Portuguese people who retire from 2042 onwards will be “the most penalized”, as they will face lower public pensions, a direct consequence of the calculation rules applied to the contributory system. The warning was left by the president of the Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority (ASF), placing the future of reforms at the center of the economic debate.
At stake is not only the value of pensions, but the way in which the system responds to demographic aging, the evolution of the job market and the financial preparation of citizens for the post-professional period.
According to Jornal PT50, Gabriel Bernardino warned that, from 2042 onwards, public pension replacement rates will decrease, as the calculation will consider the entire contributory career. This factor particularly penalizes those who are still far from retirement age today.
According to the same source, the person in charge addressed the issue at a conference of the Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority dedicated to long-term savings, in a context in which national and European decision-makers linked to financial policies participated.
Savings exist, but they are poorly applied
Before addressing solutions, the president of the ASF highlighted that the savings of Portuguese families are not residual. The publication writes that, in the third quarter of 2025, the savings rate reached 12.5%, the highest value in the last 20 years.
Still, around 84% of these savings remain in bank deposits, limiting their ability to generate real income and protect purchasing power against inflation.
“In Portugal, a large part of savings does not produce value and, when it is idle, it loses purchasing power due to inflation”, said Gabriel Bernardino. The person responsible pointed out the absence of an effective ecosystem that transforms savings into productive investment. The same source states that national pension funds manage around 19.5 billion euros, a small amount given the future challenges of the pension system.
Criticisms of the PPR model
The president of the ASF was critical of the current framework of the Retirement Savings Plans (PPR). According to the same source, these instruments should function as long-term capitalization products, but they rarely fulfill this function.
Gabriel Bernardino added that many PPRs are used mainly for tax benefits or immediate liquidity, also mentioning that a significant part has returns below inflation.
Given this scenario, the person responsible argued that supplementary savings should assume a structural role in the system. “Supplementary savings are no longer optional and become structural in order to protect the standard of living in retirement”, he stated, cited by the same source. This change implies a reorganization of the current model, with greater coordination between workers, companies and the legal framework.
Among the proposals presented, the automatic enrollment of workers in defined contribution occupational pension plans stands out. According to , the worker would maintain the possibility of choosing not to participate.
Gabriel Bernardino also defended the creation of a national pension tracking system, allowing each citizen to consult the forecast of public and supplementary retirement income on a single platform, a measure already recommended by the European Commission.
Also read:
