To retire in Spain it is necessary to accredit a number of years of Social Security contributions. This figure will be different depending on the modality chosen, but in the case of early retirement it will be significantly higher to compensate for this advance with respect to the ordinary retirement age.
The pension regulations require workers to prove at least 35 years of contributions if they wish to retire early and that advance is made voluntarily. On the other hand, if the early retirement comes from a non-voluntary cessation of work, 33 years of contribution will be requested.
As these are longer contribution periods (in ordinary retirement only 15 are required, although more will be needed to have a certain amount of pension) the possibility of giving a ‘push’ to workers who require it is raised: increase the years quoted using part of the periods developed in compulsory military service , better known as the ‘mili’.
Workers who served in the military may add a maximum of one year to their contribution period to meet the contribution requirement for voluntary or involuntary early retirement. Social Security explains on its website that “they are computed to reach the specific contribution period in the case of early, voluntary or involuntary retirement and with a maximum limit of one year “.
This not only applies to the ‘military’, it will also be applicable to people who performed substitute social service (conscientious objectors) or those who performed compulsory female social service .
Be that as it may, these periods may only be added to the total number of years of contributions when strictly necessary in order to comply with the mandatory contribution period. Social Security explains that “only in the event that this contribution is necessary, a screen will open requesting that the period of said military service be completed” and that, if it is not necessary, “nothing must be indicated”.
Thus, a person who wishes to retire early and does so voluntarily with a contribution of, for example, 34 and a half years, will be able to complete that half year that is missing to meet all the necessary requirements. If you already had those 35 years guaranteed, it would not be necessary to include any time from the ‘military’, the substitute social benefit or the compulsory female social service.
In this way, the nature of the aid of the ‘military’ in early retirement is understood: they only serve to reach the necessary contribution periods, but nothing more. A year cannot be added for the purpose of increasing the percentage of the regulatory base to which one is entitled and its only influence is that mentioned above.
The reason why the ‘mili’ does not help in ordinary retirement
This aid for early retirement is not applicable to ordinary retirement despite the fact that it is a request extended over time and that there is an old political promise neglected by governments of different colors.
The Executive of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero promised to draft “a bill that establishes a compensation system for Social Security so that it can recognize, in favor of the interested persons, a period of assimilation of the time of compulsory military service or substitute social benefit”.
The promise, contained in the text of Law 27/2011, of August 1, the 2011 pension reform that can be consulted at this link in the Official State Gazette , was not carried out. The gauntlet was not picked up by the two PP governments presided over by Mariano Rajoy nor later in the socialist government (and later in coalition with United We Can) of Pedro Sánchez.