One of the most important aspects to take into account when calculating the amount of a retirement pension is the basis for which contributions have been made in recent years. For this reason, workers who lose their jobs in the years prior to retirement age may have some other problem in reaching the amount they had originally planned.
In these situations they can resort to special agreements with Social Security. The workers who sign them voluntarily pay a monthly fee to the organization “in order to generate, maintain or extend, in certain situations, the right to benefitsIn practice, this means that the worker will be able to increase their months or years of contribution, as well as avoid losing a certain amount of the regulatory base.
Always as a background, the Social Security method to calculate retirement pensions, in which the regulatory base of the benefit is obtained by adding the contribution bases of the 300 months (25 years) prior to the retirement request. This is the key to understanding the importance of maintaining contributions in the final stage of a worker’s career and why the special agreement with Social Security can be really useful.
When can you sign a special agreement with Social Security?
The body itself imposes a contribution requirement on all people who want to sign a special agreement: prove at least 1,080 days in the last 12 years. In addition, it explains on its website in which cases one of these special agreements can be signed:
-When a worker is discharged from the Social Security scheme in which he was and is not included in any.
-When a worker is 65 years old or older, has 35 years or more of contributions and is registered in their scheme.
-When a worker in a situation of multiple employment or multiple activities ceases in any of his activities.
-When a worker ceases his activity and is subsequently hired for a contribution base lower than the average of the bases of the previous 12 months.
-When a worker stops receiving an unemployment benefit or subsidy.
-When a retirement or permanent disability pensioner has his or her pension annulled by virtue of a court ruling.
-When a person is denied a retirement pension.
What fee is paid in a special agreement
If the person is in any of the above situations and meets that prior contribution requirement, they can sign a special agreement with Social Security. At that time you must calculate the fee to be paid to the agency month by month.
First of all you have to choose a contribution base to later apply the quota on it. The worker can choose any of the following:
-The maximum contribution base for common contingencies of the category in which it was framed before the cessation that generated the special agreement, provided that it contributed for at least 24 months in the last five years.
-The base resulting from dividing by 12 the contribution bases for common contingencies in the 12 months prior to the cessation of the contribution, provided that this result is greater than the minimum base of the special regime for the self-employed (RETA).
-The minimum base of the Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers (RETA).
-Any contribution basis included among the above.
The Social Security explains that the current single rate of contribution will be applied to this base, the 28.3% common contingencies. Then, to that amount you have to apply a coefficient which will be different depending on the date of signing the agreement:
-In agreements from January 1, 1998: the coefficient is 0.94.
-In agreements prior to January 1, 1998: the coefficient is 0.77.