Who has not thought, at some point in their life, about when they will be able to retire? And not only that: who has not dreamed of taking early retirement, before reaching the normal retirement age? A wish that, sometimes, can become reality.
In general, pension regulations in our country allow early retirement from 61 to 66 years old. Various factors will depend on age: the reason for retirement, the contribution accumulated by the worker…
In any case, the horizon to be clarified is twofold: the retirement age is 65 years when contributions have been made for 38 years or more or 66 years and six months when these contributions have not been reached. Regarding these ages, advances to retirement must be made.
How to Retire Early at Age 61 and 62
The only way to achieve this is to take advantage of involuntary early retirementthe familiar way in which we speak of early retirement for reasons not attributable to the worker that governs article 207 of the General Social Security Law (you can consult it at this link).
This type of early retirement applies to workers who have experienced an involuntary termination of the employment relationship and allows advances of up to four years compared to the ordinary retirement ageTo be eligible, you must have contributed for 33 years (you can add one “military”), two of which must occur in the 15 years immediately preceding the retirement application, in addition to being registered as an employee. applicant at least six months before the application.
You must also do one of the following:
- A collective dismissal for technical, organizational, social or production reasons.
- Dismissal for objective reasons.
- Dismissal due to force majeure sanctioned by the competent labor authority.
- Termination of the contract by judicial resolution in the context of a procedure included in the bankruptcy law.
- Termination of the contract due to disability, retirement or death of the individual entrepreneur, as well as due to the cessation of the legal personality of the company.
- Unilateral termination of the contract by the employee when the substantial conditions of the employment contract are modified or in the event of serious breaches on the part of the employer (delays or non-payments).
- A breach of contract by a worker who is a victim of gender-based violence or sexual violence.
How to Retire Early at Ages 63, 64, 65, and 66
In addition to involuntary early retirement, the voluntary early retirementregulated by article 208 of the general law on social security and defined as early retirement at the discretion of the person concerned.
This type of early retirement responds exclusively to the wishes of the worker and requires being up to date with social security debts, being registered and having contributed for at least 35 years (one of the “military” years can be added), two of which must have taken place in the previous 15 years.
To be able to take early retirement, you must be entitled to a pension higher than the minimum amount, but in exchange it allows advances of up to two years compared to the ordinary retirement age.
How much pension do you receive if you retire early?
As in the rest of the cases, the amount of the pension is determined according to the method of calculating Social Security retirement pensions, which takes into account both the years of contributions of the worker and the contribution bases for which he has contributed.
To find the regulatory basis The contribution bases of the previous 25 years (300 bases) must be added together and the sum divided by 350. In this calculation, Social Security applies coefficients to all bases except those of the last two years to reflect the effect of inflation and workers will be able to benefit from the integration of gaps to fill the periods without contributions with fictitious bases (not applicable for self-employed workers or domestic workers).
To know the percentage of the regulatory base To which the worker is entitled, the years of contributions must be taken into account. The regulations include the following percentages:
- With 15 years of contributions you are entitled to 50% of the statutory base.
- For each of the following 49 months, a supplement of 0.21% of the regulatory base is granted.
- For each of the following 209 months, a supplement of 0.19% of the regulatory base is granted.
Reduction of pensions in case of early retirement
In addition to the pension generated after years of work, the citizen must accept a reduction in the pension as compensation for the early termination of his contribution (through contributions) to the pension system. These reductions are made by means of reduction coefficients that are applied to the amount of the pension and that depend on the time contributed, the time in advance and the modality of early retirement, they are included in Law 21/2021 of December 28 (You can consult it at this link) and they are the following:
Reduction of involuntary early retirements
- Workers under 38 and six months of contributions: they vary from 30% to 0.63% of the pension.
- Workers between 38 years and six months and under 41 years and six months contributing: they vary from 28% to 0.58% of the pension.
- Workers between 41 years and six months and under 44 years and six months contributing: they vary from 26% to 0.54%.
- Workers over 44 years old and with six months of contributions: they receive 24% to 0.5% of the pension.
Reduction of voluntary early retirements
- Workers under 38 and six months of contributions: they vary from 21% to 3.26% of the pension.
- Workers between 38 years and six months and under 41 years and six months contributing: they vary from 19% to 3.11% of the pension.
- Workers between 41 years and six months and under 44 years and six months contributing: they vary from 17% to 2.96%.
- Workers over 44 years old and six months of contributions: they vary from 13% to 2.81% of the pension.
What happens if, after applying the reductions, the worker’s remaining pension is higher than the maximum pension amount? This can happen in the case of people with very high salaries, and in this case, the regulations establish that the maximum pension amount must be reduced, which in 2024 is 3,175 euros per month in 14 installments.
The reductions have been modified this year, the first of a progressive schedule that will equalize the reductions made on the maximum amount of pensions with those of workers not affected by this circumstance. Until 2023, only 0.5% of the pension was deducted for each subsequent quarter, but for this year the following percentages come into force:
