The obligation to contribute is one of the pillars of the Spanish Social Security system, since it imposes the contribution of economic resources to the system in most cases while it is included in the system. In this sense, we are used to thinking that this requirement applies only to all people who are carrying out a work activity on a continuous and habitual basis.
Thus, the Social Security website specifies that natural and legal persons who are obliged to contribute have different systems, in the terms established by law for each one of them, they include workers as bi obligated subjects in all of them. Those responsible for keeping the accounts can be themselves, the employers in most cases of employment, or, in the case of the Special System of Domestic Workers, the owners of the aforementioned family home.
Also included, in addition to the General Scheme, are the Special System for agricultural workers employed by others, even in periods of inactivity, and the Special Schemes, which cover self-employed workers, workers at sea and those dedicated to coal mining. .
However, there are situations in which a person might think that, by stopping work, they would be exempt from having to continue contributing to Social Security when it is expected that they will have to continue with this obligation in these particular cases. Most of these assumptions are established in the regulatory standards of each of the established mechanisms.
One of the most common is temporary disability, as well as maternity and paternity leave and even in situations defined as a risk during pregnancy or breastfeeding. It is also contemplated that workers must continue to contribute when they comply with public duties or hold positions of union representation, although the latter case must not give rise to a surplus at work or when ceasing the activity.
These are accompanied by all permits and licenses that do not give rise to leave of absence from work and special agreements. There are also situations of unemployment that do not allow the suspension of contributions, such as contributory and welfare unemployment.
