Involuntary early retirement allows workers to retire up to four years before their ordinary legal retirement age. Thus, in order to retire at age 61, it is necessary for the worker to have the necessary contributions to retire at age 65. Failure to comply with this requirement means that Social Security will deny retirement at age 61, even if all the requirements are met. In 2026, this ordinary age is reserved for workers with 38 years and 3 months of contributions or more, according to the seventh transitional provision of the General Social Security Law.
Article 207 of the General Social Security Law establishes that, to access involuntary early retirement, it is necessary to have a minimum of 33 years of contributions. Meeting this requirement gives access to retirement for reasons beyond the worker’s control, but we must bear in mind that our pension system has two retirement ages depending on the years of contributions.
Those with more than 38 years and three months of contributions can retire at age 65 and, in the case of not reaching said minimum age, the ordinary age was set at 66 years and 10 months, but taking into account that in 2027 it will change again.
The law says that the worker must “have reached an age that is four years younger, at most, than the age that is applicable in each case.” Hence, the prior Social Security examination is not limited to the minimum contribution of article 207, but also to the ordinary age that corresponds to the worker. For this reason, early retirement at age 61 may be denied, since it is necessary to have the minimum contributions that guarantee retirement at age 65.
Furthermore, the same article establishes that the worker must be registered as a job seeker for at least 6 months immediately prior to the application and have been terminated for any of the causes established by law, including collective dismissal, objective dismissal, judicial resolution in competition, death or retirement of the individual employer or force majeure.
On the other hand, keep in mind that this modality entails cuts in the amount of the pension which can reach up to 30%. This percentage will vary depending on the years contributed and the months advanced.
Example
A dismissed worker at the age of 61, registered as a job seeker for 6 months and with 33 years of contributions, meets a relevant part of the requirements of article 207. However, if he or she does not meet sufficient contributions so that his or her ordinary retirement age is 65 years, Social Security may deny this modality, because his or her ordinary age will become 66 years and 10 months.
On the other hand, if that same worker accredits the contribution period required to place his or her ordinary retirement at 65 years, he or she will be able to anticipate retirement by up to 4 years and retire at the age of 61. Therefore, the key is not only to reach the minimum 33 years of age of article 207, but to reach the contribution that allows activating the lowest ordinary age.