Since 2018, Social Security has received €309.126 billion in State transfers, according to its budget execution reports. This figure does not include loans that the State has also granted to the system. The total amount of transfers has grown year after year. Part of this funding is allocated to pay non-contributory Social Security pensions and financial aid, but the State transfers significantly more than the cost of that non-contributory tier. In 2018, the system received €14.650 billion. In 2020, the year of the pandemic, the figure had already risen to €35.795 billion. In 2021 and 2022, it hovered around €36 billion, and in 2023, it reached €39.299 billion. Since 2024, it has exceeded €40 billion—reaching €47.815 billion last year—and as of August this year, €40.186 billion has already been transferred.
Over those same years, the system’s non-contributory expenditure increased from €12.620 billion in 2018 to €23.197 billion in 2025. That expenditure includes non-contributory retirement and disability pensions, top-ups to minimum contributory pensions, the Minimum Vital Income (Ingreso Mínimo Vital), family benefits, and other financial aid. In total, the non-contributory tier has accounted for €151.086 billion since 2018—nearly half (49%) of the amount transferred by the State. Of that total, €90.075 billion corresponds to non-contributory pensions and minimum top-ups.
The remaining €158.040 billion went to the contributory side of the system.
Looking ahead to the coming years, forecasts indicate that this financing channel will continue to grow due to rising expenditure. AIReF (the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility) estimates that pension spending will rise from 13% to 16.4% of GDP between 2025 and 2050 due to the retirement of the baby boom generation, while social security contributions will not grow at the same pace. To cover the gap, the State will need to contribute an additional 2.3 percentage points of GDP, bringing its total contribution to 3%.
