The more than 11,000 taxpayers who asked for the reform in 2022 were punished with a lower pension compared to what they would be entitled to because the government failed to update wage values reported to Social Security or Caixa Geral de Aposentação, according to average annual inflation in 2021, which came in at 1.24%. Dinheiro Vivo calculations indicate losses of up to 13.92 euros per month for a term of 800 euros.
The charge came from Eugénio Rosa, affiliated with the CGTP. “The government has failed to comply with Law 187/2007, harming the rights of workers who have retired in 2022 and who receive a lower pension than they are entitled to,” reads a study published by the economist. Faced with Dinheiro Vivo, the Ministry of Labor assured that “the annual revaluation rates for benefits will be applied to all retirees who retire in 2022”. “With the payment of retroactive payments, all amounts to which pensioners are entitled by the revaluation provided for in article n.º 27 of Decree Law 187/2007 will be paid,” now adds an official source from the Ministry of Ana Mendes Godinho .
Facing the DV, the Treasury and Labor ministries published the regulation this Monday evening and are guaranteeing that the annual allowance revaluation will be applied to all those who retire in 2022 with retroactive effect to January.
Only this Monday evening, after the DV urged the Ministries of Finance and Labor responsible for this matter not to publish the regulation, did the legal text update the coefficients of the contributing career transferring salary values come. at current prices and therefore affect the value of the pension. The diploma is retroactive to January 1, 2022, as guaranteed by the guardianship. It should be remembered that in 2021 the regulation was published only in August, albeit with effect from the beginning of the year. Since the average annual inflation for 2020 was negative, there was no update of wages in 2021. But the same did not happen for the calculation of the reforms requested in 2022.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the average annual inflation rate for 2021 excluding housing was 1.24%. This would be the coefficient to be used (1.24) for the revaluation of wages declared to Social Security, in the private sector, or to Caixa Geral de Aposentação, in the case of the civil service. However, for maturities registered between January 1, 2002 and January 31, 2011, the calculations are different. According to the diploma, for that series of years, the weighting is used of 75% of inflation, excluding housing, and of 25% of the average evolution of the income underlying the contributions indicated, whenever this is higher than the increase in prices, and may exceed inflation by 0.5 percentage point. It means that “salaries can be updated to 1.74 between 2002 and 2011,” as economist Jorge Bravo explained to Dinheiro Vivo. The now published regulation confirms the amounts advanced by the specialist.
For those who have retired in 2022, it is therefore possible to calculate the fine globally with a difference between 1.24% and 1.74%. A pensioner with a minimum pension of €278.05 could be entitled to €3.45 to €4.8 per month more. A pensioner with an average pension of EUR 500 should receive an additional EUR 6.2 to EUR 8.7 and a pension of EUR 800 should increase between EUR 9.92 and EUR 13.92, applying the appropriate coefficients for the revaluation of the contributing career. It corresponds to a loss of almost 200 euros for these pensioners. These values can always vary depending on the amounts of the declared remuneration and the years of social security discounts or Caixa Geral de Aposentação.
For the specialist in pensions and social security: “If the government does not correct this situation, it will again mean a permanent reduction in pensions, which will have very serious consequences in the future”. Since the law is being broken, Jorge Bravo emphasizes that any pensioner can ask for a pension recalculation. Eugénio Rosa also recommends filing a complaint with the Ministry of Labor and filing a complaint with the Ombudsman.
Jorge Bravo also recalls that “the executive is using another tool to reduce pensions in real terms, having decided to halve the value of this year’s update in exchange for the half-board bonus to be paid in October 2022”. If the executive had fully applied the pension update formula, which takes into account the average annual inflation recorded in November and the average GDP growth over the last two years, the increases would range from 8.06% for pensions to 960.86 euros and 7.46% for installments between 2882.58 euros and 5765.16 euros. But the government deducted the extraordinary supplement of pensions and imposed an update between 4.83% and 3.89%.
At the moment there are about 3.5 million retirees from Social Security and Caixa Geral de Aposentação. To determine the number of new retirees in 2022, and since there is no final data for last year yet, Dinheiro Vivo was based on the latest publication of the Ministry of Labor, which reports the existence of 2.077 million retirees in November last year , an increase of 11,983 retirees compared to the 2.065 million registered in the same period of 2021.
Source: DN
