Permanent disability is a Social Security benefit for workers and professionals who have suffered some type of illness or accident that prevents them from carrying out their usual profession permanently.
In Spain there are different degrees of disability and also permanent disability. This can be partial, total or absolute and, lastly, be considered severely disabled if you also need the assistance of another person for basic day-to-day tasks.
Depending on the degree of permanent disability, you will be entitled to one or another pension, which may be contributory or non-contributory depending on the time you have contributed to Social Security. This benefit serves to cover the loss of income when a worker sees their work capacity reduced or cancelled.
What is considered permanent total disability?
Total permanent disability is the one that disables the worker to carry out all or the fundamental tasks of his habitual profession, but not to carry out other types of work or trades.
In other words, that you can continue working, although not in the normal way in your usual job. Social Security understands a habitual profession as one that has been carried out for more than a year, except when the cause of the disability is work. That is, when they have a work accident and not an illness or other type of accident.
What is considered absolute permanent disability?
Absolute permanent disability goes one step further than total disability. It occurs when the worker cannot perform any work normally.
An absolute permanent disability is not synonymous with not being able to do anything or work at anything. It simply indicates that you cannot do it in the normal way because, for example, you have to receive treatment every day during the working day or you have to be absent two days a week. Under these conditions, few companies will be willing to hire you.
Both to obtain the total and absolute disability pension, it is necessary to have medical reports that support this condition. From then on, Social Security is the one who must recognize it, although you can also resort to legal proceedings if the administration does not do so.
Differences in the pension that you will receive according to the type of disability
The nature and extent of the disability is not the only difference between total and utter disability. It also changes the pension they will receive in each case. In fact, this is the most important difference from a practical point of view.
How much is the disability pension charged in each case? First of all, it appeared whether it is a contributory or non-contributory pension. The amount of the first resulted from the regulatory base, while with the second a fixed and always lower amount will be charged.
With the total permanent disability pension, the percentage to be collected will be 55% of the regulatory base, which can be increased by 20% for people over 55 years of age.
Meanwhile, with the absolute permanent disability pension, 100% of the regulatory base is charged. In addition, the pension can increase between 30% and 50% when the injury occurs in the workplace and the latter does not comply with the necessary labor security measures.
There are also differences in taxes
Taxes also change depending on the type of pension. While the total permanent disability disability pension is subject to personal income tax, the total permanent disability pension is not. That is to say, that the first one does pay taxes on income and the second one does not.
Can you lose your disability pension?
The disability benefit is not final. It can be extinguished by reviewing the degree of disability after two years, which is the most common review period.
Only upon reaching retirement age will reviews be stopped to determine if there has been any improvement.
It can also be revoked for working in the same type of profession that will end the disability.
