The Pension reform in Brazil was a proposal by the Brazilian government to amend the Constitution for the reform of the social security system of the country. By changing the country's constitution, it had to be approved in both houses of the National Congress by an absolute majority. The reform was created to combat the giant deficit in the pension system, of more than R$194 billion in 2018, and the rapid aging of the Brazilian population.
The original text was delivered by the President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro to the President of the Chamber of Deputies Rodrigo Maia on 20 February 2019 to initiate the legal rite. The reform proposal was approved by the Federal Senate on 22 October 2019, becoming law and coming into force automatically. Among other details, the reform raises the retirement age and requires more time for civil service workers to receive a maximum retirement benefit.
Previous reform attempts Until the reform was approved in 2019, other governments had tried to approve their proposals. In Brazil's most recent history, the country has been debating pension reform every ten years, in some cases the proposals have simply been shelved as extremely unpopular, in others, mini-reforms have been made, but with long-term null effects, and in one case, the reform was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies by only one vote.
Already in the 1990s, the first attempts at reform predicted that with the aging of the Brazilian population over the next 20 years, the current pension system would become unsustainable, and this has proven true in recent years, with the deficit rising each year.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
The first president to try to reform Brazil's pension system was Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the year 1995, when he presented his proposal to amend the Constitution. The bill was only approved by Congress three years later, resulting in a very dehydrated reform that had almost no long-term impacts.
Its main point was the minimum retirement ages of 55 years for women and 60 for men. As the first attempt in the country's history, the measure was extremely unpopular, and difficult to pass. Brazil's constitution says any amendment must be approved by an absolute majority in both houses, 308 votes in the Chamber of Deputies and 49 votes in the Senate. The main point of the proposal was rejected on the night of 6 May 1998 by the House by only one vote, the deputy Antonio Kandir of the ruling party PSDB, wrongly voted in abstention, causing the defeat of the government and the proposal.
At the end of the process, Fernando Henrique only passed a law that set minimum ages of 48 (women) and 53 (men) for federal servants to retire.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva In Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration, there was a change in social security rules, centered on federal servants. A constitutional amendment restricted the possibility of full retirement to those who entered their careers until 2003. Those who joined after that had their benefits calculated according to the average of their contribution to Social Security. Retired servers now have an 11% discount. Minimum ages increased to 55 years (women) and 60 years (men).
Dilma Rousseff For the first time, the private sector workers were hit in 2015 under the Dilma Rousseff government, with the rule known as 85/95. The standard grants full retirement to workers who, summing the contribution time and age, achieve a score equal to or greater than 85 points (for women) and 95 points (for men). The sum is progressive and currently stands at 86/96 points. Dilma also implemented Funpresp, a federal servant's supplementary social security fund, in 2013. Those who started their careers after Funpresp have their retirement limited to the INSS ceiling (R$5,839.45), with the option to contribute to the complementary fund.
Michel Temer With the worsening of public accounts and the widening Social Security deficit, the Michel Temer government presented a broad reform proposal in December 2016. The articulation, however, sank in the face of complaints against the now former president.
Jair Bolsonaro's proposal
Jair Bolsonaro won the elections with economically liberal, pro-market proposals. The Bolsonaro government's economic team, led by Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes, predicted that without the reform, Brazil would have no scope for investment in all areas of government.
They also predicted that mandatory expenditures would consume 100% of the budget as early as 2022. Estimates made by the Ministry of Planning showed that expenditures that the government cannot cut (such as those with social security benefits, personnel, allowance and unemployment insurance) would jump from 91.8% in 2017 to 101.4% in 2022. That means the economic team would have no margin to make investments and would still need to cut the budget to be able to close their accounts. According to Planning projections, discretionary expenses (essentially investments), which are already small, would be reduced gradually. They would go from 8.2% in 2017 to 2.1% in 2021. By 2022, this percentage is negative, at 1.4%, in order to make room for mandatory expenditure.
Minimum age and contribution time The proposal creates a minimum retirement age. At the end of the transition period, there is no longer the possibility of retirement for contribution time. The minimum retirement age will be 62 for women and 65 for men for both private and servants.
Transition rules The proposal provides for five transition rules, four of which are exclusive to private sector workers already on the market, one specific for servers and one common rule for all. Part of the rules will apply for up to 14 years after the reform is approved. Already the retirement rule by age (with 15 years of contribution for both sexes) will be guaranteed for all who already work in the market. By the text, the insured can always opt for the most advantageous form.
Civil service The civil service also had changes. The plan has taken servers to take up to 30 years to reach the highest salaries. According to data from the Ministry of Planning, today a person starts his career as a government manager with a starting salary of R$16,993.64. In just six years, the salary of this server can reach R$20,521.98. The top of his career reaches 13 years of service: R$24,142.66. By the proposed project, the starting salary would be much lower, R$5,000, and it would only be possible to reach the highest salary after 30 years. Gradation would be slower, and the salary of R$20,521.98 would only be obtained after a period of 23 years. The expectation, with this measure, was to provide the public coffers with savings of R$18.6 billion over five years.
Rural According to the text, the minimum age is maintained at 55 years for women and 60 for men. The minimum contribution time is also 15 years for women and men. The proposal affects, besides rural workers, people who perform family economy activities, including prospectors and artisanal fishermen.
Permanent disability Under the proposal, the benefit, which today is called disability retirement and is 100% of the average contribution salary for all, is now 60% plus 2% per annum of contribution that exceeds 20 years. In the event of disability due to an accident at work, occupational or occupational diseases, the benefit calculation does not change. The changes only affect the elementary and middle school teachers. For teachers of municipal and state networks nothing changes either, since states and municipalities were left out of reform.
Pension for death Under the proposal, the value of the death pension will be lower. For both private and public sector workers, the family benefit will be 50% plus 10% per dependent, up to 100% for five or more dependents. However, the text also guarantees the benefit of at least one minimum wage in any situation. In the Chamber of Deputies, this floor is expected to be valid only in cases where the beneficiary has no other source of formal income. Those who already receive death benefits will not have their benefit changed. Dependents of employees who joined before the creation of supplementary pension will have the benefit calculated obeying the ceiling of the INSS.
Benefit accrual limit Today, there is no limit to accumulating different benefits. The proposal provides that the beneficiary will receive 100% of the highest value benefit, plus a percentage of the sum of the others. This percentage will be 80% for benefits up to one minimum wage; 60% for between one and two salaries; 40% between two and three; 20% between three and four; and 10% for benefits above four minimum wages. Out of the new rule will be the accumulation of pensions provided for by law: doctors, teachers, pensions of their own regime or of the Armed Forces with general regime. The Chamber included in this forecast amounts received as compensation for political amnesties, which may be accrued with other benefits.
Salary allowance The payment of the salary bonus continues to be paid to workers with income up to two minimum wages (R$1,996). The proposal to limit the allowance to those who earn up to R$1,364.43 was overturned through a highlight (suggestion of amendment).
Family allowance and imprisonment allowance The text defines that the beneficiaries of family allowance and seclusion allowance should have income of up to R$1,364.43.
Retirement of Police and Penitentiary Agents The proposal only targets federal police officers, federal highway police officers, federal legislative police officers, Federal District civil police officers, federal prison officers, and federal socio-educational agents; For military police officers, civil police officers and firefighters, current rules are maintained, with their own requirements determined by each state. The rule maintains the minimum retirement age at 55 for newcomers, and determines at least 30 years of contribution, and 25 in the job for both sexes.
A rule has also been created that provides a smoother transition option for those who are already active and about to retire. The minimum age may be 53 years for men and 52 for women, provided that the employee meets a 100% toll (additional contribution period) corresponding to the time that, on the date of entry into force of the new Social Security, will be lacking to reach the Contribution times of the Supplementary Law 1985: 30 years for men, at least 20 years in office, and 25 years for women, at least 15 years in office.
Both rules provide that these police officers are entitled to full pay, which is the right to retire with benefits equal to the last salary. The text stipulating that military police officers and firefighters would have the same retirement and pension rules as the Armed Forces - which are not included in the federal government reform proposal - was left out of the text until a local supplementary law sets standards for these corporations. The government presented on March 30 the specific proposal for military pension reform, which will have another process in Congress - that is, the approval of this PEC changes nothing for them.
Teachers According to the text, teachers of basic education (kindergarten, elementary and high school) may retire with 57 years of age and 25 years of contribution; teachers, aged 60 and 25 years of contribution. For public network servers, the rules are the same, requiring at least 10 years of public service and five years in office. In the transition rules, the category will have a 5-point bonus in calculating the sum of the contribution time with age and a five-year reduction in the minimum age and minimum contribution time.