Social Security may deny a widow’s pension to spouses who lose their partner shortly after getting married. This is so since Social Security can allege that the minimum duration requirement of the link is not met, as established in article 219.2 General Social Security Law.
This explains that if the death results from a common illness that “did not occur” (that is, one that already existed before the marriage), it will be required that the union had been celebrated at least one year before the date of death.
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This is so, since with this rule, it is sought that there is fraud to collect the widow’s pension. Now, there are exceptions, that is, even if the illness was previous, the law protects the widower or widower if there are common children or who proves a period of previous cohabitation that, added to the time of marriage, exceeds two years.
What is a “common non-surgent illness”?
The key point of this standard is the concept of “unsurgent common illness.” Social Security uses this article to avoid what are known as “marriages of convenience”, that is, unions entered into with the sole intention of generating a widow’s pension when the seriousness of an ailment is already known.
Therefore, if the disease that caused death already existed before the wedding, the law activates that safeguard: requiring at least one year of marriage. If the illness appears or is diagnosed after the wedding (it is “survival”), this one-year requirement does not apply.
In the event that Social Security denies the pension, the citizen can appeal, but must prove that the illness predated the marriage. If the surviving spouse can prove that the diagnosis of the illness occurred after marriage, the illness is considered “survival” and the year-of-marriage requirement is not applicable, entitling him or her to the pension.
Real example of a widow’s pension denied for a three-month marriage
To understand it better, let’s see this real case collected by NewsWork in which a woman married her partner and three months later died from cancer. After the death, the woman requested a widow’s pension from Social Security, but it was denied.
The reason? Social Security alleged that the death was due to an “unsurgent common illness” (prior to the link) and, since they did not have common children nor had they been married for a year, they did not meet the requirements of article 219.2.
Now, the woman took the case to court and the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia ruled in favor. What was the key? The court confirmed that there was no documentary evidence that the illness was prior. The official medical diagnosis came after the wedding.
The ruling explained that “it cannot be affirmed due to lack of evidence to that effect that it was a non-supervening disease” and recalled that the unexpected nature or not of a disease “must be analyzed based on its diagnosis, not on hypotheses.” Thanks to this, the widow’s right to collect her pension was recognized.