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WORKING IN SPAIN

GUIDE: How to register with Spain’s social security system

If you want to be able to work in Spain, whether as an employee or self-employed, you will need to register with the country's social security system. Find out the step-by-step process and the documents you'll need to do it.

Published: 11 July 2023 09:35 CEST
GUIDE: How to register with Spain's social security system
How to register with social security in Spain. Photo: Lala Azizli / Unsplash

Registering with Spain’s social security is one of the first things you have to do after arriving in España if you plan on working here.

In fact, you need your social security certificate to even apply for your TIE or foreigner identity card during your first month in the country.

In essence, you pay taxes into Spain’s welfare system and in return get access to one of the best public healthcare systems in the world, as well as other benefits from parental leave to unemployment benefits. 

If you’re employed by a company, they will be responsible for registering you with social security, but if you are self-employed, you will have to do it yourself.

What do I need in order to register?

Remember, if you’re from a non-EU country, you will need to show that you have a valid work permit to authorise you to work in Spain in order to register. 

You will also need your social security number, which you will apply for first, as part of the process.  

How to get your social security number

Step one is to get your social security number. You can do this if you have a digital certificate or you have been issued with an NIE or foreign identity number (this can be found on your TIE card or green EU residency card).

Go to the social security website and click on the ‘Trabajadores’ option at the top, then click on Afiliación y Número de la Seguridad Social. This will take you to the link to apply for it online using your digital certificate. If you don’t have your certificate, there are instructions on how to send a text message in order to get a security code to apply for it instead. 

You will fill out the TA1 form, completing all the boxes with your personal information such as name, date of birth and address. You will also check the box indicating your reason for completing the form – in this case – AFILIACIÓN A LA SEGURIDAD SOCIAL. 

You need to fill out this form to get your social security number in Spain. Source: Seguridad Social

Once this is done, you will receive your NUSS or social security number.

How to register?

Even though you have a social security number, you will still need to register with Social Security before you start working.

There are two different ways to register, the first is online and the second is by going in person to your nearest office.

Online

Go to the social security website and select Alta de Trabajo Autónomos. You can identify yourself online with your digital certificate, cl@ve pin or via text message as above.

Once, identified you will have to fill out the form TA.0521. 

Complete form TA.0521 to register with social security in Spain. Source: Seguridad Social

You will need all your personal details again, as well as the social security number you just applied for.

In Part 2 you’ll select your reason for filling out the form. If you’re registering for social security because you want to start work, you’ll check the box that says ‘alta’.

Part 3 of the form will ask you all about your profession and what industry you intend to work in. You will have to register for a particular one, if you want to work in more than one, the process is slightly different.

READ ALSO: Self-employed in Spain: What are the tax rules if you do two or more jobs?

The final part asks you to select the base cover for your social security fees, whether that’s the minimum, maximum or somewhere in between. This will cover you against various situations such as an accident at work, maternity or paternity pay and healthcare.

The form you need to complete to register with social security in Spain. Source: Seguridad Social

You will also include your work address, if it’s different from your home address.

Other documents you will need to upload include:

  • An identity document such as TIE, green residency card or passport
  • Documentation attesting to registration with the Tax Office – this is the other part of registering to become self-employed.

In-person

First, you’ll need to apply for an appointment at your nearest social security office. When you get your appointment you will take all the same forms and documents as above. Remember to have photocopies of everything.

READ ALSO: Will you pay more under Spain’s new social security rates for self-employed?

How long do I have to wait for it to be processed?

Once you register, you can start work immediately. You will be charged a monthly social security fee once you do. This changes depending on how much your net earnings are per month.

Over the next few years, the fee will go progressively down to €200 a month for lower earners and progressively higher – up to €590 a month – for higher earners. 

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PENSIONS

Spain needs 25 million foreign workers to keep its pensions afloat

As the retirement of baby boomers looms, Spain's ageing population and declining birth rate mean the country will need millions of foreign workers to maintain its public pension pot and reinforce the labour market, the Bank of Spain has warned.

Published: 2 May 2024 09:46 CEST
Spain needs 25 million foreign workers to keep its pensions afloat

A recent study by the Bank of Spain estimates that the country will need up to 25 million more immigrant workers by 2053 in order to combat demographic ageing and maintain the ratio of workers to pensioners in order to support the pension system.

Without an influx of more foreign workers or sudden increase in the birth rate in Spain, something that seems very unlikely, experts fear that the growing disparity between working age people and pensioners could put the public pensions system in danger in the medium to long-term.

Like in many countries in the western world, the Spanish population is ageing, with the percentage of the population over 65 years of age predicted to peak in 2050, when almost one in three will be 65 years old or older.

READ ALSO: Spain’s over 65s exceed 20 percent of the population for the first time

By 2035 around one in four (26.0 percent) of Spaniards are expected to be 65 or older. That figure is currently around one fifth of the population.

Furthermore, this is compounded by falling birth rates. Spain’s birth rate hit a record low in 2023, falling to its lowest level since records began, according to INE data. Spain’s fertility rate is the second lowest in the European Union, with Eurostat figures showing there were just 1.19 births per woman in Spain in 2021, compared with 1.13 in Malta and 1.25 in Italy.

If nothing changes, the current ratio of 3.8 people of working age for every pensioner is predicted to plummet to just 2.1 by 2053, according to INE projections.

Maintaining this ratio seems unlikely moving forward, according to the report’s conclusions, something that would put pressure on pensions without significantly increasing social security contributions among working age people.

READ ALSO: Older and more diverse: What Spain’s population will be like in 50 years

The Bank of Spain report noted that “immigrants have high labour participation rates, generally above those of natives – in 2022, 70 percent and 56.5 percent, respectively.”

In three decades’ time, the INE expects Spain to have 14.8 million pensioners, 18 million Spanish nationals of working age and 12 million foreigners. To maintain the ratio, the Bank of Spain forecasts that the working immigrant population would have to rise by more than 25 million to a total of 37 million overall.

Of course, the arrival of 25 million working-age foreigners seems unlikely, if not impossible. To achieve this, around 1 million net migrants would have to enter Spain each year (discounting departures), a figure unprecedented in recent history. To put the figure in context, between 2002 and 2022 net arrivals in Spain reached five million, roughly five times less than what would be necessary to maintain the balance between workers and pensioners.

READ ALSO: ‘Homologación’ – How Spain is ruining the careers of thousands of qualified foreigners

Putting the economics aside, even if such an increase were statistically plausible, such a surge in net migration would be contentious both politically and socially. And it’s not even certain that increased migrant flows would be able to fill the gap in working age people and bolster public pensions: “The capacity of migratory flows to significantly mitigate the process of population ageing is limited,” the Bank of Spain warned in its report. 

What these projections suggest is that Spain’s public pension system will, in coming decades, likely have to be sustained by the contribution of fewer workers overall. This likely means higher social security payments. “Migratory flows have been very dynamic in recent years, but it does not seem likely that they can avoid the process of population ageing… nor completely resolve the imbalances that could arise in the Spanish labour market in the future,” the report stated.

The problem of ageing will also be transferred to the labour market and the types of jobs filled in the future. Increased migratory flows will soften the effect, but the labour characteristics of migrants coming to Spain may not match the job market in the coming decades. The jobs of the future, increasingly digital, will likely require qualifications that many of the migrants expected to arrive in the coming years do not have.

Consequently, the Bank of Spain suggests that “without significant changes in the nature of migratory flows, it does not seem likely that… [they] can completely resolve the mismatches between labour supply and demand that could occur in the coming years in the Spanish labour market.”

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