How to continue contributing without working: requirements and cost of the special agreement with Social Security

To modify the requirements of the special agreement with Social Security in Spain, it is necessary to change the legislation with the rank of law that regulates these contributions, which is done through a legislative initiative in the General Courts. This reform can come as a Government bill or as a private member's bill from parliamentary groups or other subjects with initiative. In both cases, the parliamentary process in the Congress and Senate is very similar, with several phases in which changes can be introduced through amendments. The available sources do not detail the numerical majorities required in each specific vote, but they do outline the general scheme of phases and decision points.

1. Type of initiative that can modify the special agreement

According to the information gathered on legislative initiatives, there are two law-strength routes to reform the requirements of the special agreement:

• Government bill: prepared by the Executive, approved by the Council of Ministers, and sent to the Congress of Deputies. Its purpose is to “create, modify or repeal laws,” making it the typical instrument to change the legal framework of Social Security.
• Private member's bill: can be presented by parliamentary groups, deputies, the Senate, autonomous assemblies, or through popular legislative initiative. Its processing is “similar to that of government bills” and also allows creating, modifying, or repealing laws.

It is emphasized that a non-legislative motion (PNL) would not serve to directly change the requirements of the special agreement, because it “does not have normative character” and only “urges the Government” without binding legal effects.

2. Processing in the Congress: phases and moments to introduce changes

The basic phases of a bill in the Congress — applicable by analogy to an admitted private member's bill — are as follows:

• Preparation and presentation: in the case of a bill, the Government approves it in the Council of Ministers and sends it to the Congress. In the private member's bill, the text is presented directly by the legitimized group or subject.
• Qualification and admission for processing by the Congress Board: here it is decided whether the initiative continues its course.
• Opening of the amendment period: once admitted, “a period is opened for parliamentary groups to submit amendments to the bill's text.” This is the first major moment to propose specific changes to the articles about the special agreement (requirements, bases, affected groups, etc.).
• General debate in Plenary: the total amendments (global rejection or return to the Government) are debated. If a return amendment succeeds in a Government bill, the reform fails at this stage.
• Processing in committee: if it passes the general debate, it goes to the competent committee, where “partial amendments are discussed and voted on and a report is prepared.” This phase is key because it decides which amendments about the special agreement are incorporated into the text.
• Debate and vote in Plenary on the report: the Plenary debates the report and the “live amendments,” that is, those not incorporated in committee. This is the last moment in the Congress to modify the articles.

In each of these phases (committee amendments and live amendments in Plenary) detailed changes to the special agreement requirements can be introduced, provided the amendments are admitted for processing and approved.

3. Processing in the Senate and return to the Congress

Once the text is approved in the Congress, it is sent to the Senate:

• The Senate can “approve, amend or veto” the text. Approved amendments can again modify the requirements of the special agreement.
• If the Senate issues a veto or introduces amendments, the text returns to the Congress, which “can accept the amendments or lift the veto.” This last phase allows deciding whether to incorporate the changes made by the Senate.

After this exchange, when there is a definitive text, it proceeds to “sanction and promulgation” by the King and publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE), at which point the new conditions of the special agreement become current law.

4. Financial particularity: possible Government veto of private member's bills

In this specific area (Social Security), it is relevant that the Government can prevent the processing of private member's bills or amendments when they affect the General State Budgets. It is indicated that, according to the constitutional framework, the Executive can “oppose the processing of private member's bills (or amendments) that imply an increase in credits or a decrease in budget revenues.”

Since the special agreement with Social Security affects contributions and system revenues, any private member's bill that seeks to relax requirements or reduce fees could be subject to this governmental disagreement, blocking its processing. In contrast, if the modification comes as a Government bill, this problem does not arise, because the initiative comes from the Executive and is already integrated into its budget planning.

The consulted sources do not provide additional information on the specific numerical majorities required in each vote, nor on recent specific examples regarding the special agreement.

The General Treasury of Social Security (TGSS) is, according to current regulations, the common service responsible for managing the economic resources and financial administration of the system, applying the principles of financial solidarity and single treasury. Its basic competencies are collected in article 1 of Royal Decree 1314/1984, of June 20, as successively amended, especially by Royal Decree 693/2010 and Royal Decree 496/2020. From this core, other provisions develop specific functions in collection, asset management, accounting, or internal organization. Below are detailed its main competencies and how they are organized organically.

Main regulatory framework

The basic norm is Royal Decree 1314/1984, which regulates the structure and competencies of the TGSS. It has been amended, among others, by Royal Decree 693/2010, Royal Decree 291/2002, Royal Decree 1384/2008, and Royal Decree 448/2012, as well as the more recent Royal Decree 496/2020, which reorganizes several deputy directorates general.

Additionally, the TGSS acts within the general framework of financial and accounting management of the system, developed, among others, in the Resolution of July 1, 2011 and its amendments (2020, 2022), as well as in the Accounting Instruction of 2014 and its operational development of 2022 ([link]).

General competencies according to article 1 of RD 1314/1984

Paragraph 1 of article 1, in its current wording, establishes that the TGSS, as a common service with its own legal personality, is responsible for managing the economic resources and financial administration of the system. Specifically, it is attributed, among others, the following matters:

• Registration of companies and affiliation: registration of companies and affiliation, registrations, deregistrations, and changes in workers' data, concentrating in a single body the acts that give rise to the creation and termination of legal relationships with Social Security.
• Contribution and collection: management and control of contributions and collection of fees and other financing resources of the system, including, when carried out jointly, unemployment fees, Wage Guarantee Fund, and professional training.
• Deferrals and installments: granting deferrals or installments of fees under the terms set by regulations, a function developed and specified by specific resolutions, such as those of July 16, 2004, and its error correction of 2004 ([link]) and modification of 2015 ([link]).
• Unique assets: ownership, management, and administration of the assets and rights that make up the unique patrimony of Social Security, coordinating with general asset regulations, such as Royal Decree 939/2001.
• Payment ordering: ordering payments of Social Security obligations and distribution over time and territory of monetary availabilities to guarantee timely payment and avoid financial imbalances.
• Budgets and treasury: preparation of the draft budget proposal of TGSS resources, preparation of the monetary budget, processing credit operations and advances to cover treasury tensions, and authorization to open accounts in financial entities to place Social Security funds.
• Other financial functions: management of the reinsurance function of work accidents and certain voluntary pension schemes (Decree 1716/1974, not included among the analyzed links).
• Sanctioning and liquidation power: finalization of liquidation records of fees and joint records with infringement records, as well as imposing sanctions on workers for Social Security infractions affecting its scope of competence, always at the proposal of the Labor and Social Security Inspection.
• Residual clause: performing other analogous functions entrusted by the competent ministry in Social Security matters.

Paragraph 2 of the same article 1 exclusively attributes to it the constitution, management, and application of the Social Security system stabilization fund.

Organic structure and exercise of competencies

Article 3 of Royal Decree 1314/1984, in the coordinated wording with Royal Decree 496/2020, establishes that the central management bodies of the TGSS are the Directorate General, the General Secretariat, and the Deputy Directorates General. The Directorate General is responsible for directing, managing, and inspecting the Treasury's activities, as well as developing anti-fraud programs, and its holder acts as General Treasurer and Central Payment Authorizer.

Article 4, rewritten by Royal Decree 496/2020, defines a General Secretariat with broad functions in contracting, strategic planning, service organization, quality, citizen attention, personnel administration, training, material resources, occupational health, and coordination of the deputy directorates general. The same royal decree reorganizes the Deputy Directorates of Affiliation, Contribution and Collection in the Voluntary Period, Asset Management, and Integration and Coordination of Digital Administration, detailing their specific functions (management of the RED System, coordination with the Labor Inspection, real estate and movable assets, electronic services, headquarters and portals, among others).

Delegations and complementary regulations

The above competencies are territorially deployed through delegations in central and provincial bodies, collected in the Resolution of July 23, 2020. Other financial, accounting, and payment management regulations justify or specify its actions, such as the resolution on “to justify” payment orders of 2009 ([link]) and its modification of 2017 ([link]), or the Order applying the Financial Management Regulation of 1996 ([link]), partially modified by various provisions ([link], [link] and [link]).

Other normative context links

In the field of Social Security and its financing, among others, the following norms are related: Resolution of May 28, 2018, Order TMS/61/2019, Royal Decree-law 18/2011, Resolution of December 30, 2009, [link], [link], [link], as well as various budgetary provisions and error corrections ([link]). Although they do not redefine the core competencies of the TGSS, they affect specific areas of its financial and collection actions.

Other less relevant provisions for the strict competencies of the TGSS also form part of the general normative environment, such as various orders on currency issuance ([link], [link]), aid and subsidies ([link], [link], [link]), mining regulations ([link], [link]) or rulings and agreements with sectoral impact ([link], [link], [link], [link], [link], [link], [link], [link], [link], [link], [link], [link], [link]), which, where appropriate, coordinate with the TGSS's actions when involving management of contributions, resources, or Social Security payments.

With the information available in the consulted sources, it is not possible to know how many Social Security special agreements have been signed in Spain during the last legislature nor to reliably identify which parliamentary groups have filed specific initiatives to reform their regime. Neither the public statistical databases collected in the news nor the parliamentary documentation found offer an annual series of the number of special agreements signed, nor a clear list of private member's bills or motions focused on their reform.

1. Absence of statistical data on the number of special agreements

Searches in official documentation and specialized press only provide general explanations about what a special agreement is and how it is processed, but no figures on how many have been signed per year in the legislature.

For example, an informative piece from the newspaper Demócrata explains in detail the operation of the special agreement (who can sign it, what benefits it covers, how the fee is calculated, and what model is used to request it), but at no point does it offer aggregated data on agreements signed or in force. See the Demócrata article about the special agreement.

Likewise, the Government note on the recovery of internship or research training periods as credited years, where a specific special agreement linked to those internships is created, details the contribution base, the 0.77% reduction coefficient, and payment modalities, but also does not report the number of agreements signed nor project how many are expected. It can be consulted in the La Moncloa press release on credited internships and training.

Other official references collected in the BOE refer to administrative agreements between Social Security and autonomous communities or institutions (for example, in statistical matters), which are not “special agreements” of contribution person–Social Security. Still, they illustrate that the system of agreements is published in the BOE, as happens with:

• The agreement between INSS, ISM, and Castilla y León in statistical matters, accessible in the BOE on agreement with Castilla y León.
• The analogous agreement with Navarra, also in the BOE on agreement with Navarra.

In any case, none of these documents offer a consolidated statistical table of the total special contribution agreements signed with individuals. Therefore, no aggregated official data is available in the consulted sources to answer “how many” have been signed in the legislature, nor broken down by year.

2. Parliamentary initiatives on the reform of special agreements

At the parliamentary level, the specific search in Congress and Senate for initiatives related to the reform of the special agreements regime (bills, private member's bills, motions, or questions) only clearly returns two private member's bills that are not focused on this figure:

• In the Congress, the Private Member's Bill for the recovery and expansion of labor rights (no. 122/000221), presented by the Republican and Euskal Herria Bildu Parliamentary Groups, whose consideration was rejected. The rejection was published in the Official Bulletin of the General Courts, accessible in this Congress BOCG. The available information does not detail that the central axis is the special agreements regime, but rather the general improvement of labor rights.
• In the Senate, the Private Member's Bill modifying Royal Decree-law 17/2014, on financial sustainability measures of autonomous communities and local entities (file 622/000103), promoted by the Esquerra Republicana–Euskal Herria Bildu Parliamentary Group. Its processing can be seen in the official Senate file, available on the Senate website. This initiative is oriented to local financing, not to special contribution agreements.

None of the located initiatives appear explicitly described as a reform of the Social Security special agreements regime. Nor have questions or motions focused on modifying this legal figure been found in the reviewed parliamentary news. Therefore, it is not possible to rigorously attribute which parliamentary groups would correspond to “reform initiatives of special agreements” beyond these general private member's bills, which broadly affect the labor or financial field.

3. Political and media context

In the political and economic press, it is noted that the special agreement has become a relevant tool in debates about early retirements, negotiated exits in large companies, and protection of self-employed workers, but always in the key of labor or business negotiation, not as a normative reform of its regime. An example is the Demócrata coverage on early retirements at Banco Santander, where it is detailed that the entity would assume the cost of the special agreement until 63.5 years old, without entering into legal changes of the instrument: see the Demócrata pieces on Santander's proposal and on early retirement at Santander.

With this evidence, the conclusion is twofold: on the one hand, there are no public statistical data in the consulted sources that allow quantifying the number of special agreements signed in the last legislature; on the other hand, there are no clearly identified parliamentary initiatives whose main object is the reform of the regime of those agreements, so a reliable list of political groups promoting them cannot be given.