When a company executes an employment regulation file (ERE) and among those affected there are workers over 55 years of age, the law requires it to sign a special agreement with Social Security to maintain contributions until these workers reach 61 or 63 years of age. The agreement is paid by the company while it is in force. The problem comes later, when that obligation is extinguished and many workers decide to continue paying it out of their own pocket, convinced that without it their retirement pension will be harmed.
This is how Miriam Ruiz Acosta, a lawyer specialized in labor and Social Security law, explains it. Legal Commitment. “Many people decide to continue with the special agreement and pay for it out of their own pocket because they think that if it is taken away, this will harm their future retirement pension. But what in many cases they do not know is that this is not the case and that they are probably wasting money,” he says.
The lawyer bases this statement on the retirement studies she carries out in her office. And what he finds is almost always the same, where those affected by ERE who have come to his consultation “in almost 100% of the cases have always been contributing for maximum bases.” For this profile, maintaining or not maintaining the special agreement produces the same final result in the pension. The amount will be identical whether they maintain it or not.
“They would be spending between 300 and 1,200 euros every month”
The reason is that those who have contributed for years at the maximum contribution bases have already generated a regulatory base that cannot be improved with additional months at the same level. The pension calculation system reaches a ceiling that the special agreement does not move.
The cost of that error, in money, is estimated by the lawyer herself. “Basically, these people would be spending between 300 and 1,200 euros every month if they maintain this special agreement because in the end the amount of the retirement pension will be the same,” he explains.
What Ruiz Acosta highlights with special emphasis is that the organization does not inform the affected workers of this. Social Security manages the collection of the agreement contributions, but does not carry out the individual analysis that would allow the worker to know if this expense has any real effect on their future pension. The initiative to verify it falls on the interested party himself.
For those who are in that situation, have received an ERE, are paying the special agreement or are considering doing so, the lawyer recommends carrying out a retirement study before committing that money month to month.