Employees who retired in September and October 2022 were not entitled to the half-board bonus, which was paid to all retirees last month in monthly installments of up to 5,318 euros, due to a delay in the processing of pensions by Social Security, according to complaints that some pensioners sent to Dinheiro Vivo and which the Ministry of Labor did not deny when questioned by the DV.
Despite having retired in September and October, these retirees did not receive the benefit until November, excluding them from the bonus. In a letter sent to claimants by Social Security in September, it is stated that the request for old-age pension has been granted, but also that the payment of the pensions relating to September and October will not take place until November, without any reference to the extraordinary supplement of 50% of the installment that, according to the executive, cost almost a billion euros. Due to this delay, these beneficiaries were now ineligible for the support created by the government, with resources from the state budget and not from social security, intended to mitigate the negative effects of inflation.
According to Legislative Decree No. 57-C/2022 of September 6, “the exceptional supplement for pensioners (…) corresponds to an additional amount of 50% of the total amount earned, related to a specific package of social benefits services, in October 2022”. This means that until that month there is no record of the payment of pensions, the social security authorities do not grant such a supplement. This is the case with several taxpayers who had their pension applications accepted in September and October, but only started paying in November.
For the past two months, Dinheiro Vivo has been questioning the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security headed by Ana Mendes Godinho emphatically about the reasons that led to the exclusion of these pensioners from the half-pension bonus. Dinheiro Vivo also wanted to know if the socialist government of António Costa intends to rectify the situation, as it was caused by the delay in the payment of new reforms, which were granted by the social security in September and October, but until the end of this edition, no response received. .
Contrary to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, the Department of Labor never replied to the PCP’s written questions on this matter.
The PCP faction already warned of this situation on October 20 last year, when it sent a written question to the Minister of Labour, Ana Mendes Godinho. However, the official never spoke, in violation of the rules of the Assembly of the Republic, which state that “the government and public administration must respond with the urgency warranting the demand, and the response must not exceed 30 days” . To Dinheiro Vivo, the communist deputy, Alfredo Maia, revealed that “the parliamentary group will return to the charge”. “This is an injustice that must be rectified,” he insists.
However, the ministry’s silence reveals that the guardianship does not deny the existence of these cases, the number of which is difficult to ascertain. It is possible to know that more than five thousand pensions were paid between September and November, but this value includes not only the new reforms granted in September and October, but also those of November, and the latter could no longer benefit from the addition to the pension, because the respective beneficiaries were not yet pensioners in October. In the latter case, they could therefore be entitled to a check for 125 euros, addressed to employees or beneficiaries of social benefits.
In one of the reported situations, Dinheiro Vivo questioned a pensioner who did not receive a pension supplement, whether he had then received the check for 125 euros that was awarded to all holders of gross income up to 2,700 euros per month or up to 38,700 euros per month. year. And the answer was no, but because the target would have reported wages that exceeded those maximum limits. In any case, the pension he would be entitled to would be less than EUR 5318, so according to the law he met the requirements for the half-board bonus to be awarded.
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So, and given last year’s explosive inflation rate, which reached 7.8% according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), these retirees were doubly penalized: they were denied the extraordinary allowance and suffered the same discount, applied bonuses, at the updating the reforms for this year, which will backfire as the pension base for calculating future increases is permanently reduced. It is recalled that instead of increasing the 2.7 million social security pensioners and Caixa Geral de Aposentação by 8.42% for benefits up to 960.86 euros (twice the IAS-Indexante dos Apoios Sociais , which rose to €480.43 this year), by 8.06% for renovations between €960.86 and €2882.58 (six times the IAS) and by 7.46% for renovations between €2882.58 and €5765 .16 euros (12 times the IAS), decided to lower those coefficients to 4.83%, 4.49% and 3.89%, respectively.
Salomé Pinto is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
