When calculating the amount of the retirement pension, the years of contributions are important, since these not only serve to calculate the regulatory base, but are also used to calculate what percentage of the regulatory base is entitled to. In this sense, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrationsled by Elma Saiz, has a new special agreement that offers certain workers the possibility of add up to five additional years of contributions to their working life, provided they had completed internships or worked as interns before 2011. This agreement aims to improve the retirement of those workers who during their training years were not able to contribute to Social Security.
As explained on their website, all working people who have carried out unpaid internships or participated in research programsboth inside and outside Spain, provided that said activities have been completed before November 1, 2011. Likewise, those who have completed doctoral programs before February 4, 2006, as well as students of teaching, may benefit from this benefit. higher artistic, vocational training and sports education.
And why until 2011? Because since November 1, 2011, the regulations established the obligation to contribute for paid internships, which leaves out those who began their scholarship after that date. On the other hand, the agreement determines that unpaid internships may only be counted until January 1, 2024, allowing a maximum of five years of contributions to be recovered.
Requirements to access this special agreement
To obtain the five years of contributions of this extraordinary agreement, it is necessary to comply with the conditions set out in the General Social Security Law (regulated in Royal Legislative Decree 8/2015). Published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), being the following:
- The worker must have participated in practices or research programs that have not been paid. University graduates who completed doctoral programs before February 4, 2006, as well as those who completed higher artistic, sports or vocational training, can also benefit.
- Practices must have been completed before November 2011date on which the regulations that introduced the obligation to contribute for paid internships came into force.
- It is possible add a maximum of five years of contributionsprovided that these practices have not previously generated any quote.
How these five extra years contribute to retirement
The special agreement allows, on a voluntary basis, to recover the necessary years of contributions. According to Borja Suárez, Secretary of State for Pensions, The worker must assume the payment of the corresponding contributions, calculated based on group 7 of the General Social Security Regime. These quotes are will apply a reducing coefficient of 0.77 percentbased on the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) in force at the time the internship was carried out. For example, if the current SMI is considered, it will be quoted for a base of 1,323 euros.
Payment of Social Security contributions may be made in a single disbursement or divided into as many monthly payments as the number of contribution periods desired to be computed, according to the worker’s preferences.
Those who wish to benefit from this special agreement will have a period of two years to formalize the processcounted from the entry into force of the agreement in April 2024. Interested parties must submit the application to Social Security and choose the payment method that best suits their economic situation.