The Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, in a ruling of February 18, 2026, annuls the requirements of the Royal Decree 402/2025 and eliminates the requirement of the NIF at the beginning of the procedure to recognize coefficients that reduce the retirement age of carriers. Thus, unions and employers no longer have to provide the tax identification of a group estimated at more than 300,000 to 400,000 freight drivers and travelers, active in the period 2018 to 2025. Social Security assumes the provision of data and considers the requirement issued on February 9 to be exceeded.
The annulled provision (which can be consulted in this BOE) allowed Social Security to require the promoters of the file to provide tax identification of the group under study. The Supreme Court considers it a disproportionate requirement due to its blocking effect. The sector had described it as an “administrative and bureaucratic ordeal” and as an obligation that was impossible to fulfill due to volume and limits on access to personal data.
The subsequent administrative notification summarizes the change with a literal phrase: “The requirement is considered fulfilled”, indicating that the NIF will be provided by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.
What changes in the procedure
Royal Decree 402/2025 regulates the way to advance the retirement age in activities declared exceptionally painful, dangerous, toxic or unhealthy when they demonstrate high rates of morbidity or mortality. The judicial change eliminates the filter that paralyzed files due to tax identification and focuses the process on the technical phase. Now, the file remains in the hands of the General Directorate of Social Security Regulation, no longer burdened with the applicants identifying person by person.
The sector defended that the data already exists in public registries linked to professional activity and contributions. A phrase repeated these days sums it up, “the Administration has those data”, in reference to Social Security for contributions and Transport and DGT for professional qualifications. The Supreme Court, in practice, aligns the procedure with that administrative reality.
Why it matters for carriers and drivers
The ruling does not by itself grant early retirement, but it prevents the file from being archived due to an unfeasible requirement. The core is now evidentiary. Social Security must build the technical support to decide whether to apply reducing coefficients to road transport. The next milestone is the morbidity and mortality report, with analysis of accidents and damage, disaggregated by age and gender, and with contrast of working conditions.
The standard also establishes a closing criterion that conditions the result. It is only appropriate to advance retirement if it is not possible to modify working conditions to reduce the risk. The Labor Inspection and the technical bodies must rule on this preventive feasibility before reaching a generalized age advance.
Deadlines and immediate scenario
The Royal Decree sets a maximum period of six months to resolve the procedure from the receipt of the application. The sector registered files in October, with differentiated requests for merchandise, travelers and other subgroups. The administrative decision, if favorable, is not executed with individual communications, it is articulated through approval by royal decree.
While the file progresses, CCOO and UGT maintain public pressure for processing and timing. An internal message conveyed by union officials maintains that “the work carried out has borne fruit,” but that the procedure remains open and conditional on technical reports.