Widows (and widowers) of common-law couples with children who were left without a widow’s pension because they were not registered in a registry two years before death have a period of 12 months to request it again from Social Security. If approved, it will have economic effects from the month following the request, so there will be no right to delays, and the deadline is valid for those who lost their partner before October 21, 2026.
This is reflected in the forty-eighth transitional provision that Royal Decree-Law 31/2026 (can be consulted in this BOE) adds to the General Law of Social Security, and which was approved by the last Council of Ministers, as reported by NoticiasTrabajo. The rule recognizes the pension when the deceased met the requirements of article 219 (having 500 days of contributions in the previous five years, except death due to an accident or occupational disease, 15 years if they were not registered, or being a retirement or permanent disability pensioner) and the couple meets the new requirements set out in article 221.
Thus, when having children, the registration and public document requirement disappears and “only the requirement of stable and notable cohabitation will be required for a period of at least two uninterrupted years, immediately upon the death of the deceased,” which is accredited with the registration certificate, while without children, five years of cohabitation and registration continue to be required.
When to request it and from when it is charged
The deadline is non-extendable and runs from October 21, 2026, the date of entry into force of the royal decree-law, so it ends in October 2027. The application is submitted to Social Security and is also valid for those who never requested it, since the rule does not require having requested it before.
The pension takes effect “from the first day of the month following the application.” That is, if it is requested in November it will take effect from December 1, while whoever waits until May 2027 will lose six months of pension that will not be recovered. If you already receive another contributory pension, the sum of the two cannot exceed the maximum limit for public pensions.
It must be taken into account that if the pension was previously denied and is now requested and approved, this unpaid period cannot be claimed, since, as the rule mentions, the economic effects count from the month following the request.
Although the rule is already in force, the Permanent Deputation of Congress still has to vote on it and validate it within 30 days following its promulgation (as stated in article 86 of the Constitution) and, if it does not validate it, it is repealed.
The Denied Cases That Now Fit
In February, the Supreme Court confirmed in ruling 136/2026 that common children were not exempt from registration, an exemption that does exist for unemployment benefits (article 275 of the same law) and the Minimum Living Income (Law 19/2021).
De facto couples with children in common will be able to collect the widow’s pension without being registered in a registry and those who were denied it will have one year to request a review.
The Government will expand widow’s pensions for common-law couples, improve aid for vulnerable families and benefits for temporary disability
Since the new provision does not exclude those who have already lost in court, it would fit a woman who was denied a pension by the Madrid justice system after almost 25 years of cohabitation and one child. Her partner died in 2020 in a work accident and the two were registered in the same home since 2001. Also Marisa, who was missing 11 months of formalization despite having a child and, as she explained, a municipal certificate of 32 years of cohabitation.