EXPLAINED: The changes to Spain's flexible retirement scheme

Spain has introduced a major overhaul to its flexible retirement system which includes better conditions for current and former self-employed and salaried workers.

Changes to Spain's new flexible retirement scheme are a step closer to reality after the government published new details in the Official State Gazette on Thursday. You can read the legislation here.

New flexible retirement regulations will formally come into force in three months’ time, meaning from 28th August 2026. Flexible retirement is an arrangement whereby a person who has retired returns to work part-time, receiving both a salary and part of their pension.

With the modifications, in addition to employees on part-time contracts, self-employed people will also be able to access this scheme.

For autónomos, the new legislation will allow pensioners to receive up to 25 percent of their pension while working part-time.

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It also increases the percentage of pension that can be claimed in certain cases, as well as an improvement in the future pension pot for those forced into early retirement against their wishes.

Spain's Minister for Social Security, Elma Saiz, announced the change this week, highlighting the voluntary nature of the flexible retirement: "This is proof that we're creating a broader and more attractive framework, better suited to modern times for workers, which does not exclude senior talent who wish to continue contributing – I stress – on a voluntary basis".

The royal decree also specifies that flexible retirement pensions initiated prior to the entry into force of this new regulation will continue to be governed by the rules previously applicable.

Furthermore, it will no longer be necessary to wait a minimum period after retirement to apply for flexible retirement. From August, it will be possible to access flexi-retirement at any time once the pension has been granted.

There will be some exceptions, however, as noted in the royal decree.

Flexible retirement, it states, "will apply to all schemes within the Social Security system" with the exception of “the Special Social Security Scheme for Civil Servants, the Special Social Security Scheme for the Armed Forces and the Special Social Security Scheme for staff working in the judicial administration".

A pensioner who has been granted involuntarily early retirement, upon returning to full retirement from flexible retirement, will now see their initial pension improved as their regulatory base and the applicable percentage are recalculated, according to the accredited contribution period.

In all other cases: “contributions made during the flexible retirement period will not affect the improvement of the recognised pension, nor will they increase the financial supplement for deferred retirement that would otherwise have been due”.

However, the new rules also stipulate that flexible retirement is incompatible with receiving financial supplement for deferred retirement.

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