Early retirements may be at risk

The Government created a working group to study social security reform. The early retirement regime may have its days numbered. The Executive wants to prioritize policies that encourage workers to stay and increase contributions to the system.

Ensuring the long-term sustainability of the social security system in Portugal – this is the argument the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security has to make changes to reforms.

The order, signed by Minister Rosário Palma Ramalho and to which Lusa had access, says that the working group begins on Thursday and must present a final report with the proposals and recommendations at the beginning of 2026.

The early retirement regime will be analyzed by the working group, with the minister highlighting that “priority should be given to policies that encourage remain in active life and increase the volume of contributionspromoting the sustainability of the system in the medium and long term”.

In practice – notes the (CM) -, the Government’s objective with these policies is blocking access to retirement before the legal age.

The legal retirement age this year is 66 years and seven months. Age is set based on life expectancy at 65 years, determined annually by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

As the CM details, currently, they can retire in advance workers with 46 years of discounts or exhausting professions; or workers with 60 years and 40 years of discounts. The law also provides for access to early retirement for long-term unemployed people aged 52 and overif they were involuntarily dismissed.

Recommendation of the Court of Auditors

The governor justifies the creation of this working group, made up of 10 people, in accordance with what is foreseen in the Government’s program, which established as a priority the commitment to the sustainability and modernization of the social security system, with the recommendations from the Court of Auditorsin which the audit highlighted the need to ensure the financial stability of the system, and with the contributions received from the Social Security Green Paper and the specific recommendation for Portugal from the European Commission.

According to the document, the working group will carry out “an actuarial review of the global contribution rate of the Social Security System” and “promote an integrated analysis of the sustainability, adequacy and intra and intergenerational equity of public social protection systems, encompassing the System Social Security, the convergent social protection regime of Caixa Geral de Aposentações, and the Citizenship Social Protection System, considering the different eventualities covered, with a long-term strategic vision of the Integrated Social Security System”.

The working group’s missions are also to “promote an integrated analysis of the sustainability of the pension system encompassing the Citizenship Social Protection System and the Social Security System, with a long-term strategic vision of the Integrated Social Security System” and to make “a analysis of the sustainability of the Caixa Geral de Aposentações convergent Social Protection Regime”, in addition to “defining strategies and evaluating proposals that guarantee the long-term sustainability of the pension system and improve its adequacy and equity”.