Vicente, an 81-year-old resident of Vigo, has petitioned the Spanish government to eliminate permanent pension cuts for workers with long contribution histories after his own payout was reduced by 24 percent. The retired bank employee worked for 43 years, believing his decades of contributions would guarantee a full pension.
Throughout his career in banking, Vicente worked in several offices and cities, requiring his family to move with him multiple times. However, when he retired at age 62, Social Security applied an 8 percent reducing coefficient for each of the three years he brought forward his retirement.
The resulting 24 percent reduction has no expiration date and will apply for his entire life. Vicente stated that permanently penalizing someone who contributed for more than four decades is unfair, noting that thousands of people across Spain who began working very young now face lifetime pension reductions.
Social Security reduction coefficients
Under current rules, Social Security applies reducing coefficients ranging from 30 percent down to 0.5 percent to pensions when workers retire before the ordinary age. These penalties apply to both voluntary retirements and involuntary departures, such as objective dismissals or workforce reduction plans known as EREs.
For voluntary early retirement, the penalty ranges between 2.81 percent and 21 percent. The exact rate is determined by two factors: total years of contributions and how many months early the retirement occurs. A longer work history lowers the penalty, while more months of advance increase it.
However, the system does not exempt individuals who have contributed for more than 40 years, applying the reduction based strictly on the timing of retirement. The mechanism has sparked years of debate among affected workers, with Vicente being one of the latest to publicly denounce the system after 43 years in banking.
Petition to the Spanish government
Vicente has submitted his formal request to the Spanish government and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, asking officials to remove reducing coefficients for individuals with long contribution careers. He stated that workers who have paid into the system for over 40 years should not be penalized throughout retirement.
To raise public awareness and build support for his cause, Vicente launched a petition on Change.org. The campaign invites signatures from citizens who agree that workers with a lifetime of contributions deserve to retire without permanent financial cuts.
