This will be the new active retirement: possibility of working and collecting the pension and changes in this system

The three changes to active retirement

This retirement system entails three big changes. One of the most significant is that eliminates the need for a full listing career. Currently, to access a 100% contributory pension it is necessary to be 66 years and 8 months old if you have less than 38 years and 3 months of contributions. If you do have them, the ordinary age drops to 68 years.

Until now, enjoying active retirement was only possible if this requirement was met. But now with fifteen years contributors will also be able to access this withdrawal, coinciding with the work time necessary to be able to request a contributory pension. The Government has defended that this change benefits especially to women. BBVA’s ‘My Retirement’ initiative highlights that it can benefit this group as long as they have had gaps in your quotes.

Another change in active retirement is that the pension percentages that will be collected are ‘hardened’. Before the reform, with active retirement you had the right to 50% of the corresponding pension. Now It will harden especially the first year since after this 45% will be received. of the pension, 55% in the second year, 65% in the third, 80% in the fourth and 100% from the fifth.

In this way, from ‘My Retirement’ they point out that the new system is worse for the first year of retirement that is delayed, but that nevertheless improves from the second year in which the employed worker remains active.

In the case of the self-employed, the reform proposes the collection of 100% in the event that they have hired workers and 75% in the event that it is only the self-employed worker who carries out the activity.

What about delay incentives?

But one of the big questions regarding this type of retirement is that starting in April it will be compatible with the perception of delay incentives. In the last reform of the pension system promoted by former minister José Luis Escrivá, penalties were proposed through reducing coefficients for those who advanced their withdrawal from the labor market while those who delayed it would receive a ‘prize’ in the form of a percentage of improvement, a check or the combination of both.

In this sense, what will happen from now on is that the receipt of the delay supplement becomes compatible with access to active retirement. Delayed retirement benefits are accessed once you have full retirement. However, while you are in active retirement, no increase in the supplement will be generated. That is, the clock stops, and the percentages of the delay complement that were being produced do not increase. If the pensioner delays his retirement for five years, he will receive 100% of the pension.

Analysts expect these measures could have a neutral impact or slightly reduce spending. What makes this modality attractive is that the retirement age is delayed and the benefit begins to be collected later.

When does it come into effect?

This Wednesday, Congress validates the Royal Decree-Law that includes the improvement of the regulation of partial retirement, active retirement and delayed retirement and that entered the last Council of Ministers in 2024.

Thus, both the modifications of active retirement and partial retirement will enter effective from next April 1, 2025.

Regarding partial retirement, the decree extends from 2 to 3 years the possibility of advance access to retirement age with the pertinent adaptations to the working day. The worker who replaces this one will have to be hired as permanent and full-time.