Domingo García started working while still a minor and paid into the Spanish Social Security for over 46 years, but saw his pension permanently reduced for having taken early retirement. The case was reported by the Noticias Trabajo website, based on testimony shared by the association ASJUBI40, which represents pensioners who contest the reduction coefficients applied by Spanish legislation. Domingo claims that the additional years of contributions should be sufficient to compensate for or eliminate this lifelong penalty.
In Spain, Articles 207 and 208 of the General Social Security Act regulate early retirement due to causes not attributable to the worker and voluntary early retirement, with coefficients applied based on the months of anticipation and the length of the contributory career. Having more years of contributions than needed to reach 100% of the regulating base does not automatically eliminate the reduction, although Spanish tables provide for lower reductions for those with longer contributory careers. The percentage of the regulating base and the access age to the pension are different components of the system, meaning it is possible to have sufficient contributions to reach 100% of the regulating base and still suffer a reduction for requesting the pension before the applicable normal retirement age.
ASJUBI40 estimates that approximately 900,000 pensioners are covered by reductions after long contributory careers, although this is an association estimate and not official data. The Congress of Deputies approved a non-binding motion in November 2025 to advocate for changing the rules, but in June 2026, the PP and PSOE voted against a legislative change aimed at eliminating coefficients for careers of 40 years or more. According to a parliamentary response from the Government cited by Europa Press, removing the coefficients from current pensioners with at least 40 years of contributions would have an estimated annual cost of 3,358 million euros.
The article also notes that Portuguese rules differ from Spanish ones. In Portugal, those who are at least 60 years old and have 48 years of contributions can request early pension without penalty, as can those with 46 years of contributions who began their contributory career before age 17. A case like Domingo's cannot therefore be directly transposed to Portugal, as
