Social Security allows you to choose your retirement date

Royal Decree 453/2022 of 14 June regulates the determination of the triggering event and the effects of retirement in its contributory modality.

What do we mean by “triggering event”?

The qualifying event is the date on which, if all the requirements are met, the entitlement to the benefit (in this case, retirement) arises, and has an impact on the calculation and economic effects of the benefit.

As indicated in the preamble to the Royal Decree (RD), in order to avoid the negative consequences for workers that may arise from the date on which the regulations set the date on which the retirement pension is due in certain cases, it is necessary to establish a regulation that makes its determination more flexible, making it possible, with certain limitations derived from the very concept of retirement, for the interested party to indicate the date on which, once the conditions are met, the date should be set.

In this way, both the voluntary nature of access to a retirement pension and the autonomy to decide the time and circumstances of the pension are reinforced.

Thus, in the contributory mode, the pension will be deemed to be paid on the date indicated for this purpose by the person concerned when formalising the corresponding application. This date must be within the three months before or after the date on which the application is submitted, or coincide with this date, except if the application is submitted outside Spanish territory by virtue of an international rule, in which case the application must be made within the period stipulated in the legislation of the country in which it is made.

The date indicated by the person concerned shall be the date taken into account for the purposes of considering the person’s situation of being registered, assimilated to registration or not registered or assimilated, and other circumstances, which shall serve as the basis for determining whether he/she is entitled to the pension requested, as well as, where applicable, the content of the pension, without prejudice to the date on which it is to take financial effect in each case.

When will the economic effects occur?

The right to recognition of the retirement pension in its contributory form is imprescriptible, and the economic effects will be produced from the day following the date on which the triggering event occurs unless, in the cases listed in art. 3.2 of the Royal Decree (registration in some of the Social Security system schemes, situation assimilated to registration due to transfer of the worker outside the territory of the State in the service of a Spanish company, situation assimilated to registration due to forced leave of absence to occupy a public post that makes attendance at work impossible, termination due to loss of the condition in question, termination of the benefit or subsidy due to the loss of the condition in question, etc.), termination of unemployment benefit or subsidy, including that for the over 52s, due to reaching the ordinary age required in each case for entitlement to a contributory retirement pension), the application is submitted after three months have elapsed, in which case these effects will take effect from the three months prior to the date of submission of the application.

In the cases provided for in article 3.2.e) of this Royal Decree, i.e. when the unemployment benefit or subsidy (including that for the over 52s) is terminated due to reaching the ordinary age required in each case to qualify for the contributory retirement pension, the financial effects will be retroactive to the date on which the unemployment benefit or subsidy was terminated, provided that the application for the pension is submitted within three months of the termination of the benefit or subsidy.

In any case, it will be retroactive for a maximum of three months from the date on which the application was submitted.

It should be noted that this new regulation will apply to all Social Security schemes, except for partial retirement, which is governed by a specific rule.