This April 1, 2025, part of the Real Decreto-ley 11/2024, of December 23, to improve the compatibility of retirement pensions with work, the latest reform of the pension system, which specifically affects the modalities of delayed retirement, active retirement and "general" partial retirement, since the modification of the Partial Retirement for the manufacturing industry, also present in this Royal Decree-Law, already came into force on December 25, 2024, the day after its publication.
Among the modalities that allow the receipt of a pension and the performance of a job to be compatible, the most used by the group of self-employed workers or freelancers is the active retirement, which combines 100% of professional activity with the collection of part of the retirement pension. However, this option can also be accessed through self-employment, combining full or part-time work.
This new reform aims to encourage voluntary retirement, and specifically, the option of active retirement reflects this intention. However, it also penalizes or eliminates the privilege of receiving 100% of their pension for self-employed workers who have an employee contract in their professional activity.
Requirements and changes to access active retirement
However, to make a more accurate assessment, we must analyze each of the requirements and changes that the implementation of this regulation entails for workers. Until March 31, 2025, the requirements for accessing active retirement were as follows:
- Access to the pension at least one year after the legal retirement ageIn 2025, the aforementioned age will be either 66 years and 8 months if the person has contributed less than 38 years and 3 months, or 65 years if the person has contributed for 38 years and 3 months or more.
- meet the minimum contribution period necessary to access the retirement pension, 15 years listed or more, with 2 of them being within the last 15 years.
- Reach the percentage of 100% the regulatory base at the time of accessing active retirement.
La new regulations, applicable from April 1, 2025, establishes the following changes:
- The requirement to reach 100% of the regulatory base at the time of accessing the pension is eliminated, which means that the full contribution period will no longer be required to access this type of retirement.
- "If the minimum contribution period is reached on a date after the ordinary retirement age is reached, the minimum period of one year will be calculated between the date of the minimum period being reached and the date of the event giving rise to the retirement pension." This means that year delay in access to retirement It will be computed from the moment in which the requirements for accessing ordinary retirement are met (15 years of contributions and legal retirement age).
- In all modalities, the receipt of the late payment supplement is compatible with the active retirement pension (additional percentage, single capital, and mixed). However, As long as the person remains in active retirement status, no increase in the supplement will be generated.
- The active retirement pension It is no longer 50% fixed and with the new rule it will be variable, depending on the number of years in which retirement has been delayed:
| Delay in access | % Compatible pension |
| 1 year | 45% |
| 2 years | 55% |
| 3 years | 65% |
| 4 years | 80% |
| 5 or more years | 100% |
| *Also increases by 5 percentage points For every 12 uninterrupted months of active retirement from the delayed year of access (up to 100% of the pension). |
- For self-employed workers who had hired an employee in their activity, the pension percentage was 100%. This condition has also been modified in the following way: Proof of having hired indefinitely, at least, an employee with a minimum seniority of 18 months o either hire a new employee on a permanent basis with whom there has been no employment relationship in the two years prior to the start of active retirement. The percentage of the pension stops being 100% and becomes variable depending on the years of delay:
| Delay in access | % Compatible pension |
| from 1 year to 3 years | 75% |
| 4 years | 80% |
| 5 or more years | 100% |
| *Also increases by 5 percentage points For every 12 uninterrupted months of active retirement from the delayed year of access (up to 100% of the pension). |
In conclusion: with the modification of the requirements Delayed retirement is encouraged for the group of employed or self-employed workers without employees under their charge. (whose majority group are corporate self-employed workers) and the group of self-employed workers with employees under their charge is penalized, since this group initially received 100% of their pension and will now reach 100% after five years of delay.
However, a corporate self-employed worker who, under the previous legislation, would receive a straight-line 50% pension throughout their entire tenure under this retirement option, will now receive an incremental percentage based on their continued eligibility under this compatibility. For example, a corporate self-employed worker (director of a capital company) who enters active retirement after completing a full professional career would receive 100% of the regulatory base, plus 4% for the year of delay in accessing retirement, and thus would receive 104% of the regulatory base as a pension. Thus, based on this pension, they would receive: 45% in the first year; 55% in the second year, plus 5% for remaining 12 uninterrupted months under this compatibility; that is, 60% of the 104% of their regulatory base; and so on until the fifth year, when it would be 100%.
Rosa Gálvez Sebastián
Director of the Labor Area of Tomarial
