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PENSIONS

What you need to know about widow and widower pensions in Spain

If you're a widow or widower in Spain, you may qualify for a 'pensión de viudedad' (widow's pension) if you meet certain requirements. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 30 May 2024 16:27 CEST
What you need to know about widow and widower pensions in Spain
Photo: Simon Hurry/Unsplash.

If you’re a widow or widower living in Spain, there’s a chance you might be able to claim what’s known as a pensión de viudedad (widow’s pension).

Whether or not you qualify depends on a number of things.

READ ALSO: Irish pensions in Spain: What you need to know

Though how much exactly you’re entitled to (if you are at all) depends on things like income, other pensions you may receive, and any dependents or children in your care, the main thing to understand is that, generally speaking, in order to qualify for a pensión de viudedad, your deceased partner must have worked in Spain and paid into seguridad social (social security).

According to the Seguridad Social website: in order to qualify for the widow’s pension you’ll need to meet one or more of the following conditions.

It will be necessary to prove a contribution period, which will vary according to the employment situation of the deceased and the cause of death:

  • 500 days of social security contribition within an uninterrupted period of 5 years immediately prior to the death.
  • Or 15 years throughout the entire working life.
  • For pensioners, no contribution period is required.
  • No previous contribution period is required when death occurs as a result of an accident or occupational disease.

Can I receive other benefits at the same time?

You are entitled to claim a pensión de viudedad in Spain while also claiming other types of state aid and benefits, such as a retirement pension (public and private sector) or unemployment benefit (el paro), whether from Spain or abroad.

READ ALSO: Spain and the US sign new pensions and social security agreement

Remember, the important thing is that your deceased partner has made sufficient contributions into the Spanish Social Security system.
 
 
How much is it worth?
 
According to BBVA, as a general rule in Spain a widower’s pension is worth 52 percent of the pensionable earnings of the pensioner. This can be increased to 70 percent (of the regulatory base) if the following conditions are met:
  • The pensioner has dependants (e.g. children under 26 or disabled people in their care).
  • The pension is the main, or only, source of income (i.e. the amount obtained will account for more than 50 percent of the pensioner’s income).
  • The pensioner’s annual income, for all items on his or her tax return, does not exceed €19,627.6.

However, the percentage of the widower’s pension (in relation to the regulatory base) can be increased to 60 percent for people over 65 years of age, provided that they:

  • They are not entitled to another public pension and, in addition, have no other income (whether through employment or self-employment).
  • They have no other income, whether from assets or real estate, or from capital gains or income from economic activities that exceeds €7,707 per year.
 
 
How do I apply?

If you think you qualify for the pensión de viudedad, you can apply in a few ways. You’ll need to:

Fill in the Modelo de Solicitud de Prestaciones de Supervivencia on the Social Security website. The Age in Spain website provides a useful breakdown (in English) of all the documents you’ll need to apply. 

You can also apply:

Through the Social Security online system.

By post.

Or by going to your local Social Security office, which you can locate using this tool, but remember you’ll need to make an appointment beforehand.

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TAXES

EXPLAINED: How Spain’s new Social Security app works

Whether you're self-employed, an artist, a student or a domestic worker, Spain's new social security app aims to simplify and streamline bureaucratic processes you might need to do when it comes to managing your working life and pension.

Published: 17 September 2024 11:04 CEST
EXPLAINED: How Spain's new Social Security app works

Spain’s Social Security Ministry has launched a new free mobile app aimed at simplifying and synchronising tax, pension and working life procedures, allowing you to better access records and update information.

The app is specifically aimed at easing the bureaucratic burden on the self-employed, domestic workers, artists and young people studying or doing work experience.

Spain’s Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, presented the app this week, stating that it represents “a great step forward for citizens to have a closer and more fluid relationship with Social Security.

Through this application, personal data can be updated and verified; detailed information on contribution bases can be accessed and your Work Life report can be easily downloaded, among many other services.”

In Spain, your ‘Working Life report’ is known as el informe de vida laboral. According to the Social Security website, it is “a document that contains information on all the periods contributed by the worker to the Spanish Social Security system.” In other words, all the information on your entire employment history in Spain.

READ ALSO: How to check how long you have left to get a pension in Spain

The app essentially moves over the various processes usually done on the Social Security portal or in Spain’s social security offices so users can receive a more personalised service including tailored alerts and the ability to download documents to their mobile phones in offline mode.

It also allows users to easily check the details of their working life including for who and for how long they’ve worked somewhere, the type of contract they have, the working day or the relevant collective bargaining agreement, as well as information on contribution bases and how much they are owed in the event of sick leave and for calculating your pension.

How do I access and use the app?

First you’ll need to download the app from the Google Play or Apple App store. Once you’ve downloaded it to your phone, there are three ways to log-in in and register:

  • Permanent Cl@ve
  • Digital certificate (Android only)
  • SMS

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Once registered and logged in, push notifications can be turned on as well as a biometric access — either fingerprint or facial recognition.

Once this has been done, you can access your personal information, whether it be working or pension matters, and all the normal procedures you’d previously do via the portal can be carried out and all this information can be downloaded in files.

What can you do with the app?

As mentioned earlier, the new app basically aims to streamline the processes you’d normally do via the Social Security Ministry portal or in person.

This includes checking your social security number or requesting one, consulting your tax contribution bases and employment history, updating your personal details, or managing tasks for the self-employed, domestic workers artists or young people doing work experience, such as registering or deregistering as economically active and downloading supporting documents.

READ ALSO: How to de-register as self-employed in Spain

Focus on young people, freelancers, artists and domestic employment

The application offers four different profiles to use the app: self-employed, domestic employment (for both employees and employers), artists and trainees.

The autónomo profile allows you to access all the information and procedures available if you are registered or are about to start self-employment, including registration and de-registration, modifying your contribution base, consulting tax receipts, and estimating your contributions according to your income, among other things.

In the domestic employment section, whether you yourself work domestically or are going to hire someone to work at home, you can consult all the necessary information such as calculating the contributions to be paid, registering and de-registering, updating the salary information and the working hours of the employee, or consulting payslips issued.

READ ALSO: The rules for hiring a domestic worker in Spain

For artists, you can manage your inactivity, request a refund of income from contribution bases or deregister from the working artists’ register.

For students doing internships or work experience (alumnos en prácticas in Spanish) the app is useful for both those about to start their internships and for those who’ve already started them, with access to their personal profile, a guide to resolve doubts, information to find out about the benefits of pensions contributions and they can carry out procedures such as requesting the social security number, downloading the Work Life Report and consulting contribution bases.

READ ALSO: How self-employed workers in Spain can get a better pension

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