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Important changes to the retirement system came into effect on April 1. These reforms represent a significant transformation in active, delayed and partial retirement in order to allow greater compatibility between pension and work.
The aim is to allow people to continue working while they start receiving their pension, or to voluntarily delay their retirement age in exchange for economic incentives. These modifications correspond to the last phase of the pension reform, agreed between the Government, employers and unions on December 23.
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Changes to active retirement
One of the most significant changes affects active retirement, a modality that allows people to combine work with receiving a retirement pension. As of April 1, the requirement to have a complete contribution career to access this modality, which is especially relevant from a gender perspective, will be eliminated.
In addition, a progressive scale of pension improvement is established while it is compatible with work. With one year of delay in total retirement, 45 percent of the initial recognized pension will be charged, with two, 55 percent; with three, 65 percent; with four, 80 percent; and from the fifth year, one hundred percent can be charged. Every 12 complete months, the benefit will increase by five points.
As a new feature, active retirement will now be compatible with delay incentives, allowing workers to benefit even more, financially, if they decide to continue working.
As for the self-employed, who until now, like salaried workers, could combine 50 percent of their pension with the receipt of a salary income and were entitled to one hundred percent if they had employees, these percentages are also changing. Self-employed workers who request it from April 1 will receive the same percentages as salaried workers with one exception: they will receive 75 percent of the initial pension that is recognized to them if they delay their retirement between one and three years and, in addition, they have hired a worker with at least 18 months of seniority indefinitely or they sign a new contract.
It should be noted that this percentage of receipt will increase by five percent each year as long as the worker continues to work continuously, so the self-employed worker would reach one hundred percent of the pension once five years have passed since reaching the legal retirement age and deciding to take advantage of active retirement.
The opposite is true for corporate self-employed workers: they cannot access active retirement. By law, although some court rulings have granted it in these circumstances, active retirement is prohibited for the administrator of a commercial company.
Delayed retirement incentives
Improvements are also being introduced to delayed retirement. That is, when the retirement age is voluntarily delayed. Since 2022, there have already been incentives for this modality, but with the new regulation, from the second year of delay an additional incentive of two percent is added for every six months of delay, instead of every twelve.
Workers can choose from three incentive formulas: a four percent increase in the annual pension for each year of delay, a single payment for each additional year, depending on the regulatory base, or a combination of both.
Partial retirement: better conditions
Partial retirement is also undergoing significant changes. The possible advance with respect to the legal retirement age is extended from two to three years, allowing workers to begin reducing their working hours before fully retiring.
During the first year, they will be able to reduce their working hours by between 20 and 33 percent, and from the second year onwards, by between 25 and 75 percent. The possibility of accumulating working hours is also introduced, that is, working more at the beginning of the part-time period and less at the end, or vice versa.
On the other hand, the figure of the relief worker is improved, who must be hired indefinitely and full-time, which reinforces job stability in this type of hiring.
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