Permanent disability is a pension that social security offers workers that due to a disease or an accident, whether labor or not, they are reduced or canceled their ability to work. Being a contributory pension, many people have the belief that it is necessary to have a minimum of 15 years to access the pension, but nothing is further from reality.
In this sense, the labor lawyer Víctor Arpa, of Arpa Abogados, explained, clearly and easily, that to access the permanent disability, the contribution requirements vary depending on the age and the origin of the ailment. “You knew that you do not need to have quoted 15 years to be able to request a permanent disability. Many people confuse it with retirement, but it is not the same,” the lawyer begins.
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How many quoted years are really needed
As Arpa recalls, the minimum contribution period depends on both the age of the applicant and the cause of disability.
- If the disability derives from an work accident or a professional illness, no minimum contribution time is required.
- If the disability is a consequence of a common disease, the law does impose specific requirements:
- Children under 31: they must have quoted the third part of the time elapsed from 16 years to the date the disability occurs.
- Over 31 years: they are asked to have quoted a quarter of the time elapsed from the age of 20 until the time of the causative event, with a minimum of 5 years. In addition, at least a fifth of that period must be within the last 10 years prior to the application.
To understand it better, the lawyer exposes the following example: “If you are 40 years old, since you were 20 years old, the fourth part is 5 years. Therefore, with 5 years quoted the requirement would already be met. Of course, at least one of those years must be within the last decade.”
Confuse retirement with permanent disability
The confusion arises because to collect the contributory retirement pension, a minimum of 15 years quoted is required, which is known as the generic lack. In spite of this, and as Arpa explains, permanent disability has different rules: “The key idea is that it is not necessary to have 15 years quoted to access this pension.”
The reason is quite simple, since there are workers with short work careers, either because of age or by having the “contribution gaps.” For this reason many rule out requesting it, without knowing that maybe they are entitled.
In fact, article 195 of the General Law of Social Security (which can be consulted in this Official State Gazette) explains what are the minimum contribution periods required to access a permanent disability pension. The article explains the difference between common illness, work accident and occupational disease, adding that the quoted 15 -year requirement only applies to very specific cases, such as access to the pension without being high or assimilated to discharge.
Therefore, we must know that the contribution requirements adapt a bit to the need of the worker, his age and the origin of the ailment. For example, it would not be fair to ask for 15 years of contribution to a 25 -year -old firefighter, who after 4 years as a firefighter suffers a work accident and is in a wheelchair. In this case, not a single quotation day would be requested.
In this way, Victor Arpa’s explanation helps clear one of the most common errors about permanent disability that is not mandatory to have quoted 15 years to access it. It is enough to prove the minimum periods set by the law based on age and the cause of disability.