PENSIONS AND BENEFITS Introduction The statistics regarding Pensions and benefits are from the Statistics Yearbook of the Ministry of Labour and Immigration. This presents separate information from Integrated social protection accounts (ESSPROS), Unemployment benefits, Non-contributory benefits, Contributory pensions of the Social Security system, Family benefits for dependent children and Maternity and paternity benefits. Integrated social protection accounts in ESSPROS terms The objective is to present the accounts of the Spanish social protection agents in terms of the European System of Integrated Social Protection Statistics (ESSPROS). The ESSPROS is an instrument designed by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) in order to make it possible to present the social protection data of member countries in such a way that the comparison between them may be made under the best conditions. Social protection expenses are divided into: Social protection benefits, classified as: disease-health care, disability, old age, survival, family-children, unemployment, housing, social exclusion not classified elsewhere. Administrative expenses. Transfers between regimes. Other expenses. Income is classified as follows: Corporate contributions: performed by employers or protected persons. Contributions of the public administrations. Transfers between regimes. Other income. The data presented here is from the Statistics Yearbook of the Ministry of Labour and Immigration. Data from different sources has been used to compile these statistics. Unemployment benefits This section includes the benefits that protect the unemployment situation on contributory and care levels, and the active insertion income. In order to access them, it is necessary to have made Social Security contributions for said contingency, and fulfil the requirements necessary in each case. In this sense, we must bear in mind that, beginning 1 June 2002, included in the area of protection 1
due to unemployment on a contributory level, are those temporary agrarian workers of the Social Security Special Agrarian Regime. On the care level of the benefit, generically called subsidy, two types are distinguished: - Unemployment subsidy for workers in one of the following situations: having used up the contributory benefit, not having covered the minimum contribution period to access a contributory benefit, being a returned emigrant, having been incarcerated or being declared fully able or partially disabled as a result of a disability revision file. - Subsidy for temporary workers included in the Special Agrarian Regime of Social Security (REASS), in its ordinary modality, and in its special subsidy modality for temporary agrarian workers of the REASS over 52 years of age. The information is from the Public State Employment Service (INEM). Non-contributory pensions These are the non-contributory care-type benefits. Types: Non-contributory Social Security pensions These are periodical lifelong or indefinite-duration benefits for those persons who have never contributed or have not contributed enough to qualify for benefits on a contributory level due to the performance of professional activities. The types of these pensions are disability and retirement. Care pensions for the elderly and ill from the discontinued National Social Aid Fund (FAS). These are periodical individualised economic aid packages for the elderly and the ill or disabled who are unable to work. Corporate and economic benefits derived from the Act on the Social Integration of the Disabled (LISMI). The protective action derived from the LISMI includes: health care and pharmaceutical benefits, medical-functional rehabilitation, professional recovery, social integration measures, minimum income guarantee subsidy, subsidy for help from third parties, mobility subsidy and compensation for transport expenses. The data relating to non-contributory pensions and LISMI benefits are obtained by the corresponding bodies of the Autonomous Communities, with transferred functions and services, and by the IMSERSO, and the figures regarding care pensions are obtained by the Social Security Directorate General for Planning. 2
Contributory pensions of the Social Security system Contributory pensions are economic benefits of the Social Security System, proportional to the contributions by salary of the workers, and with different effects, depending on whether they are derived from common illnesses and nonwork-related accidents (common contingencies) or from work-related accidents and professional illnesses (professional contingencies). Periodical lifelong or indefinite-duration benefits are called "pensions". Exceptionally, "pensions" may also refer to orphanhood benefits, limited in time, except when the beneficiary is disabled for all work prior to the event causing the benefit. Types of pension: permanent disability, retirement, widowhood, orphanhood and for family members; the group of the last three types is called death and survival pensions. PERMANENT DISABILITY This is the pension received by the worker who, after undergoing the prescribed treatment and having been medically discharged, presents serious anatomical or functional reductions, susceptible of objective and supposedly definitive determination, that diminish or cancel the person's ability to work. Permanent disability, regardless of the cause, is classified in the following degrees of disability: - Partial permanent disability to perform the regular profession: that disability which causes the worker a decrease in his/her ability to work that amounts to no less than 33% of the normal yield of his/her profession. - Total permanent disability to perform the regular profession: that disability which disables the worker from carrying out all or some the fundamental tasks of his/her profession, so long as he/she can still work in another profession. - Absolute permanent disability for any kind of work: that disability which disables the worker completely from performing any profession or trade. - Major disability: the situation where an affected worker who, as a result of anatomical or functional losses, needs the assistance of another person to carry out the most essential daily life activities. RETIREMENT This consists of the lifelong pension granted to the workers, with the conditions, amount and form that are regularly determined when, having reached the established age, they stop or have stopped working. 3
DEATH AND SURVIVAL These are pensions that are granted in the case of the death of the worker, whatever the cause, and are as follows: widowhood pension, orphanhood pension and lifelong pension or temporary subsidy for family members. The S.O.V.I. pensions (Obligatory Old Age and Disability Insurance) are classified in the classes of permanent disability, retirement and widowhood; permanent disability pensions all have the degree of absolute permanent disability. In the classification by regime, the S.O.V.I. pensions appear, though separately, well integrated in the General, Agrarian and Sea branches. The data in this section is from the National Social Security Institute (INSS). Family benefits for dependent children The information presented refers to family benefits, consisting of an economic assignation per child or dependant, under eighteen years of age, or over said age if s/he is affected by a disability of a degree greater than or equal to 65%, in charge of the beneficiary of the benefit. In general, a child or dependant is considered to be that minor who lives with the beneficiary and at her/his expense, regardless of the legal nature of the filiation, as well as permanent or pre-adoptive foster children. The Ministry of Labour and Immigration obtains this information from the National Social Security Institute (INSS) and from a specific use made by the INSS at the request of the Subdirectorate General for Social and Labour Statistics. Maternity and paternity benefits This chapter includes the data on maternity benefits, benefits for adoption and family fostering, both adoptive and permanent, and for paternity benefits. These benefits are received during the rest periods established as a result of maternity, adoption, fostering and paternity. This also includes the figures of sabbaticals due to care of family members, established for the purpose of reaching a work-life balance and, lastly, the benefits for risk during pregnancy and risk during breastfeeding. The information is from the Subdirectorate General for Temporary Disability, and other short-term benefits from the National Social Security Institute, the managing entity responsible for managing these benefits, and that regarding sabbaticals due to care of family members has been provided by the Subdirectorate General for Budgets, Economic Studies and Statistics of the General Social Security Treasury. 4
MATERNITY BENEFITS The amount of the subsidy of the economic maternity benefits is equivalent to 100% of the corresponding regulatory base, and in the case of multiple births or the adoption or fostering of more than one minor, carried out simultaneously, a special subsidy is granted for each child, beginning with the second child, equal to that which corresponds to the first child, for the first six weeks, immediately following the birth, or from the administrative or legal decision of shelter or the legal resolution granting the adoption. The duration of the rest period is sixteen weeks, extendable in the case of multiple births, by two weeks more for each child, beginning with the second child. Notwithstanding the six weeks of compulsory rest for the mother immediately following the birth, in the case that the father and the mother both work, the latter, on beginning the maternity rest period, may opt for the father to take a given and uninterrupted part of the rest period after the birth, in a way that is simultaneous or subsequent to that of the mother, except in the event that, at said time, the mother's return to work implies a risk to her health. In the cases of adoption and fostering, both pre-adoptive and permanent, as well as provisional fostering, in the modalities of family, permanent or pre-adoptive fostering of minors up to 6 years old, the period is also sixteen uninterrupted weeks, extendable in the case of multiple adoption or fostering, by two weeks more for each child, beginning with the second child. The rest period has the same duration when dealing with minors who are disabled or who have special social insertion difficulties, but are over 6 years of age. In the case that the mother and the father both work, the suspension period shall be distributed according to the choice of the interested party, who may use it simultaneously or subsequently, always with uninterrupted periods and with the limits indicated. PATERNITY BENEFITS Paternity leave is an individual, exclusive and untransferable right of the father, and intends to favour the work-life balance in terms of equality. This benefit allows for suspending the contract for this reason, as with the maternity benefit, that is, the birth of a child, adoption and fostering, both pre-adoptive and permanent or simple, pursuant to the Civil Code or the civil laws of the Autonomous Communities regulating it. The amount of the benefit is similar to that established for maternity, and the duration of the suspension of the work contract is 13 days. 5
SABBATICAL DUE TO CARE OF FAMILY MEMBERS The sabbatical due to care of family members, in which there is a suspension of the work contract, at the request of the worker, in order to care for family members, has a different duration, depending on whether these are children or other family members, and it may be taken in divided periods. The sabbatical includes keeping the job open for the first year, and the conditions that the law establishes may be improved by the corresponding collective agreements. 6