Social Security contributions and pensions within the European Union

January 17, 2008

When a worker has had periods of paying contributions in different EU countries, the Social Security administration of each country calculates and pays the benefits in its own way. For example, a worker who retires in Spain, with 20 years' contributions either paid or credited, may have worked worked for two of those years in another European country. Spanish legislation will take into account the two years of paying contributions in that other state for the purpose of calculating the total number of years and will deduct them and pay the amount due for 18 years. Once the remaining two years' contributions have been entered in the worker's record by the Social Security administration of the foreign country, that country will have to perform its calculation of benefits due according to its own internal regulations. The foreign country will calculate the national pension according to its own internal legislation, and will arrive at a monthly sum payable. It will add up all the periods for which contributions were paid or credited in the different countries, will assign them pro rata to the years worked in the country doing the calculation and, finally, will compare the two amounts, and settle on the higher of the two. The operation of checking the number of years for which contributions have been paid or credited is performed by the National Social Security Institution in concert with its opposite number in the country concerned, and the time the whole process takes will vary in each individual case, depending on the extent to which the foreign Social Security administration's procedures have been automated by the use of computer systems. For an extensive choice of new and off plan property for sale in Spain on the Costa Blanca and Costa Calida, visit the Novocasa website.