A WHOPPING 64 out of 65 widows' and widowers' pension applications for gay couples in Spain have been denied by the government.  

The social security office only approved one application between January 2008 and July last year.

A series of legal requisites which have mostly been impossible for gay couples to meet, given the restrictions of the law, have effectively barred men and women who have lost their life-partners from claiming what is often a much-needed income.

These include the fact that the couple must have had children together and have paid their taxes and social security on the basis of being an established (if non-married) couple for a minimum of 15 years before the death of one party.

Given the genetic impossibility of all-female or all-male couples having children together, the only option open to them was adoption – or IVF in the case of women – which was illegal until 2005 in the case of the former and extremely expensive in the case of the latter, as well as being illegal in many other countries besides Spain.

Additionally, non-married couples of any gender or combination of genders are, at present, unable to adopt children.

Some regional governments in Spain, however, allow adoption for non-married couples of either sex, by stretching their federal laws.

Otherwise, to claim a widows' or widowers' pension, the couple must have been living together as such for an uninterrupted six years before the death.

The government has also said that the absence of prior laws protecting non-married, but serious, couples means their situation can only be identified and proven via their social security payments.