Workers who are forced to abandon their working life due to a permanent disability derived from a disease or accident may add the years of contribution to them until they reach their ordinary retirement age. This regulation included in the General Law of Social Security seeks that the amount of the pension not be reduced by an abrupt interruption of the professional career, due to this impossibility of working.
Social security does this so that the worker is not doubly harmed, for first because of the ailment that prevents him from continuing to work and, second, for a reduced pension as he could not have quoted the necessary years to reach 100% of his regulatory base (according to Law 27/2011 they are 36 years and six, but from 2027, he will be 37 years). Now, it must be said that it does not apply to all degrees of disability, but to those who entitle a life pension.
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First is the total permanent disability, which disables the worker for his usual profession, but allows him to devote himself to a different one. Then, the absolute permanent disability, which disables him for any profession or trade. And finally, the great disability, which is when the incapacitated worker needs the help of a third person for the most essential acts of life such as eating or dressing.
That is, the difference is in the scope of disqualification. This mechanism known as “fictional quotation years” is applied in these three cases to calculate the final percentage of the pension, but not in the partial disability, which is an amount to both elevation that is equivalent to 24 monthly payments of the worker’s regulatory base.
How exactly does this computation of years work?
In the case of accessing a permanent disability pension derived from a common disease, if sufficient years have been quoted to reach 100% of the pension, Social Security applies a benefit known as “quote by grace.” This is established in article 197 of the General Law of Social Security, which, by explaining the calculation of the regulatory base, indicates that the corresponding percentage will be applied to the result based on the years of contribution, “considering for this purpose as quoted the years that subtracts the interested party, on the date of the causative fact, to fulfill the ordinary retirement age in force at all times”.
In addition, the same article adds that, if with this sum of real and fictitious years the 15 years of contribution are not reached, the applicable percentage will be 50%. In other words, the law creates a hypothetical scenario in which the worker had continued to quote until his retirement age so that his pension is as complete as possible.
Moreover, if the pension even adding these quotes were inferior to the minimum pension, the complement to minimums may be requested so that this reach at least the minimum pension by law set every year.
A practical example of the sum of contributions
To really see how this concept works, we will expose it with a real example. A worker who is an administrative of 55 years and has quoted for 25 years, but suffers a disease that causes him a total permanent disability for his profession. His ordinary retirement age would be at age 67.
When requesting the pension, Social Security calculates that it lacks 12 years to reach 67. Thanks to the legal mechanism, at its 25 years of real contribution those 12 years “fictitious” are added, resulting in a total of 37 years for the purpose of calculating the percentage of the pension. With 37 years of contribution, you have the right to a percentage close to 100 % of its regulatory base. Without this benefit, with only 25 years quoted, its percentage would be significantly lower and, therefore, also its monthly pension.