This chapter explains the possibilities for taking early retirement that exist in Spain.

Below we will tell you about different types of early retirement:

• if you have been a mutuality member;
• because of occupational activity;
• in case of disability;
• in case of compulsory termination;
• in case of voluntary termination.

When can you apply for these?

In Spain, you can take early retirement before the legal retirement age, under certain circumstances:

• If you have been a mutuality member: if you are an employee and have paid contributions to an occupational mutual insurance company before 1 January 1967, you can apply for retirement when you reach 60.
• Because of occupational activity: if you work in a professional sector with high mortality level due to carrying out strenuous, dangerous, toxic or unhealthy work, you may take early retirement.
• In case of disability: workers with at least 65% disability or those with at least 45% of some legally established forms of disability can take early retirement. 
• In case of involuntary termination of work: if you leave your company as a result of corporate restructuring, you can take early retirement.
• In case of voluntary termination of work: you may also take early retirement if you voluntarily decide to leave work.

What requirements must you meet?

• If you have been a mutuality member: you can take early retirement as a mutuality member if you are registered with Social Security and meet the minimum contribution period required for an ordinary pensioner. Furthermore, you should be part of any of the specific group of workers established by law.
• Because of occupational activity: you can take early retirement if you worked as a miner, flight crew, railway worker, artist, bullfighter, firefighter or member of certain regional police forces. Furthermore, you should be registered and meet the general requirements for ordinary retirement. You should be 52 or more to apply for this pension, but minimum ages vary according to the profession and danger of the work.
• In case of disability: you can take early retirement if you have at least 65% disability and can prove you have had it for the whole period of your activity. Furthermore, you should meet the general contribution requirements. The reduction in retirement age is established on the basis of some coefficients, but it may never be less than 52.
• If your disability is equal to or greater than 45%, you should be registered, have contributed for the minimum contribution period established and prove that during that period you have had one of the disabilities set by law. You may not take retirement before the age of 56 (in this case, there are no age reduction coefficients).
• In case of involuntary termination of work: if you have left work due to corporate restructuring, you may take early retirement if you are no more than four years younger than the legal retirement age and have been registered for at least six months as a job seeker prior to applying for retirement. You should also have contributed for 33 years, at least 2 of which should be during the 15 years prior to being entitled to retirement.
• In case of voluntary termination of work: if you decide to leave work voluntarily, you can take early retirement if you are no more than 2 years younger than the legal retirement age, are registered with Social Security and have contributed for at least 35 years, at least 2 of which should be during the 15 years prior to being entitled to retirement. Furthermore, the amount of your pension should be higher than the minimum which corresponds to your family circumstances at the time of reaching 65.

What are you entitled to and how can you apply for it?

Early retirement as a mutuality member

Early retirement because of occupational activity

Early retirement of workers with a disability

In case of compulsory and voluntary termination

Jargon busters

• Mutuality member: a person that belonged to one of the old occupational mutual insurance companies (compulsory social benefit systems in certain activities).
• Corporate restructuring: measures taken by a company to transform its production structure. Especially at moments of crisis, restructuring seeks to give added impetus to production by making changes to the company's organisation and operations which often means restructuring the workforce. 

Documents you will need

• Application for retirement pension
• Company certificate for professional firemen
• Company certificate: early retirement according to collective agreements 

Find out about your entitlements

These links will help you to find out about your entitlements in Spain. They are not European Commission links and do not represent the opinion of the Commission:

• You can find out more about the General Social Security Act in Spain in the Royal Legislative Decree 8/2015 of 30 October.
• To find out how reduction coefficients for early retirement are applied in general, you can consult the Royal Decree 1698/2011 of 18 November.
• You can consult the Royal Decree 1539/2003 of 5 December, to find out how reduction coefficients for early retirement are applied to workers with disabilities.
• You can find out how workers with disablement equal to or greater than 45% can take early retirement in Royal Decree 1851/2009 of 4 December.
• Royal Decree 383/2008 of 14 March indicates how reduction coefficients for early retirement are applied to firemen working for public administration.
• You can consult the annex of the RD 2366/1984 of 26 December, to find out which pension reduction coefficients are applied to workers in the mining sector.
• To find out which pension reduction coefficients apply to flight crew, you can consult RD 1559/1986 of 28 June.
• You can consult the coefficients applied to reduce railway workers pensions in art. 3 of RD 2621/1986 of 24 December.

Publications and web pages of the European Commission:

• Retiring abroad: your entitlements as a European citizen abroad.

Who can you contact?

Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social (INSS)
C/ Padre Damián, 4
28036 Madrid
SPAIN
Tel. +34 915688300 
Fax +34 915640484
Web page: http://www.seg-social.es

Social Security Information Centres.

For any problem with your entitlement as a European citizen: EU welfare services.