What are Imserso preferential accredited students and why do they have priority in choosing a destination?

Only three weeks remain until the 2025-2026 Imserso travel program goes on sale. As every year, the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption, and the 2030 Agenda has already launched the accredited travel cards with the key number. Therefore, those retirees and pensioners in Spain who have priority will be able to choose destinations starting October 6th . However, only those in Asturias, Catalonia, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community, Ceuta, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, La Rioja, Navarre, and the Basque Country will be able to do so. For the rest of the regions, their preferred accredited travel cards will have to wait until October 8th.

Who can be eligible for preferential Imserso accreditation?

As is customary, the Imserso (National Institute of Social Security) divides its program into blocks . On the one hand, it divides the program into autonomous communities and then into preferred and non-preferred accredited applicants, which means that not everyone has priority when choosing a place.

This accreditation system, promoted by the Institute for Seniors and Social Services , is based on a scale or points system for those who are given preferential status due to: age, disability, economic situation, participation in the program in previous years, and belonging to a large family. The total points are the final grade and determine the priority for the applicant when choosing a place. But how many points does each applicant receive for these requirements?

Age of applicants

One of the requirements for traveling with the Imserso (Spanish Imserso) program is the applicant's age. Thus, points are distributed as follows: Anyone under 60 years of age will receive 1 point , while those who have already reached the age of 60 will receive 2 points. From then on, for each year completed after 60, 1 point will be added until reaching the maximum of 20 points at age 78. Anyone over this age will receive 20 points.

However, if the application has two participants , to determine the age and corresponding points, an arithmetic average of the years completed by each one is taken.

Degree of disability

An applicant with a disability of 33% or more will add 10 points .

Large family

Thanks to the Law for the Protection of Large Families , applicants with this status can access the Imserso tourism program. To this end, it has been established that those with a special large family status receive 10 points , while those with a general large family status receive 5 points.

If there are files that equal points once all the variables of the scale have been verified, they will be ranked according to the applicant's date of birth.

Economic situation

Another requirement of the Imserso when offering places is the assessment of financial income . If there is only one applicant, their individual financial situation will be taken into account, while if there are two applicants, the sum of their incomes will be taken into account and divided by 1.33 . The scale applied by the Institute for the Elderly and Social Services is as follows:

Participation in previous programs

This requirement is intended for those who have not yet been able to secure their place on the program. This favorable criterion takes into account the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 program seasons, with a maximum of 225 points, distributed as follows:

Furthermore, "in assessing applications from married couples, common-law partners , or individuals with whom a stable, cohabiting union is established, with a similar emotional relationship to a spouse, the situation of the spouse with the lowest score will be taken into consideration," explains Imserso.