Widow’s pension plan could cut payments for workers

People drawing a widow’s pension while still in work could see part of it offset against their earnings under a proposal in Madrid. The Foundation for Applied Economics Studies (Fedea) will present the plan on 25 September 2026. Its author, former Social Security Secretary of State Octavio Granado, says the savings should help widows and widowers whose combined public pensions hit the maximum limit at retirement.

The study does not call for changes to the retirement pension itself. Instead, it focuses on less visible contributory payments, including incapacity, widow’s and orphan’s pensions, plus minimum pension top-ups.

A pension that changes at retirement

At present, a widow’s pension can be received alongside wages during working life, whatever the level of earnings. But on retirement it can effectively disappear where the recipient reaches the public-pension ceiling or cannot receive it alongside a minimum top-up.

The report illustrates the gap with an agricultural couple, each receiving a minimum pension of 12,441.80 euros a year. That includes a 3,341.80-euro top-up on a base pension of 650 euros a month. After one partner dies, a widow’s pension worth 4,732 euros a year adds only 99.35 euros a month in net terms because it overlaps with the top-up.

Fedea proposes a partial restriction on receiving both a widow’s pension and income from work. It also suggests shifting spending between widow’s and orphan’s pensions. The spending ratio stood at 13 to 1 in 2025.

Firms could face higher sick-leave contributions

The study also targets temporary incapacity, the benefit paid during sick leave. Spending reached 18,413 million euros in 2025, equal to 10.4% of contribution income.

It proposes higher contributions for companies where collectively agreed sick-leave top-ups drive costs up without control. Long-term absences linked to mental health would be referred to specialists, while mutual insurance bodies could treat musculoskeletal cases if regional health services do not contract those services.

For workers retiring early under reduction coefficients, Granado proposes higher contributions for the occupations concerned. Each reduction would also be tied to compulsory retraining during the final ten years of working life, aimed at helping people move to another role in their company or into public administration.

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Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com