Social Security allows workers who have had to stop working to care for their children or family members to add years of contributions so that their retirement pension is not affected. In this way, the General Social Security Law will add up to a maximum of 3 years for each child and 1 year for each family member. This is possible, thanks to what is known as contribution periods assimilated to registration due to leave, which recognizes as contributions those periods of work inactivity derived from caring for minor children or dependent relatives.
This benefit is regulated in article 237 of the General Social Security Law (LGSS), which can be consulted in this Official State Gazette and they serve to meet the requirements to access the contributory retirement pension. That is, comply with what is known as the generic deficiency (a minimum of 15 years of contributions) and the specific one (2 years of contributions within the last 15 years).
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It is also useful to avoid delays in the ordinary retirement age (remembering that there are currently two retirement ages in Spain, according to the years of contributions, as regulated by Law 27/2011).
In this way, since the contribution assimilated to registration due to leave is a situation (so to speak) beyond the will of the worker, Social Security protects the worker so that their benefits are not harmed.
How does the contribution for child or family care leave work?
This Social Security mechanism works in such a way that it considers those years of leave as if the worker had continued to be registered and contributing. It is a “fictitious” or “effective” contribution that is added to your working life. In this sense, article 237 distinguishes two types:
- For childcare: A period of up to three years is computed as an effective contribution for each dependent child or minor (whether due to birth, adoption, custody or foster care).
- For caring for family members: The first three years of the leave period are counted as effective contributions to care for a family member (up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity) who, for reasons of age, accident, illness or disability, cannot take care of themselves and does not carry out a paid activity.
On the other hand, in addition to the fictitious contribution for this leave, those who interrupt their working life can benefit from other mechanisms such as special agreements to continue contributing (that is, paying contributions so that their pension is not affected) or the supplement to reduce the gender gap, in case their professional career is reduced due to childcare.
An example to understand it
Let’s imagine the case of a worker who, in 2026, has been contributing for 22 years. That same year, his mother suffers a serious illness and is recognized as a dependent, so this worker requests a family care leave to care for her. He spends two full years dedicated to this task, without working or contributing, and returns to his job in 2028.
When this worker goes to request his retirement pension in the future, Social Security will not only take into account the 22 years he had contributed before taking leave and those he contributed after his reinstatement. Thanks to the provisions of article 237 of the General Social Security Law, those two years (from 2026 to 2028) in which he was taking care of his mother will be considered the “effective contribution period.”
Therefore, in 2028 your working life will add up to 24 years of contributions, which will count both to meet the requirements for access to the pension and to calculate the amount that corresponds to you.
Contributions count as a full day
These contribution periods will be counted as if they were full-time, that is, they cannot be combined as part-time, even if the leave was requested from a part-time contract. In other words, Social Security will not apply any reduction to that period; It will always count as a full year of contributions, not as a partial year.
This has been confirmed in both the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court with jurisprudence (STC 91/2019, STC 155/2021, STS 689/2024) that protect this right. Judicial doctrine explains that these periods of contributions for care are computed in their entirety, without any type of reducing or minor coefficient being applied due to partiality.