A 69-year-old freelancer left without a pension: the Balearic High Court confirms unpaid contributions do not count
The Balearic High Court denies retirement to a freelancer with 4,203 contribution days because periods in arrears do not count.
The High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands has denied a retirement pension to a 69-year-old self-employed worker, holding that he does not meet the mandatory contribution period because the contribution bases left unpaid during his career do not count as valid. The Labour Chamber judgment overturns the first-instance ruling that had recognised the pension and sides with the Social Security, according to elEconomista.
4,203 days against the 5,475 required
The case began in 2024, when the freelancer applied to retire at 67. The Social Security denied the request because his contributions fell short of the requirement: 4,203 days against the 5,475 days, fifteen years, set by the General Social Security Law.
Social Security had denied the pension twice. The first-instance court recognised it, the agency appealed, and the Social Chamber of the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands has now sided with the agency: it upholds the appeal, overturns the earlier judgment and denies the benefit again.
The worker asked for all his periods registered in the self-employed regime, the RETA, to be counted, but in several of them he was in arrears due to unpaid, time-barred contributions. Those periods were not counted as contributions nor used to calculate a hypothetical retirement pension.
The court's doctrine: always up to date with payments
The court starts from two premises: having covered the minimum qualifying period is an indispensable requirement to access the retirement pension, and in the RETA being up to date with payable contributions is an indispensable condition.
The consequence is blunt: unpaid contributions cannot be counted towards the minimum period regardless of whether they are time-barred. For those not time-barred there is a mechanism allowing their payment and counting, but only when on the date of the triggering event the qualifying requirement is met with the contributions actually paid.
What the self-employed worker with contribution gaps can do
The judgment leaves a narrow but real margin for action. For non-time-barred contributions, the system allows them to be paid and counted, although under a strict condition: only when on the date of the triggering event the qualifying period is already met with the contributions actually paid. In other words, regularisation can improve the base or complete accessory requirements, but it cannot resurrect a qualifying period unmet at the key moment.
Source: elEconomista (26 October 2026).
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Fuentes
- eleconomista.es. Accessed 2 November 2026.
The specific data in this article come from the official sources cited.
