The Government tried recently to approve, without success, via an amendment to a Justice law, its definitive proposal for a gateway to the Self-Employed Regime (RETA) for the mutualists. after the rejection of the political parties. He will try again soon despite the fact that the options for articulating the measure with which an improvement in the retirement pensions of alternative mutualists is expected – from the legal profession, about 60,000, and from the eight social security entities that have a system of contributions parallel to Social Security – are reduced to a new attempt to amend some law that is already being processed in Congress or to the approval of a royal decree.
The negotiation during this year of the terms of the gateway to the RETA, as the system is called that will allow the transfer to Social Security of the funds accumulated by mutual members in their professional association for the purchase of months of contributions in the public system, has been ongoing. in charge of the minister’s department Elma Saiz with the entities and associations of those affected. During a meeting prior to the last agreement on pensions – at the end of July 2025 – on improving the formulas for compatibility of work with retirement, this matter was addressed at the social dialogue table with employers and unions. But since the return of summer the Government has tried to step on the accelerator to clear this issue from the agenda.
Now, after having put together a definitive proposal that was already expected to not meet the expectations of those affected, it does not seem to convince the political parties as a whole in view of the rejection that the measure recently received in the Justice Commission. One of the aspects that the parties highlight is the lack of dialogue between the Saiz cabinet and the political parties, as well as the importance and importance of the measure for a bill to be substantiated autonomously and independently. For their part, entities such as the Madrid Bar Association point out the need for the parties to reach an agreement and criticize the terms established by Social Security for the incorporation of this group of mutualists into the RETA due to the limitations it applies, and which would leave was part of the collective.
Limits on the proposal
When asked about the limiting elements of the proposal, Social Security sources pointed out that it would not make much sense to open the door to the massive entry of mutual members into the RETA and recognized the need to establish certain requirements that would really cover the situations of vulnerability that this group presents in terms of income to be received at the time of retirement. Although, it is worth remembering that mutualists are subject to a capitalization system which grants them an income at the time of retirement based on what they contributed. In addition, it offers them a contribution advantage during their working life since they only have the obligation to contribute to their mutual insurance company for an amount equivalent to 80% of the minimum base of the self-employed regime.
However, the Government has taken up the gauntlet of the complaints and claims of these self-employed workers who have a projection of low income at the time of retirement – based on their contribution – and has provided a system that allows them to purchase of months of quotation to RETA with the funds they have accumulated in their mutual insurance company. The proposed gateway gives them a certain improvement since it deducts certain contingencies from the bill. «It is specified in the law that the contribution base to be taken into account for the calculation of contribution periods will be the minimum base that would have corresponded to the worker if he had been included in said regime, to which a coefficient of 0.77 due to the excluded contingencies,” says Social Security about the justification of the measure.
Sources from the self-employed associations pointed out to ABC regarding the measure, the need for the proposal to be finely woven in order not to compromise the Social Security accounts, and more specifically the balance presented by the self-employed regime. They pointed out in this regard that what would not make much sense is to accommodate a group without any type of limit taking into account that it will enter with short trading runsand in many cases they will be subject to the assistance support system offered by the system at the time of retirement.
Minimum accessories
In this sense, it is worth remembering that the self-employed are a group that, due to their contribution system that until 2023 allowed them to determine the base, have retirement pensions substantially lower than those of employees. Therefore, introducing into the system a high volume of mutual members with short contribution careers and the expectation of having to be assisted at the time of withdrawal is one of the elements that have also weighed when articulating the gateway proposal to the RETA.
On average, the pension of self-employed -taking into account the total Social Security benefits- is 868 euros (with official data as of October 2024), which is 505 euros less per month than pensioners in the general regime. If we look at the pension of retirementthat of self-employed workers is 905 euros per month, 640 euros less than that of an employee.
This circumstance means that many self-employed workers have the right to a complement to minimums in the retirement pension. Specifically, at this time there are 628,284 self-employed workers who have this addition to the Social Security benefit, 31.5% of the total number of self-employed pensioners (1.99 million). This proportion of self-employed people who collect a supplement is up to ten points higher than the system average – of the 10.2 million pensioners, 2.1 million collect the minimum supplement (20.9%) -. In the case of retirees, they are a 28.5% of all self-employed by 19% of the system average with this condition.
Furthermore, as the official statistics show, the average self-employed retiree with a minimum supplement receives a monthly benefit of 824 euros and an extra of 271 euros. It should be remembered that among the 60,000 alternative mutual members of the legal profession, some 2,500 would be in the most aggravated situation with a pension horizon of 500 euros per month; Another 15,000 members would have a retirement projection of between 500 and 700 euros and some 30,000 self-employed mutual members would have around 800 euros per month.
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