Spain Agreement and foreign pension information 106-04032000

In Spain, national legislation needs the compulsory payment of social security contributions on behalf of employees and the self-employed. This is usually through deductions from paid employment.

Contributions insure individuals against disability and unemployment and provides for income in the form of a pension once the person reaches retirement age.

The general scheme covers most workers. Special schemes cover:

• self employed
• coal miners, and
• agricultural, domestic and maritime workers

The legislation and collection of contributions is the responsibility of the Spanish government. The administration and payment of pensions is the responsibility of the centralised institutes for social security and employment.

There is a non-contributory scheme for those with low incomes.

Widow B Pension and Wife Pension were sunsetted in 1995 and, along with Bereavement Allowance, stopped being paid from 2020. See:

• Widow B Pension (WidB)
• Wife Pension (WP)
• Bereavement Allowance (BVA)

Original Agreement - 3 June 1991

The original Agreement with Spain covered:

• Age Pensions
• Invalid Pensions (now Disability Support Pension (DSP))
• Wife Pensions
• Carer Pensions (now Carer Payment (CP)) and
• pensions payable to widows:
• Sole Parent Pension (now Parenting Payment Single (PPS))
• Widow Pension
• Bereavement Allowance (BVA)

Note:

• There was no requirement for Invalid Pensions (DSP) to be severely disabled
• Carer Pensions were previously needed to be partners of Australian pensioners
• Widows (females only) needed to have been married (de jure) and not currently a member of a couple

Any Wife or Carer Pension granted due to being the partner of Australian pensioner who was paid under the Agreement, was also deemed to be paid under the Agreement.

Portability under the 1991 Agreement was indefinite to any country for:

• Age pensions
• Invalid pensions (now DSP)
• Wife pensions
• Widow B pensions and
• pension payable to a widowed person who became a widowed person while both the person and the spouse were Australian residents
• other widowed persons and carer pensions (now CP) were only payable indefinitely in Australia or Spain

No provision of the 2003 Agreement could result in a less favourable decision for any payment under the 1991 Agreement meaning the previously more favourable portability rules still apply to those payments.

Note: the 2003 Agreement provided for exemption of 'complemento a minimo' but does not apply to a customer paid under the 1991 Agreement.

Care must be taken before considering transferring a customer from the 1991 Agreement to the 2003 Agreement.

For Australia:

Department of Social Services (DSS)

For Spain:

Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social - Ministry of Employment and Social Security

For Australia:

Services Australia

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for anything about double coverage provisions.

For Spain:

• Instituto Nacional de Seguridad Social (INSS) - National Institute of Social Security
• Servicio Publico de Empleo Estatal (SEPE) - State Public Employment Service
• Instituto de Mayores y Servicios Social (IMSERSO) - Institute of Elderly and Social Services
• Instituto Social de la Marina (ISM) - Marine Social Institute

For Australia:

Centrelink International Services (CIS)

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for anything about double coverage provisions

For Spain:

• Instituto Nacional de Seguridad Social (INSS) - National Institute of Social Security
• Servicio Publico de Empleo Estatal (SEPE) - State Public Employment Service

Under the Agreement with Spain, information held about customers may be exchanged between the Liaison Agencies to determine entitlement to payments under the Agreement only (Article 26.2).

For information on bulk data exchange, see International Data Exchange Program and auto-indexation of foreign pensions.

The following liaison form is completed by Centrelink International Services (CIS) and sent to Spain:

• AUS187ES - Australia/Spain Agreement on Social Security

For help with creating and completing the liaison form, see Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

The following liaison form is completed by Spain and sent to Centrelink International Services (CIS):

Formulario De Enlace (Liaison Form) - E/AUS4

This form is used in all communication from Spain.

• Section 1 - Reference Number
• Section 2 - Claim lodged on: provides details of the claim including for the purposes of treating a claim for Spanish pension as a claim for Australian pension (Article 22.3). See Lodgement rules and start day
• Section 3 - Contributor: provides details of the insured person
• Section 4 - Applicant:
• SUR claims only: provides details of the person making the claim if not the contributor
• Section 5 - Information provided by Spain: this section specifies the Spanish information and other forms or documents that may be sent with the liaison
• Section 6 - Information requested by Spain: this section specifies the Australian information needed by Spain
• Section 7 - Spanish Institution: certification by the relevant Spanish competent institution

Under the Administrative Arrangements, each country will send copies of existing medical information to the other country with claims for invalidity/disability pensions.

Medical examinations may also be undertaken upon request for foreign pension claim purpose. Generally, the liaison agency will contact Services Australia and request this be done. There is no provision for reimbursement of costs to either country.

The customer should contact Services Australia if they receive a direct request from the liaison agency to undertake a medical examination. The customer must be advised to undertake Services Australia’s foreign pension medical assessment process. Where the customer has already undertaken a medical examination based on a direct request from the Agreement partner without consulting Services Australia, the customer should contact the liaison agency to discuss any possible reimbursement options.

If a customer is claiming reimbursement of costs based on undertaking a medical examination requested by Services Australia for foreign pension purpose, consider all evidence provided. For example, if incorrect advice was provided to the customer by Services Australia that caused them to seek an independent medical examination which caused the customer to be out of pocket.

See Customer compensation and Act of Grace.

Samples of forms, foreign documents and translations are available through the Residence and International program homepage.

The Agreement with Spain does not include double coverage provisions.

Any enquiries about double coverage or certificates of coverage should be directed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website.

Any queries about taxation of pensions or the requirement to lodge a tax return should be directed to:

• In the other country - the tax authority in the other country
• In Australia - the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website

See general information on taxation including issuing Australian payment summaries.

Tax Treaty

Australia has a double tax agreement with Spain, which avoids the need to pay tax in both countries.

A person who is 'resident' in one country (according to the definition in the tax agreement) generally only pays tax on pensions in that country.

Tax deductions from pensions from one country are allowed as a credit against tax payable for residents of the other country.

Tax deduction

Spanish pensions are not taxed in Australia. Spanish pensions in other countries over a certain level may be taxed (Retenciones) at the source.

The gross rate of Spanish pension, before any deduction, is maintained.

Spanish tax year

Spain uses the calendar year (1 January - 31 December) as the tax year.

Australia does not have a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) with Spain.

See general information on health insurance and Medicare coverage.

Any queries about:

• Health insurance coverage in the other country - tell the customer to contact the health insurance authority in the other country
• Medicare coverage - direct them to Medicare

The official language of Spain is Spanish.

See Spanish naming convention and pronunciation.

It is important to record and use customer’s full name in communication with Spain:

• Spaniards have a personal name(s) followed by two surnames – the father's paternal family name and then the mother's paternal family name. For example: Hector Marίa GONZALEZ LÓPEZ
• Customers may have two personal names (e.g. Hector Marίa). The second personal name does not always reflect the gender of the person
• The paternal and maternal surnames are to be recorded jointly in the Surname: field on the Customer Personal Detail Summary (CPDS) screen, without a hyphen (-). For example: GONZALEZ LOPEZ

The telephone country code is +34.

Street address

Title FirstName Surname1 Surname2 [Addressee]

Plaza de las Descalzas 27, Esc 2, 3º, C [Street, premise, stairwell, floor, door]

45012 TOLEDO [Postcode, locality]

TOLEDO [Province]

SPAIN

Address with building

Title FirstName Surname1 Surname2 [Addressee]

Edificio Lepanto [Building]

Calle Huertas 18, 4º, C [Street, premise, floor, door]

29400 MARBELLA [Postcode, locality]

MÁLAGA [Province]

SPAIN

Address with sub-locality

Title FirstName Surname1 Surname2 [Addressee]

Barrio de San Roque [Sub-locality]

09692 CANICOSA DE LA SIERRA [Postcode, locality]

BURGOS [Province]

SPAIN

Post Office Box address

Title FirstName Surname1 Surname2 [Addressee]

Apartado 324 [Post Office Box, number]

33400 AVILÉS [Postcode, locality]

ASTURIAS [Province]

SPAIN

Same-sex marriage has been legal since 3 July 2005.

For Australia, the Agreement with Spain (Article 2.1) covers:

• Age Pension
• Disability Support Pension (DSP)
• Carer Payment (CP)
• Parenting Payment Single (PPS)
• Double Orphan Pension (DOP)

Note:

• Only severely disabled DSP customers may be granted under the Agreement outside Australia (Article 2.1(a))
• Carer Payment is limited to carer partners of Age Pension or GE/DSP customers in Spain only (Article 1)
• Only a 'widowed person' may be granted PPS under the Agreement. 'Widowed person' means a person (either gender) who stops being a member of a legally married couple (de jure) because of the death of their partner and who is not currently a member of a couple (Article 1)
• The DOP and Bereavement Smart Centre Processing Team assess and code all DOP claims. Re-categorise DOP claims to ZIAM_DOP_NCL. For help, see Bereavement/Double Orphan Pension Helpdesk
• While BVA cannot be claimed after 20 March 2020, claims lodged prior to this date may still be received. See Bereavement Allowance (BVA)

Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements use the same methods and processes as domestic claims.

Forms to claim an Australian payment in Spain can be obtained by:

• downloading the relevant form from the Services Australia website. See Resources
• contacting Centrelink International Services (CIS)
• contacting the Spanish authorities

Australian forms needed

The customer is to complete and provide the following:

All claims:

• AUS140ES - Australian Pension Claim – Social Security Agreement between Australia and Spain
• Mod(iA)ES - Income and Assets - Spain

DSP only:

• AUS142ES - Work Capacity - Customer Information – Spanish
• AUS109 - Treating Doctor's Report - outside Australia
• AUS175 - Medical Assessment Report - Disability Support Pension (Outside Australia)

Note: Spain arranges for the AUS175 to be completed on a case-by-case basis.

CP only:

• AUS156 - Assessment for Carer Payment
• AUS156a - Health Professional Assessment for Carer Payment

Forms can be lodged at any Spanish social security office.

Under Section 7 of the Administrative Arrangements, the Spanish liaison agency will:

• accept all forms/documents and date stamp the AUS140 form
• verify the customer’s identity and personal details
• when required, arrange medical forms to be completed, and
• send the form(s) and any supporting documentation to Services Australia with a liaison form specifying periods of coverage in Spain and information regarding Spanish pensions

See Exchange of information and liaison forms.

If a person is not an Australian resident and in Australia on the date the claim is made, they may use the Agreement to meet the residence rules for claims if, on that date, they are:

• an Australian resident, a resident of Spain or another Agreement country that accepts claims for Australian pension under another agreement (Article 7.1(a)), and
• physically present in Australia, Spain or that third country (Article 7.1(b))

Claims under the Spanish Agreement

Claims for Australian payments under the Spanish Agreement may be lodged in certain other Australian Agreement countries.

See the Claim lodgement matrix table.

Accepting other Agreement claims

Spain will accept claims for Australian benefits under other Australian social security agreements.

Claim lodgement consideration

The customer must also satisfy any other rules under the other agreement and other social security law provisions, including portability. For example, DSP can be claimed in a third country but have an ongoing residence requirement. Therefore, if the claimant is:

• living in the other country, DSP cannot be paid
• temporarily in the other country, DSP may generally be paid for the period it is portable under domestic legislation

The normal rules for working out the date a claim is ‘made’ and the start day apply to a claim under the Agreement with Spain. However, the Agreement also allows:

• the date of lodgement of a claim for an Australian payment in Spain to be used as the date of lodgement in Australia (Article 22.2)
• the date of lodgement of a claim for Spanish pension to be used as the date of lodgement of the corresponding Australian benefit (FP claim = AU claim) if the customer declares periods of residence in Australia at the time of claiming the Spanish payment (Article 22.3)

For coding help, see:

• Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements and
• Start Day (CLK)

The Agreement allows:

• totalisation of periods of qualifying Australian residence and periods of coverage in Spain to meet any minimum periods to qualify for an Australian pension, for example, 10 years for Age Pension (Article 9.1)
• the total of any non-continuous Spanish periods of coverage to be continuous to meet any continuous residence requirement to claim an Australian pension (Article 9.2)

Note:

• Overlapping Australian residence and Spanish periods of coverage are only counted once (Article 9.3)
• Adjoining periods of Australian qualifying residence and Spanish periods of coverage, with a break of up to 3 months in between, can also be continuous (Policy)
• The requirement to have been an Australian resident at some time does not apply to Double Orphan Pension (DOP) (Article 7.2)

See Resources in International Social Security Agreements for examples of totalisation.

Spanish period of coverage:

• means a creditable period, for instance, a period during which contributions were paid, or any equivalent period, as defined in the Spanish legislation
• where equivalent periods may include deemed periods, such as for child rearing or military service
• where both actual and deemed periods may be used when totalising for Australian qualification purposes, as long as they are certified and don’t overlap
• must be certified by the Spanish Competent Institution

To be able to use the totalisation provisions, a person who is not an Australian resident at the date of lodgement must have at least 12 months Australian Working Life Residence (WLR) in Australia, of which 6 months must be continuous (Article 9.4(a)).

Note: unlike WLR for rate, this period cannot be rounded.

No minimum WLR is needed if the person is an Australian resident at the date of lodgement (Article 9.4(b)).

CP has no qualifying residence periods but does have a Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period (NARWP). Beside normal exemptions, a NARWP only applies to a person who has ‘entered Australia'. See: Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period (NARWP) and Qualifying Residence Period.

A person who is resident and present outside Australia has not entered Australia and therefore does not have a NARWP.

To avoid granting CP to a person who has never been to Australia, the Agreement needs a person to have been an Australian resident at some time (Article 8.1).

The Agreement allows the ongoing residence requirement for DSP, PPS and CP to be met by customers who reside in Spain (Article 5.1).

For customers outside Australia, the Agreement with Spain (Article 10.1) refers to the overall rate calculation contained in section 12(1) of the Social Security (International Agreements) Act 1999.

This means customers paid under the Spanish Agreement have:

• a proportional rate according to their Australian Working Life Residence (WLR)
• the Rate Limiter/Limited Rate applied
• additional child amounts (S14A SS(IA)A 1999) included, if eligible
• their Spanish pension proportionalised (Randisi concession) for use in the income test using denominator of 300 (Article 10.1)

Note:

• In some circumstances, their partner's WLR may be used. See Working Life Residence (WLR)
• Autonomous customers who are paid a proportional rate and in receipt of a Spanish pension will also have the Randisi concession applied to their Spanish pension (Article 10.2)
• This does not apply to Double Orphan Pension (DOP) (Article 10.1)

Non-proportional rate extension

Customers paid under the Agreement and temporarily outside Australia, cannot have their non-proportional portability rate extended if they are unable to return to Australia.

Returns to Australia

The proportional rate continues to apply for the first 26 weeks of a temporary return to Australia (Article 10.3).

• For returns to Australia before 9 June 2018, manually code the Temporary Return to Aust Ind on the Residence Savings (RSS) screen.

Customers in Australia under the Agreement are generally paid a direct deduction rate (Article 10.4).

The Agreement does not include a comparison rate in Australia.

Departures from Australia

The inside Australia rate continues to be paid for the first 26 weeks of a temporary departure from Australia (Article 10.6).

Payments under the Agreement

Under the Agreement, provided the customer remains qualified, Australian payments are payable indefinitely in both countries, that is, for temporary or permanent absences (Article 5.1).

Third country portability under the Agreement

Portability to third countries for a customer paid under the Agreement is the same as for an autonomous customer leaving Australia (Article 5.2). See Portability of payments.

If necessary, a customer who receives an autonomous payment that stops being payable due to portability reasons can transfer to the Agreement to continue payment if the:

• payment is covered by the Agreement
• customer meets any payment limitations, such as severely disabled, and
• customer is able to meet the lodgement provisions of the Agreement

If transferred to the Agreement, all Agreement rules apply to the customer, including portability and rate of payment.

See Transfers to international social security agreements.

A person who has sufficient Australian qualifying residence (or an exemption) can transfer from the Agreement to autonomous only if they are an Australian resident and in Australia.

On return to Australia, system processing will automatically transfer from the Agreement to autonomous if the person is an Australian resident who has only used the Agreement to extend their portability while outside Australia.

Former resident provisions may affect customers who transfer to autonomous if they leave Australia again within 2 years of becoming an Australian resident.

Australian payments may be issued to customers outside of Australia. If the customer intends to be outside of Australia:

• long-term (12 months or longer), their Australian payment may be issued to an overseas bank account. See Overseas Bank Account Details (OBAD) for payment requirements by country
• for less than 12 months, payment will generally continue to their normal Australian bank account every 2 weeks

See Delivery of payments to Centrelink customers outside Australia.

For Spain, the Agreement covers the Spanish social security system for particular payments.

Main payments

• Jubilación/Vejez - Retirement Pension (AGE)
• Incapacidad/Invalidez - Invalidity Pension (INV)
• Supervivencia - Survivor Pension (SUR)
• Viudedad (Widow)
• Orfandad (Orphan)
• En favor de familiares (For family members)

Supplementary payments/Allowances

• Prestacion familiares por hijo a cargo (Family benefit for a dependent child/ren) (FAM)
• Subsidio por riesgo durante el embarazo (Benefit for risk during pregnancy)
• Prestacion/Subsidio por desempleo (Unemployment benefit) (UMB)
• Accidentes de Trabajo (Work-related accident)
• Non-contributory payments:
• Prestación por desempleo a nivel asistencial (subsidio) (Non-contributory unemployment subsidy)
• Ingreso Mínimo Vital (minimum living income)
• Auxilio por defuncion - Death grant
• Payment from Instituto de Mayores y Servicios Sociales (IMSERSO) (Institute for Older Persons and Social Services) (SOC)
• Pension no Contributiva (PNC) de Jubilacion/Invalidez (Non-contributory Retirement/Invalidity pension)
• Ley de Integracion Social de las personas con Discapacidad (LISMI) (Payments under the Law for Social Integration of People with Disabilities)
• Payments under Sistema para la Autonomía y Atención a la Dependencia (SAAD) (System for autonomy, care and dependency)

Note:

• Spain introduced legislation that allows a person to continue working (part-time) and be paid a retirement pension from Spain. There are now three types of retirement pensions:
• Ordinary retirement (jubilación ordinaria) - cease work fully, received life retirement pension
• Flexible retirement (jubilación flexible) - receive part pension with part-time work
• Partial retirement (jubilación parcial) - not reached retirement pension and combines part time employment with part retirement pension
• Minimum amounts apply (cuantias mínimas) and payments are added to the main benefits (complemento a mínimo)
• Seguro Obligatorio de Vejez e Invalidez (SOVI) applies to those who paid contributions to an old, defunct scheme but do not have an entitlement under the current schemes. These payments are the equivalent of AGE (Jubilación/Vejez) or INV (Incapacidad/Invalidez)

The following known payments are paid by the Spanish authorities but are not covered under the Agreement:

• Pensiones de Clases Pasivas (Pensions for Civil Servants and Military personnel)

For help with:

• Assessment of Spanish pensions, see Assessment
• Coding of Spanish pensions, see Eligibility and Coding

The requirement to claim Spanish pensions applies to Spanish AGE and INV.

• Customers may voluntarily claim SUR, including claim for Orphan Pension or for family members (en favor de familiares) using the SUR claim pack.

See Foreign pensions claims.

The Eligibility and coding of foreign pensions tab has detailed information on Spanish payment that are subject to CFP legislation.

Claim packs are available for AGE, SUR and INV.

Claim packs are issued through the Foreign Pension System (FPS). See Assisting customers to claim a foreign pension.

Specific requirements for Spanish claims

The customer is to complete and provide the following:

All claims:

• Application for Benefits under the Spanish Legislation (E-AUS1)

AGE claims:

• Attachment 1 - Retirement Pension

SUR claims:

• Attachment 2 - Survivor's Pension/Benefit
• Evidence of marriage registration (certification) from the Spanish diplomatic mission

Note: additional Page for E-AUS1 is needed if the person wishes to claim SUR as a family member of the deceased (prestacion en favor de familiares).

INV claims:

• Attachment 3 - Invalidity Pension

Requests for additional information

If information provided with the claim for Spanish pension is incomplete, Spain will send requests for information in Spanish direct to customers.

Under the Administrative Arrangements, Spanish forms can be lodged in Australia at any service centre. See Processing a foreign pension claim.

• All foreign pension claims and supporting documentation must be scanned, and
• The original foreign claim form and copies of supporting documentation must be sent in paper form to Centrelink International Services (CIS). See Processing a foreign pension claim

Centrelink International Services (CIS) only

CIS will complete the following or arrange for the following to be completed as necessary and attach the documents to the foreign pension claim to send to the agreement country. See Agreement Liaison Detail (ALD) for method of transmission.

CIS staff are required to sign the relevant section in the claim form.

All claims:

• AUS187ES - Australia/Spain Agreement on Social Security

For help with creating and completing the liaison form, see Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

INV only:

• E213 - Detailed Medical Report. See Foreign pension medical assessments.

Enquiries about claims for Spanish payments in Spain or a third country should be directed to the Spanish social security authorities.

Spanish payments may be made by direct deposit in Australia.

Any queries about the non-payment of Spanish pension should be directed to the Spanish pension authorities.

Agreement pensions are paid as 12 regular monthly payments and two bonus payments in June and November.

Other benefits or private pensions are normally paid monthly or annually.

Spanish pensions must be recorded in the source currency - Euro (EUR). Official statements provide the foreign currency amounts.

Amounts recorded in source currency on the Foreign Pensions Details (FPD) screen must not be changed to the Australian dollar amount.

Note: payments into Australia are paid in Australian dollars.

Spanish payments are generally increased for Consumer Price Index (CPI or cost of living) changes annually in January.

For information on bulk data exchanges and auto adjusted CPI increases, see International Data Exchange Program and auto-indexation of foreign pensions.

• directly deducted (Article 10.4) and ignored in the income test (Article 8(8)(zc) Social Security Act 1991 for customers under the Spanish Agreement who are in Australia
• proportionalised and assessed as ordinary income for customers paid:
• under the Spanish agreement who are outside Australia
• autonomously who are on a long-term outside Australia rate
• ordinary income (not proportionalised) for customers paid:
• autonomously who are in Australia
• under an agreement other than Spain or New Zealand who are inside or outside Australia

See Rate Calculation for when a direct deduction or proportional rate is applied

Note:

• This does not apply to Double Orphan Pension (DOP) (Article 10.1). DOP is a non-means tested payment
• Each member of a couple is deemed to receive half of the total amount received by the couple (Article 10.5)
• This does not apply to customers paid under the 1991 Agreement

• Accidente de Trabajo - Work-related accident

On pension states it is identified as: Régimen (Scheme) - ACC.TRABAJO.

Customers in receipt of this payment do not receive a bonus payment.

Customers paid an Accidente de Trabajo benefit must not transfer to Spanish AGE when customer turns Spanish age pension age. The customer may at some point transfer to Age pension, but the transfer will only occur when they request it. If they transfer to Spanish AGE, they can revert to the standard 14P payment frequency.

• Prestación por desempleo de nivel contributivo – contributory unemployment benefit
• Benefits for maternity or risk during pregnancy - maternidad/embarazo

• Pensiones de Clases Pasivas - Pensions for Civil Servants and Military Personnel

Personnel that may be entitled to this payment includes:

• career and trainee officials of the General Administration of the State, the Administration of Justice, and other constitutional and state bodies
• career military personnel including professional marines and cadets
• former Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Ministers of the Government

Payments may take the form of a retirement or survivor pension.

These payments are exempt income for customers paid under the Agreement or autonomously, who are outside Australia and for the first 26 weeks of a temporary return to Australia (Article 10.1):

• Prestacion familiares por hijo a cargo - Family benefit for a dependent child (FAM)

Non-contributory payments for a dependent child or minor under the age of 18 years with a disability or children in permanent foster care or under guardianship.

Note: for customers inside Australia, the payment may be exempt if the child meets the dependent child definition (section 8(8)(j) Social Security Act 1991). Otherwise, assess the same the main agreement pension for customers paid under an agreement.

• Complemento a minimo - Supplement to the minimum contributory pension

Non-contributory benefits:

• Subsidio por desempleo - Non-contributory unemployment subsidy
• Ingreso Mínimo Vital - Minimum living income

• IMSERSO - Institute for Older Persons and Social Services payments

IMSERSO is the organisation which manages the Spanish non-contributory scheme that provides benefits for those in Spain with low income which includes:

• Pension no Contributiva (PNC) de Jubilacion/Invalidez (Non-contributory Retirement/Invalidity pension)
• Ley de Integracion Social de las personas con Discapacidad (LISMI) (Payments under the Law for Social Integration of People with Disabilities)
• Payments under Sistema para la Autonomía y Atención a la Dependencia (SAAD) (System for autonomy, care and dependency)

Note: benefits may be paid by provincial authorities.

These payments are not paid outside Spain. Review the coding if the customer is in Australia.

• Auxilio por defuncion - Death grant

This may be exempt from the income test if payable as a reimbursement to the person who incurred expenses associated with the bereavement.

Otherwise, the foreign non-remunerative lump sum is assessable as ordinary income for 12 months from date of receipt (s1073 Social Security Act 1991).

The Agreement includes embargo provisions (Article 24.1) but they are not used.

Arrears debts for customers and their partners are raised under s1228A Social Security Act 1991 and recovered by normal methods under the Act. See Comparable Foreign Payment (CFP) lump sum arrears debts.

Where an arrears period is not provided, the arrears period end date can be assumed to be the end of the month prior to the date on the notice.

A contravention debt may also occur if the customer does not advise of the grant of their Spanish payment within their notification period. See Foreign pension coding.

Customers living status is verified annually between 1 January and 31 March.

Customers are not sent forms but can obtain and submit forms through a Spanish consulate.

INSS has introduced a digital option from January 2024 where customers can prove their identity electronically via a facial recognition application called VIVESS.

Spanish Life Certificate can be certified by an officer of Services Australia.

Note: life certificates must not be scanned.

The Australian bilingual life certificate (AUS061ES) is no longer to be used for Spain.

For information on helping customers with a life certificate, see Assisting customers to maintain an existing foreign pension.

Customers in Australia are sent notices at grant and will receive an annual statement between January and March each year.