Social security benefit suspension requires a formal decision, not automatic legal effect upon departure.

The Supreme Court reversed lower court rulings that denied a backdated disability pension to a claimant who had left the country. The claimant argued that the pension should have been paid retroactively from October 1989, while the Social Security Institution and lower courts maintained that the benefit was suspended by law upon his departure in 1981. The court held that the statutory provision suspending payments does not take effect automatically but requires a formal administrative decision to be issued and served on the recipient.