Social Security will add up to 5 years of contributions to workers who had to interrupt their career to care for children, but the benefit is only for one of the parents

Social Security allows parents who interrupted their professional careers to care for children to add up to a maximum of 5 years to their working life, so that their retirement pension is not affected, even if they did not contribute during that time. This is possible thanks to the “fictitious quotes“, periods in which contributions were not made due to caring for children, but which Social Security also recognizes for the calculation of the pension.

This type of “fictitious contribution” is regulated in article 236 of the General Social Security Law (LGSS) and its main objective is that your pension is not penalized for having dedicated yourself to caring for your children. Thus, its objective is that by adding more time to your working life, the final amount of your pension is greater.

Now, we must take into account and be clear that fictitious contributions will not serve to meet the requirements of the retirement pension. That is to say, it will not serve to meet the minimum requirement of 15 years of contributions (waiting period) necessary to be able to access a contributory pension or to have two years within the last 15 years (specific waiting period).

Fictitious childcare contributions

If you have had to stop working to take care of your children or an adopted or fostered minor, Social Security allows you to add contribution periods even if you were not active. This benefit consists of adding up to 270 days of contributions for each child (which is approximately 9 months), provided that the work interruption has occurred in the period from nine months prior to birth (or three in the case of adoption) to six years after.

Now, we must know that this help can only be granted to one of the parents and, if both could request it, the law gives preference to the mother. The total time that can be added for this concept throughout one’s entire working life has a maximum limit of five years (1,825 days).

This measure is designed to improve the final amount of your retirement pension, but you must bear in mind that, as specified by law, these additional days do not serve to reach the minimum period of 15 years of contributions required to be entitled to a contributory pension. In addition, this aid is compatible with the 112 days of contributions that are recognized for each birth.

What about part-time working women?

Workers who have worked part-time will contribute, for the purposes of fictitious childcare contributions, as if they had worked full-time. That is, no reduction can be applied to those recognized days. This is established by the doctrine of the Constitutional Court (STC 91/2019 and STC 155/2021) and the Supreme Court (STS 689/2024, among others), which indicate that these are fully valid and computable days, but they do not count towards reaching the minimum period of 15 years (gain period) required to be able to retire.

A practical example

To understand how this help works, let’s look at two different cases. In the first situation we have Laura, who has contributed 30 years throughout her life. She had two children and, after the birth of her second, she interrupted her career for 24 months to care for them. Now, when calculating your pension, those 24 months without working would appear as “gaps” or periods without contributions, which would lower the average of your contributions and, therefore, the amount of your pension.

In this way, Laura will be able to request that 270 days be recognized for each child, adding a total of 540 days of fictitious contributions (about 18 months). In this way, Social Security will “fill in” 18 of those 24 months as if you had been contributing. This makes your regulatory base (the average of your contributions) higher and, consequently, your retirement pension will be higher.

Another example that we can give is that of Sofía. He is 67 years old and has only been contributing for 14 years. He also had a child and interrupted his career, so he could request 270 days of fictitious contributions to try to reach the minimum 15 years required by law. Now, in this case, although Social Security recognizes the right to those 270 days, the law is very clear and this benefit does not serve to add the year that is missing to meet the minimum requirement of 15 years of contributions (the generic grace period). Therefore, Sofía will not be able to access the contributory retirement pension.