Incompatibilities

• Between Pensions

Simultaneous perception is incompatible:

1. Of more than three ordinary pensions of Passive Classes - retirement or retirement, widowhood, orphanhood or in favour of parents - caused by different person.
2. Of two or more ordinary pensions of Passive Classes caused in their favour or that of their relatives by the same person.
3. Extraordinary pensions of Passive Classes with ordinary pensions that may be requested by their beneficiaries on the basis of the same causative facts.
4. Extraordinary pensions for acts of terrorism with which, for the same acts, regardless of their terrorist motivation, they may be paid under the State Passive Class System. Furthermore, they are also incompatible with those of an extraordinary nature which, for the same reason, can be recognised in any basic public social protection regime.
5. Of the pensions that the same person had caused or could cause in more than one public social security system, if in order to prove compliance with the minimum contribution period required for entitlement, or the determination of the percentage applicable to calculate its amount, or both, in any of the pensions would have taken into account the computed contributions of another system or, where appropriate, in that of Passive Classes as prior services under Law 70/1978, of 26 December.

In cases where a person is entitled to receive more than one Passive Class pension which is incompatible with his or her entitlement, he or she may exercise a right of option for the collection of the pension which he or she deems most desirable.

• With active work

(A) Retirement or retirement pensions (voluntary, forced, incapacitated or permanently unfit for service)

With the entry into force of Royal Decree-Law 11/2024 of 23 December, significant improvements have been made in the compatibility between the retirement or retirement pension of the Passive Classes system and the performance of work activities. These new features make the limits and requirements for pensioners to be able to combine the payment of their pension with the performance of a job more flexible, thus promoting the continuation of work without losing the economic rights acquired.

Among the main amendments is the reform of article 33 of the consolidated text of the State Passive Classes Act, which regulates the incompatibility between pension entitlement and the exercise of work activities in both the public and private sectors.

1. Incompatibility with work in the public sector

Retirement or retirement pensions shall be incompatible with the performance of a job or high position in the public sector by their holders, in accordance with the provisions of article 1, paragraph 2, of Act 53/1984 of 26 December on Incompatibilities of Personnel in the Service of Public Administrations, and applying, for this purpose, the exceptions provided for in article 19 and in the ninth additional provision of that Act and, in the event that no periodic remuneration is received for the performance of elective positions as members of the Legislative Assemblies of the Local Communities provided for in article 5 thereof.

2. General incompatibility with work in the private sector

In general, the receipt of retirement or retirement pensions will be incompatible with the exercise of an activity, whether on its own account or on behalf of others, leading to the inclusion of its holder in any public social security system.

3. Restricted compatibility of a retirement pension or forced retirement with work in the private sector. Active retirement.

Without prejudice to the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the receipt of retirement or retirement pensions of a forced character shall be compatible with the exercise of an activity, whether on its own account or on behalf of others, leading to the inclusion of its holder in any public social security scheme, as well as with the receipt of the unemployment benefit or allowance generated as a result of such activity, provided that access to the pension has taken place at least one year after having reached the age of forced retirement.

The compatible amount of the pension is calculated by applying a percentage to the initial pension, excluding minimally guaranteed supplements, depending on the years of delay in access to the pension (from 45 per cent if it takes one year to 100 per cent if it takes five years).

The percentage of pension to be received at the beginning of the active retirement situation shall be increased by 5 percentage points for every 12 uninterrupted months remaining in the active retirement situation, with a maximum of 100 per cent of the pension.

4. Compatibility of retirement pension and artistic activity.

The term " artistic activity " means activity carried out by persons engaged in artistic activities, whether dramatic, dubbing, choreographic, variety, musical, singing, dancing, figuration, specialists, artistic direction, cinema, orchestra, musical adaptation, scene, performance, choreography, audiovisual work, circus artist, puppet artist, magic, scriptwriters, and, in any case, by any person whose activity is recognized as an interpreter or performer in title I of the second book of the consolidated text of the Law on Intellectual Property, approved by the Royal Decree on the Law of the Performing Arts in April 1996. 2, paragraph 2 of Royal Decree No. 1435/1985 of 1 August 1985 regulating the special employment relationship of artists engaged in performing, audiovisual and musical arts, as well as persons engaged in technical or auxiliary activities necessary for the performance of such activity.