For access retirement pension contributory, Social Security requires that you have a minimum of 15 years of contributions (generic deficiency) and that of these, at least two are within the last 15 years (specific deficiency). But they are not the only ones; It is also necessary to be up to date with the fees if you were self-employed. Failure to comply with this can lead to Social Security denying the pension, even if we have more than 40 years of contributions. This is what has happened to Indalecio, a 76-year-old worker, he has been left without his retirement pension despite having more than 45 years of Social Security contributions due to having a debt of 26,474.50 euros from his time as a self-employed person.
As the ruling of the Judiciary explains, this man requested a retirement pension in February 2020, which was denied. The reason is that, despite adding 16,542 days of contributions, he had a debt of unpaid contributions when he was under the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA). In fact, Social Security had already denied him the pension in 2013 and 2018, warning him to pay off the debt, a request that he never attended to and even though they invited him to make a voluntary payment.
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Seeing that he could not access the retirement, he decided to take the case to court demanding that the benefit be recognized at least by the General Regime, where he accumulated 11,207 days of contributions (just over 30 years), but the Social Court number 2 of Córdoba did not agree with him, dismissing his claim.
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He appealed, but even so, the Superior Court of Justice explained that the history of days contributed was not enough. The problem is that the years went by and since I don’t work, that delay meant that at the time of the last request I didn’t meet the specific requirement. That is, having a minimum of two years (730 days) within the 15 years immediately prior to retirement.
In fact, the sentence details that he only had 160 days and that, adding that he was not up to date with the payment of Social Security contributions, it is understood that he did not meet the requirements.
Indalecio tried to explain that the Supreme Court’s own jurisprudence sometimes allows the General Regime pension to be collected even if there are debts owed by the self-employed, but the TSJ clarifies that this is true, but only when the worker meets all the requirements on that side and does not need to resort to the self-employed contributions.
The ruling ends by explaining that “this doctrine does not affect the case in any way, taking into account that the requirements demanded in the general regime do not meet.” By crediting just 160 days of contributions in the final stretch of his working life, the Superior Court confirms that he did not comply with the basic rules and ratifies the loss of the pension.
However, if we look at what the General Social Security Law says, we must know that, if you have a debt, you must pay it off and, if you do not do so, the INSS itself will not invite you to pay it voluntarily. Failure to do so will lead to denial and may cause, as in this case, that extending it will later mean not complying with the specific deficiency.