A decision from Spain’s National Social Security Institute (INSS) will not say “disability benefit”. It will use a formula such as incapacidad permanente total para la profesión habitual, total permanent incapacity for your usual occupation, and each word affects your income and your job. “Total” means a lifelong pension of 55% of your base reguladora, a figure calculated from your past contributions, which rises by twenty points from age 55 when your age and training make it hard to find work in another field. “For your usual occupation” means you are considered unable to do your own job but not every job, so you can draw the pension and work in a different role. Absoluta means 100% of that base, because you are considered unable to do any work. Parcial is a one-off payment while you keep your job, and gran incapacidad adds a supplement to pay someone who helps you dress, eat or get around.
At Perseus & RC Abogados these cases are handled by Ana María Reza Cortiñas and Luis Jurado Cano, registered with the A Coruña Bar Association under numbers 6064 and 6317 respectively. Ana is the managing partner of the firm’s civil department. We read the decision and your medical file, tell you whether the degree matches your limitations, and file the challenge before the deadline. The rest of our employment work is on the employment law page.
From the medical board to the decision
What people call the tribunal médico is the Incapacity Assessment Team of the INSS provincial office in A Coruña, made up of doctors, a labour inspector and INSS staff. It reviews your reports and the medical examination, issues an opinion, and the provincial office then decides whether there is an incapacity, its degree and whether it comes from ordinary illness, a non-work accident or a workplace accident. The file is usually opened when sick leave reaches its maximum of 545 days, after a medical discharge that proposes incapacity, or at your own request.
If the cause is an ordinary illness, Spanish law requires a minimum period of contributions that depends on your age, and none is required after an accident or an occupational disease. Contribution periods completed in other EU countries can count towards that minimum under EU coordination rules. If you plan to move abroad, ask us before you go, because how a Spanish pension is paid outside Spain depends on the country.
Challenging a refusal or a lower degree
You cannot go straight to court. First you file a reclamación previa, an administrative objection, with the INSS within thirty days of notification. The INSS has forty-five days to answer, and silence counts as a refusal. From then you have another thirty days to sue before the social court. At trial the question is rarely which illness you have and far more often what it stops you doing, measured against the real tasks of your usual occupation. We build the claim on medical reports that describe concrete limitations and on an accurate description of your work, its physical demands, shifts and tools, which the INSS file tends to summarise in a single line. If your Spanish is not fluent, the court can appoint an interpreter for your statement, and we work with you in English throughout.
Your job after the 2025 reform
Until April 2025, a declaration of total or absolute permanent incapacity, or gran incapacidad, ended the employment contract by itself. Since 1 May 2025 the employer must first try to keep you, by adapting your post or moving you to a suitable vacant one. You have ten calendar days from notification of the decision to tell your employer in writing that you want to stay, and the employer then has three months to make the change. It may only end the contract if the adaptation is an excessive burden, there is no suitable vacancy or you turn down a properly offered change, and it must explain its decision in writing. If you keep working in an adapted post that is incompatible with the pension, the pension is suspended while you hold it. If what you received was a dismissal during sick leave, the route is different and is explained on the dismissals page and in unfair, null or fair dismissal in Spain.
Workplace accidents and your collective agreement
If the incapacity comes from a workplace accident or an occupational disease, the pension is calculated differently, and we argue that origin whenever the injury or illness is linked to work, including a psychological illness caused solely by workplace harassment. When the accident happened because safety measures were missing, every benefit arising from it is increased by 30 to 50%, and that surcharge is paid directly by the employer, with no insurance allowed to cover it. Check your collective agreement too, since some require the employer to take out insurance that pays a sum when permanent incapacity is recognised.
Where we are
Rúa Torreiro 13, 3.º C, 15001 A Coruña, Spain. Phone +34 677 841 007. If travelling is difficult, we can meet by video call, in English, with the INSS decision and your medical reports in front of us.
Frequently asked questions
The INSS refused my permanent incapacity. How long do I have to challenge it?
Thirty days from notification to file the prior objection (reclamación previa) with the INSS, which is compulsory before going to court. If the INSS rejects it or does not answer within forty-five days, you have another thirty days to sue before the social court. Always count from the date you received the notification, not the date printed on the decision.
I have total permanent incapacity. Can I still work?
Yes, in duties different from those that led to the incapacity, with the same employer or another one, and the pension is compatible with that salary. What you cannot do is go back to the tasks you were declared unable to perform. If you receive the twenty-point increase granted from age 55, that increase is suspended while you are employed.
Can my employer dismiss me once the incapacity is recognised?
Not automatically any more. Since May 2025 the employer must try to adapt your post or offer you a suitable vacant one, and may only end the contract if that is an excessive burden, there is no suitable vacancy or you turn down a properly offered change. Tell your employer in writing that you want to stay within ten calendar days of being notified of the decision.
My medical reports are from another country. Do they count?
They do, provided they are accompanied by a translation into Spanish. The translation can be a private one, and if the other side disputes its accuracy the court orders an official translation. Bring the originals so we can decide which ones are worth translating.
What do I receive while the INSS decides?
If the file was opened after 545 days of sick leave or after a medical discharge proposing permanent incapacity, you keep receiving your sick-leave benefit until you are notified of the decision. If the pension finally granted is higher than that benefit, it is paid from the day after your sick leave ended.