There are women who reach 65 years of age without knowing if they will have the right to receive a retirement pension. They have worked inside and outside the home, they have supported their families and, however, when they request a report on their working life, they discover that they are not old enough for Social Security to recognize their own benefit. The requirement of 15 years of contributions established by the General Social Security Law seems affordable, but for a good part of the workers who were born in the 1950s and 1930s it has become a difficult barrier to overcome.
Alfonso Muñoz Cuenca, a Social Security official specialized in pensions and benefits, explains what the two requirements are to collect the contributory retirement pension and raises a criticism of how the public system is constructed. “You do not have the right to a retirement pension. Like this, without nuances. Either you reach the age of 15 or you do not receive anything. It is an all or nothing system,” says the official when explaining what happens when that minimum threshold is not reached.
The two requirements of article 205 of the LGSS
Article 205 of the General Social Security Law requires two conditions to access the contributory pension, these being to prove at least 15 years of contributions throughout one’s working life and that at least 2 of those years are included within the 15 years immediately prior to the causative event, that is, at the time in which the worker requests retirement. This is known as generic and specific deficiency.
Muñoz acknowledges that the system has incorporated mechanisms to soften that threshold. For years, part-time work has been counted equally with full-time work for grace purposes, and women are recognized with a fictitious contribution of 112 days for each birth of a single child (plus 14 additional days for each child in multiple births), regulated in article 235 of the LGSS. “Even so, in many cases it is not enough,” warns the official.
What happens if 15 years of contributions are not reached?
The practical consequence is the one that most disconcerts citizens who go to the offices of the National Social Security Institute. There is no reduced proportional pension for those who have contributed for 12 or 13 years. Social Security does not recognize anything. “Either you reach the age of 15 or you don’t earn anything,” insists Muñoz.
The official recalls that, above that threshold, the resulting pension can be low but never symbolic. With the minimum of 15 years of contributions, the regulatory base is multiplied by 50% and, if the final amount does not reach the minimums set by the Government each year, the pensioner can request the minimum supplement, as long as it does not exceed the income and assets limits set by the regulations. Muñoz points out that the minimum amounts are between 1,256 euros per month with a dependent spouse, 936 euros without a dependent spouse, and 888 euros with a non-dependent spouse.
The non-contributory pension and its fine print
Now, the public pension system is dynamic and flexible and offers a way out for those who do not meet the requirements, being the non-contributory retirement pension. But since it is a welfare aid, it is necessary to meet other types of conditions. You must have turned 65, have legally resided in Spain for at least 10 years between 16 and the accrual age, of which 2 must be consecutive and immediately prior to the application, and, above all, lack sufficient income. Muñoz places the individual threshold for 2026 at around 8,800 euros per year.
The problem appears when the applicant lives with another person. The official files a frequent case at the Social Security offices. A woman does not reach 15 years of contributions and her husband receives a contributory pension of 1,100 euros per month. The cohabitation unit of two people, with that single income, exceeds the limit set by the regulations to access the non-contributory pension, which Muñoz calculates at around 14,900 euros per year between them. Result: she has no right to her own pension.
The only alternative left to the couple is to request the minimum supplement on the husband’s pension, which thus increases the guaranteed amount for retirees with a dependent spouse. “The husband is the one who collects the supplement in his pension; she still does not have her own income, without having economic independence, depending financially on her partner,” describes Muñoz.
A proportional pension for interrupted careers
The official does not stop at the description of the model and poses an open question to the legislator. “Wouldn’t it really be fairer to allow those who do not reach 15 years of contributions to collect a proportional pension, even if it is smaller, even if it is symbolic, but it would be their own?” he reflects.
Muñoz recalls that the debate on the rigidity of the 15-year threshold is not new, but it is urgent for a very specific generation: women born in the 50s and 60s who interrupted their working lives to care for children or dependent relatives in a job market that did not make it easy for them to return. “In the end we are not just talking about numbers. We are talking about dignity, we are talking about economic independence, about how we treat those who have supported a large part of this society without being able to contribute,” concludes the official.