Military time will continue without contributing to the pension so as not to widen the gender gap | Economy

“It’s an insult like a cathedral,” says David Morales, annoyed. At 56 years old, this Madrid lawyer is already thinking about retiring, but when it comes to calculating the pension he would have in a few years, “I’m very far-sighted,” he acknowledges. He has realized that there is a period of time without contributions that he was unaware of, and that threatens to cut his benefit: the 12 months of military service that he performed in 1988 at the Army Headquarters in Madrid. At that time, the State did not contribute anything to Social Security, so that year it became a gap – as technically specified – in his contributions. “It seems nonsense to me,†he laments.

David’s situation is the same as that of many people who for years were selected to serve in the military before it was no longer mandatory in December 2001, and who today are part of the generations that are already close to retirement. This is not a discriminatory situation of course, since this hole in contributions is included as such by Social Security. “Periods of military service or substitute social benefit are only counted towards reaching the specific contribution period in the case of early, voluntary or involuntary retirement and with a maximum limit of one year,†the rule states. .

That is, that maximum of 12 months can be used to complete the period of time necessary to access these two retirement categories – which is 35 years and 33 years of contributions, respectively – but not to calculate the final amount of the pension. And to this is added another nuance: in the case of ordinary retirement, the military time would not even serve to reach the waiting period – 36 years and six months to be entitled to 100% of the pension.

Mónica García, head of the Labor area of ​​MLT Asesores, explains that to accredit the time of military service, the first thing the interested person must do is, “if you do not have the military record, apply to the Subdelegation of Provincial defense a certificate of completion of military service or female social service. Once you have obtained “either the card or the certificate”, you must include this documentation in the early retirement application submitted to the INSS “so that they take into account that time (maximum of one year). ) in the calculations†.

Mandatory parenthesis

“The situation is crazy. It is a debt that the State owes us, because we were forced to do it. If you refused, the military police would come to your house and forcibly take you away,” says Morales. He had planned to retire early, but, upon discovering this circumstance, he is considering continuing to work longer to access the full benefit.

The same thing happens to Enrique Orduña. “I am 60 years old, and if the 12 months I spent in the military counted for me, I could retire at 65. But now I face a penalty that seems unfair to me, because no one is going to contribute for me for that time,†recognize. Orduña did his military service in Huesca (Aragón), in the Artillery barracks, but his contribution gaps go beyond the 12 months that he remained there. “People think that the military lasts a year, but, for practical purposes, it is longer,†he concedes. “I was asking for permits to finish the race, and when I ran out I had to wait a month until the result of the draw came out. And then, once I finished my military service, it took me a while to find a job because in that year of hiatus you become outdated and lose all the contacts you had before,” he points out. “It took me three months to get a job, so, in total, I lost a year and four months of contributions,†laments this Telecommunications engineer.

“It is an injustice,†adds Carlos de Pablo. This 57-year-old engineer, who was a conscientious objector and did 13 months of social services at Barcelona City Council, has made the decision to retire early even though he is aware that his pension will be cut due to the penalties. “I will accept the current conditions that I have, but if during the next few years I get this approved, I hope it will benefit me,†he warns.

Equation

The correction of these gaps was contemplated in Law 27/2011, which was promoted more than a decade ago by the socialist Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. “The Government will present, within a period of one year, a bill that establishes a compensation system for Social Security so that it can recognize, in favor of interested persons, a period of assimilation of time. of compulsory military service or substitute social benefit that compensates for the interruption of contribution careers caused by such circumstances,” it stated in its twenty-eighth additional provision. However, this project was never defined, and since then its presentation has been postponed up to eight times.

Sources from the Ministry of Social Security acknowledge that it is not part of their plans to carry out this equalization throughout the legislature, and they allude to the “increase in the gender gap” that doing so would entail. “Our objective is to reduce it, and with this the difference between the average pension of men and women would widen even more,†they specify.

David Morales has sent a document to all political groups, except Vox, explaining this situation, and denouncing the “debt” that the State owes to all the people who, like him, fulfilled their military obligation – Starting in 1980 there were about 200,000 recruits per year—and he assures that until now he has not received any response. Furthermore, in his opinion, an assimilation comparable to what he demands has just occurred, with the recent recognition of the contribution time of unpaid interns – those who do receive a salary come been doing it since 2011â €”. “Let us not seem to be against this advance. Their right has been recognized and it seems perfect to me. It’s just that I would like the group of us who have done the military to also be taken into account,†says De Pablo.

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