Spaniards wishing to retire starting this Wednesday, January 1, 2025, with a full pension will need to be at least 66 years and 8 months old, according to the 2013 pension reform. This reform progressively raised the retirement age from 65 to 67 over a total period of 15 years.
At 66 years and 8 months, this will be the age required for those who have less than 38 years and 3 months of contributions (in 2024, 66 years and 6 months completed will be required to retire with less than 38 years of contributions).
If you have accrued more than 38 years and 3 months of contributions, workers who wish to retire starting from January 1, 2025, with 100% of their pension will need to be 65 years old.
What did not change with the 2013 reform is the minimum contribution requirement to access the contributory retirement pension, which remains at least 15 years, two of which must be within the 15 years prior to retirement.
Partial retirement
If workers wish to access partial retirement without the company creating a replacement contract, the minimum age for access will be the regular retirement age applicable in each case.
If the company hires a replacement to cover the working hours of the person who partially retires, the minimum age for accessing partial retirement will be as of this Wednesday, January 1, 2025, 62 years and 8 months if more than 36 years and 3 months are contributed, or 63 years and 4 months if 33 years are contributed.
Early retirement
Social Security allows workers to retire early voluntarily up to a maximum of 24 months before the legal retirement age. Thus, in 2025, the minimum age for accessing voluntary early retirement will be 64 years and 8 months, with a requirement of having contributed for at least 35 years to access this option. If the work history is longer, it is possible to retire at 63 years of age.
In addition, in order to access this retirement option, the amount of the pension to be received by the worker must be higher than the minimum pension amount they would be entitled to based on their family situation upon reaching 65 years of age. Otherwise, they cannot advance their retirement.
If early retirement is involuntary, that is, mandatory, it is possible to retire up to a maximum of 48 months before the ordinary retirement age. Thus, for 2025, you must be at least 62 years and 8 months old and have contributed for at least 33 years. In the case of longer careers, the minimum age is 61 years old.
When a worker retires early, Social Security applies reduction coefficients to the amount of the pension, which depend on the number of months the retirement age is advanced and the accumulated contribution period. In general terms, these reduction coefficients range from 21% to 3.26%, depending on whether the retirement is advanced by 24 months (the maximum possible) or just one month.
If early retirement is mandatory, reduction coefficients are also applied to the amount of the pension based on the anticipation time and the years of contributions. These coefficients range from 30% with four years of anticipation to 0.50% with one month of anticipation, but the percentage to be applied will also depend on the contribution career: the more years contributed, the lower the discount percentage on the pension, and with fewer years contributed, it increases.
On the contrary, if one voluntarily delays access to the retirement pension beyond the ordinary age (referred to as delayed retirement), the pensioner receives a bonus, which may consist of an additional 4% pension percentage, a lump sum amount, or a combination of both if retirement is delayed for two years or more.
Changes in partial and active retirement starting in April
The Council of Ministers approved in its last meeting of the year the improvement of the regulation of partial retirement, active retirement, and deferred retirement agreed with the social partners last July, changes that will mostly come into effect on April 1st.
From the Ministry of Social Security, they ensure that with this improvement, the goal is for workers to be able to make a more gradual and flexible exit from the labor market, in line with countries in our environment, better suited to the conditions and situations of each worker.
Regarding active retirement, the requirement of having a full contribution career is eliminated, making it easier to access and having a significant impact from a gender perspective.
This type of retirement will be compatible with delay incentives, and its compatibility will be determined based on the amount of time delayed, so that each year of delay in active retirement will increase the percentage to be applied in the pension receipt.
Specifically, the percentages of the pension that can be received while working will be 45% with a one-year delay in retirement, 55% with two years, 65% with three years, 80% with four years, and 100% with five years of delay.
Additionally, the pension percentage will increase by five percentage points for every 12 months of uninterrupted professional activity, without exceeding 100% of the pension at any time.
About the changes in the regulation of partial retirement, it is established to extend from two to three years the possibility of early access to retirement age, albeit with adjustments in the reduction of working hours. Furthermore, the conditions for substitute workers are being improved: their hiring must be permanent and full-time. These modifications introduced in partial and active retirement will come into effect on April 1, 2025.
These measures complete the reform process initiated in 2021, which aimed to bring the effective retirement age closer to the regular legal age and establish a new range of options for workers facing retirement. Within six months, the Government will analyze the requirements for flexible retirement to encourage this modality.
The government has also improved access conditions to retirement for fixed-term intermittent workers, so they will regain the 1.5 multiplier coefficient that was used to calculate the qualifying period for accessing retirement, permanent disability, death, and survivor pensions.
Likewise, the Ministry will create a commission within three months together with unions and employers to analyze short-term incapacity (STI) due to common illnesses, including monitoring the causes, incidence, and duration of the processes.
This commission will study the impact that the response of the National Health System (SNS), in each of the areas, has on the processes of IT, and will establish lines of action aimed at reducing the number of processes and their duration.