When a worker is recognized as having Total Permanent Disability for his or her usual profession, the question arises about what happens to the contributory unemployment benefit (what we know as unemployment benefits) that he or she had accumulated. Although the system allows this pension to be combined with a new job compatible with its limitations, when it comes to collecting unemployment, Social Security and the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) apply a strict rule on which contributions are valid to collect both aid at the same time.
The General Social Security Law establishes that the total permanent disability pension is incompatible with the unemployment previously generated in the profession that caused the disability. In this way, these contributions will not be taken into account and the “accumulated unemployment” in the old job will be extinguished when accepting the pension. It is not the only rule that regulates it, since article 16.4 of Royal Decree 625/1985 as well as the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, which establishes the “double value of contributions”, that is, that the same contributions cannot generate two simultaneous economic benefits.
The reason for this limitation is that both benefits (the pension and that old unemployment) come from the same situation and the same contributions. The system understands that these contributions have already been used to calculate and grant the disability pension, so they cannot be used at the same time to collect unemployment.
The new unemployment generated is compatible
Despite this initial loss, the law recognizes that under the degree of total permanent disability the person can return to work in a profession that is compatible with their limitations. This means that as you work you will begin to generate new quotes.
Thus, if in the future this new employment relationship ends, the worker will have the right to request unemployment generated exclusively by this new job (as long as he/she complies with all the requirements requested by the SEPE). In this way, you will be able to collect both the Total Disability pension (which is usually 55% of your regulatory base) and the new unemployment benefit.
To give an example, let’s imagine a construction worker who has accumulated 2 years of unemployment and suffers a serious injury for which he is granted Total Permanent Disability. When you start collecting the lifetime pension, those 2 years of accumulated unemployment become incompatible and are lost, since they come from the same situation that caused the disability.
Well, if this same worker subsequently finds a job as an administrator (fully compatible with his injury) and contributes for a sufficient time before being fired, he will have generated a new right to unemployment. Upon request, the SEPE will grant you the unemployment benefit corresponding to your administrative stage, which you will be able to receive while continuing to receive your monthly disability pension.
The initial right of option
Finally, it must be explained that when a person is recognized as permanently disabled and, at that exact moment, still has contributory benefits to collect, Social Security will send them a notification so that they can exercise their “right to payment option“.
That is, Social Security allows the worker to choose between finishing collecting the unemployment benefit that he had accumulated until it was exhausted, or giving it up and going on to directly collect the permanent disability benefit. Once you opt for the disability pension, the previous unemployment cannot be carried out simultaneously.