was
Here appears the first limit, the most expensive. Shadow pricing does not add years to reach 100% of the regulatory base. This limit is reserved for those who can prove 36 and a half years of actual contributions in 2025, a figure that will rise to 37 years in 2027. A worker who requests the early contribution with 34 years of contributions will remain at 94.3% of their regulatory base, and the reducing coefficients for anticipating retirement will later be applied to that already reduced amount.
This is noted in the pension payroll. The lawyer gives an example for a regulatory base of 2,000 euros. “For a regulatory base of 2,000 euros, if you are entitled to 100%, the penalty is applied to that amount, let’s say you anticipate 4 years. The penalty would be 30% and the result of the pension would be 1,400 euros,” he details. The same worker, who is only 34 and a half years old, starts at 95% (1,900 euros) and after the 30% penalty he is left with a final pension of 1,330 euros. That’s 70 euros less every month, for life. And the shadow listing does not rescue them.
It is not useful to reach the minimum of 33 or 35 years
The second limit is even more incisive. If a worker does not reach the minimum years required to even access the advance modality, the shadow contribution does not open the door. There are 33 years of contributions for the involuntary early retirement and 35 for the volunteer. Below that barrier there is no early retirement “neither at 63, nor at 65, nor at any age,” Solsona insists.
The lawyer remembers that other figures do count towards reaching that threshold. He conscription adds up to one year. Women who had children outside of a contribution period can add 112 days per childbirth. Shadow listing no. “It does not serve to achieve those minimum requirements,” he says.
Nor does it lower the reducing coefficients
The third limit has a direct impact on the penalty that will drag on the pension forever. The table of reduction coefficients applied by Social Security is organized into four sections according to the years of contributions, and the higher the section, the smaller the cut. A voluntary advance payment 24 months in advance bears a penalty of 21% if you have less than 38 and a half years of contributions, and it drops to 19% if you exceed that threshold.
The problem is that the two years of shadow contributions do not push the worker towards the next section. A retiree who is 36 and a half real years old and two other “fictitious” ones is still in the column of less than 38 and a half years for penalty purposes. That 21% does not move to 19%. The loss, again, for life.
The same scheme applies to partial retirement
The fourth scenario affects the Partial retirement reformed in April 2025which allows the working day to be reduced and part of the pension to be collected until the ordinary age. The rule allows you to request it three years before the ordinary retirement. And the shadow price also operates here, with the same nuance.
A worker who wants to benefit from the partial benefit at the age of 62 but only has 35 and a half years of contributions can do so because the three years remaining until the age of 65 are counted as contribution time for age purposes. Nothing else. “For these purposes, the shadow contribution is also applied in the same way that I have explained for early retirements,” the lawyer clarifies.
To understand it clearly and concisely, Solsona summarizes that “shadow contributions exist, it is a right contemplated in the General Social Security Law that allows years of contributions to be added to one’s working life, but only for the purposes of early retirement age or partial retirement age. It will not improve the percentage, it will not improve the applicable penalty and it will not allow access to early retirement or partial retirement if the required minimum contribution period is not reached.”