Retirement is transforming in Spain over the last decade: an increasingly later retirement, in line with what the various pension reform agreements seek, namely raising the real retirement age. Early retirement, in particular, constitutes a financial drain on Social Security due to the social contributions that it stops paying and the disbursements that must be made in advance. Among the modalities penalized by benefit reduction coefficients, there is good news, and that is the “collapse” of involuntary retirementto which the unemployed have access to link the receipt of unemployment or subsidies to the public pension. Involuntary early retirements increase from 55,000 cases in 2015 to 14,000 in 2023, 75% less in less than a decade.
This method constitutes the last resort for unemployed people over 55 or 60 years old, those closest to retirement. Characteristically, these are usually those who They have been looking for work for longer without finding any and have more difficulty finding a job. to the labor market.
Access to forced retirement requires having involuntarily ended the employment relationship, including collective dismissals, and registering with the SEPE as a jobseeker for at least six months before requesting early retirement two years before the ordinary age, from 62 years and 6 months if they have less than 38 years of contributions, or from 61 years if these 38 or more years of contributions have been accumulated.
ten years ago, The labor force was much smaller and there were almost 4.5 million unemployed. Added to more restrictive regulations, one in five retirements has been forced. The data indicates that there is a lesser tendency towards forced retirement, since this modality represents approximately 4% of the total registrations of the system, or approximately 14,000 people.
Why did he make this transformation? This point is of particular interest to Carlos Bravo, secretary of public policies and social protection of the CCOO union, and social security itself, because The “collapse” of involuntary departures was highlighted during the last General Council of the National Institute of Social Security (INSS). The response he offers to elEconomista.es First of all, it concerns the improvement of the social shield. Unlike other crises, the State did not restrict the public spending machine to protect the productive fabric, thus avoiding massive job destruction.
It is important to emphasize that this type of early retirement, however involuntary it may be, also leads to a reduction in the coefficients that affect the future pension. The last decade, Many were forced to retire once they reached the minimum age, being penalized by budget cuts that were more rigid than those currently available.or even 40% of the pension, as provided for by the regulations. Unemployment benefit was reserved for people over 55 and only in 2019 was it reinstated at 52.
Under current regulations, previous obligations are perceived as unfair. The new regulation allows unemployed people to choose between ceasing to receive unemployment benefits at the first age at which they can access early retirement, taking into account that they are still exposed to the aforementioned reductions, or receiving unemployment benefit. assistance until ordinary retirement age, from age 65 with more than 38 years of contributions.
Bravo insists that The social shield has left fewer potential unemployed people accessing involuntary early retirement. The CCOO representative recalls that in the 2021 pension reform the reducing coefficients were relaxed in the vast majority of cases and the reductions are more favorable than in the case of voluntary departures. As a result, the conditions of older unemployed people who take early retirement have improved considerably.
In any case, the reducing coefficients lead to a significant reduction in voluntary early departures. “The most recent data suggests that the reduction in early retirements (and therefore the increase in the average retirement age) accelerated between 2023 and 2024 (18% less in the January-July period of the second of said years compared to the first) ” explains Mercer’s lawyer and member of Ocopen, Antonio Méndez Baiges.
