The Supreme Court has definitively closed the case of Jerónimo, a 77-year-old worker who failed to secure a contributory retirement pension despite having accumulated nearly three decades of Social Security contributions.
The high court rejected his appeal, in which he sought the application of the so-called “bracket doctrine” — a legal formula that in some cases allows certain non-contribution periods to be “ignored” due to exceptional circumstances.
To qualify for a contributory retirement pension in Spain, the law requires two key contribution conditions. The first is the general requirement, which demands at least 15 years of contributions throughout one’s working life. Jerónimo easily met this condition, with over 10,800 days of contributions. However, the problem arose with the specific requirement: within the 15 years immediately before retirement, at least two years of contributions must fall within that final period. Jerónimo could not prove those two years within the required timeframe, leaving him outside the system.
The retiree applied for his pension in September 2022, at age 77. His last actual contribution dated back to August 1, 2004, with no record of contributions during the critical period between 2007 and 2022. As a result, the National Social Security Institute (INSS) denied his pension.
Dissatisfied with the administrative decision, Jerónimo took the case to court. In the first instance, Bilbao Social Court No. 12 ruled in his favor, recognizing his right to the retirement pension. However, the INSS appealed, and in February 2024, the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country overturned that ruling, concluding that the applicant did not meet the conditions set out in Article 205.1(b) of the General Social Security Law.
The Supreme Court did not rule on the substance of the case. It dismissed the appeal on procedural grounds, stating that the appellant had not sufficiently justified the existence of a contradiction with other rulings, thereby leaving the previous decision of the Basque High Court in force.
