Royal decrees 739/2026 and 737/2026, published on September 25, allow previous periods before integration into the General Scheme to be counted as contributions for professional athletes and ministers of worship. They come into effect on December 25 and do not involve the return of money.
The Official State Gazette published on September 25 two royal decrees that will allow professional athletes and ministers of worship to count the years worked before their integration into the General Scheme of Social Security as contributions. According to pymesyautonomos.com, the measure does not imply the return of amounts, but rather that those periods will count towards the pension.
The first of the texts, royal decree 739/2026, refers to professional athletes. The second, 737/2026, regulates the situation of ministers of worship from evangelical churches integrated into FEREDE and the Union of Seventh-day Adventist Christian Churches in Spain.
Both regulations will come into effect three months after their publication, that is, on December 25, 2026. From that date, interested parties will be able to request recognition of the previous periods.
In the case of athletes, the decree is based on the Law 8/1980, of March 10, on the Statute of Workers, which recognised the special employment relationship of professional athletes. From March 15, 1980 to June 1, 2003, different groups were incorporated into the General Scheme on different dates: cyclists on February 1, 1992, basketball players on August 1, 1993, handball players on January 1, 1998, and the rest from 2003.
The maximum recognisable period varies by discipline: almost 12 years for cycling (11 years and 10 months), 13 years and 4 months for basketball, 17 years and 9 months for handball, and more than 23 years for others. To access this computation, it is required to have resided in Spain, worked habitually in national territory, and had a professional contract. Professional football players are excluded, as they are governed by their own regulations.
Ministers of worship have different cut-off dates: May 1, 1999 for FEREDE churches and May 1, 1987 for Adventists. According to data from the evangelical press, more than 1,200 pastors worked without being able to contribute, and nearly 700 have passed away. The royal decrees do not quantify the number of affected individuals.
The procedure begins with a certificate that must be issued by the club or sports entity and, if it no longer exists or does not retain the information, by the corresponding federation. In the case of pastors, it is issued by the church with the consent of the permanent commission of FEREDE. With that document, one goes to the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), either along with the retirement application or to request a review of an already recognised pension. The certificate can be requested from now on, although the decree's deadline does not start counting until it comes into effect.
The subsequent calculation is crucial: without a qualifying period of 15 years, with at least two within the 15 years prior to retirement, there is no right to a pension. With exactly 15 years, only 50% of the regulatory base is reached. The years are counted as contributions for the right, calculation, and amount of the contributory retirement pension, and the bases of those months are integrated with the minimum bases of the General Scheme of the time for those over 18 years old. That is to say, the actual remuneration of each person is not taken into account, but rather the applicable minimum wage at that time.
For those already receiving a pension as an athlete, only the percentage applicable to the regulatory base is recalculated, never downwards, with effects from the first day of the month following the request for review.
The main difference between the two decrees lies in the payment. In both cases, the INSS calculates the capital cost, the value of the part of the pension generated by those years, but neither regulation sets a figure. The decree for ministers of worship allows it to be applied to pensions with a cause of entitlement prior to this, with economic effects from January 1, 2015, provided that the application is submitted within a maximum period of one year from its coming into effect.
You may also like
