The Superior Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha has forced Social Security to raise to absolute level the permanent disability of a management secretary who already had a total permanent disability recognized and who requested a review of her degree after the condition known as “failed back” syndrome worsened and a new psychological disorder appeared. The court establishes that, due to the ailments, they prevent him from retaining “sufficient work capacity to carry out any professional activity”, for which he will receive a lifetime pension for permanent absolute disability equivalent to 100% of a regulatory base of 1,147.04 euros per month.
The ruling details that the worker’s profession was a secretary and that she already had a recognized total permanent disability for her usual job (the degree that gives 55% of the regulatory base) due to chronic low back pain with two surgical interventions on the L4-L5 and L5-S1 vertebrae and the subsequent failed back syndrome. His health condition worsened and review of the degree of permanent disability He requested that the absolute degree be recognized (the degree that gives 100%), and this was denied.
It’s official: the Supreme Court confirms that the subsidy for those over 52 years of age and the total permanent disability pension can be collected with the same contributions
The Supreme Court confirms that the pension for permanent disability has economic effects from the date on which the ruling accredits the disabling limitations
Faced with this refusal, he went to court where both the Social Court of Guadalajara and later the Superior Court of Justice agreed with him.
Incapacity for any profession
Social Security claimed that the limitations were not “so serious” as to nullify all work capacity, but the Court rejects this. He explains that the woman had a medical condition with herniated discs, failed back syndrome, to which must be added an adjustment disorder with dysthymia (depressed mood).
Furthermore, the court points out that the worker’s limitations affect the three basic postures (ambulation, standing and sitting) and also compromise the capacity for attention and continuity and tolerance for dealing with the public.
With this situation, women cannot practice any profession “with a minimum of continuity, dignity, security and effectiveness”, the realistic standard that jurisprudence requires to consider a job viable. For the court, this impossibility fits into the definition of absolute permanent disability, which is regulated in article 194.5 of the General Social Security Law.
The sentence is based on the article 200 of the General Law of Social Securitywhich allows benefits to be reviewed due to aggravation or improvement of the disabling condition. The court recalls that to modify the grade, two conditions must be met: that there are new accredited functional limitations and that they are of sufficient magnitude to justify the change. In this case, both are met, especially due to the incorporation of the psychological component to the previous lumbar deterioration.