Within early retirement, and apart from the general route (which allows retirement by applying reducing coefficients, if certain age and retirement years requirements are met) there are other modalities. Among them, the early retirement for workers with disabilities, which facilitates retirement at 56 years without a cut in the pension amount.
Specifically, employees or self-employed individuals with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 45% can benefit from it. To do so, they must prove that their disability causes a reduction in their life expectancy and that they meet certain requirements related to the contribution period and the number of years with a specific pathology.
Additionally, employed workers and sea and coal mining workers with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 65% can anticipate their retirement age at 52 years without penalty.
What pathologies allow retirement at 56 years old?
Royal Decree 370/2023, of May 16, in its annex, established the disabilities that could lead to a reduction in the retirement age. These were:
- Intellectual disability.
- Cerebral palsy.
- Genetic anomalies:
- Down Syndrome.
- Prader Willi Syndrome.
- Fragile X Syndrome.
- Osteogenesis imperfecta.
- Achondroplasia.
- Cystic Fibrosis.
- Wilson's Disease.
- Autism spectrum disorders.
- Congenital anomalies secondary to Thalidomide.
- Sequelae of polio or post-polio syndrome.
- Brain damage (acquired):
- Craniocerebral trauma.
- Sequelae of CNS tumors, infections or intoxications.
- Mental illness:
- Schizophrenia.
- Bipolar disorder.
- Neurological disease:
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
- Multiple sclerosis.
- Leukodystrophies.
- Tourette's Syndrome.
- Traumatic spinal cord injury.
What 11 new pathologies have been included?
To the previous list, the Social Security added, last February, 11 new pathologies that will allow early retirement without reduction, and which, according to the Government, “will allow, that around 50,000 people with disabilities can anticipate their retirement age up to 56 years old”.
The new pathologies are: spina bifida, variant transthyretin amyloidosis, Parkinson's, myotonic dystrophy type 1 (Steinert), Huntington's disease, chronic kidney disease stage 5, systemic sclerosis, spinal cord injury, corticobasal degeneration, multiple system atrophy, and progressive supranuclear palsy.
For the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, “it is a measure of justice for thousands of people who suffer from serious illnesses that greatly condition their daily lives and who, therefore, need to anticipate their retirement age to equate themselves with the rest of the workers. It was something the Government was committed to and that comes to meet a demand from this group.”