The STF (Supreme Federal Court) formed a majority on Monday night (11) against releasing the so-called “lifelong review” for those who had already gone to court and asked for their pensions to be recalculated. After the formation of the scoreboard, at the request of the President of the Court, Minister Edson Fachin, interrupted the trial.
The analysis deals with an appeal that attempts to guarantee retirees the right to a “lifelong review” from the INSS (National Social Security Institute) even after the court overturned the thesis. The revision allowed recalculating INSS benefits based on contributions made before July 1994which could increase the amount paid to some policyholders.
The trial was being carried out in a virtual plenary session, that is, without discussion between the judges. However, Fachin asked for emphasis, resetting the current score and taking the debate to the plenary, which does not yet have a date to resume.
With seven votes to one, the collegiate had followed the understanding of the rapporteur, minister Kassio Nunes Marques. Minister Cármen Lúcia and ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, Gilmar Mendes and Luiz Fux voted with him. Only Minister Dias Toffoli disagreed.
In his vote, Nunes Marques states that the topic has already been “thoroughly” debated by the Supreme Court, which rejected the thesis in March 2024. “The right to a so-called review of one’s entire life has already been repeatedly rejected by this Supreme Court,” he says.
According to the rapporteur, the STF has already guaranteed sufficient protection for retirees by deciding that anyone who received lifetime review amounts until April 2024 will not need to return the money or pay costs and fees.
Although, This does not mean maintaining the right to recalculate pensions for those who still had shares in progress. According to Nunes Marques, preserving these benefits would mean maintaining payments “in disagreement with the established thesis” by the Supreme Court.
Toffoli argues that countless INSS retirees trusted the “whole life review” thesis, accepted by the Supreme Court in 2022. However, the change in the Court’s position in 2024 frustrated the expectations of policyholders.
“We need to take into account the profile of the people affected by the Court’s change in understanding: elderly people, low-income people, rural workers, pensioners in situations of economic vulnerability and their respective families”, says the minister in his vote.
He adds that people who took legal action to be entitled to review “organized their financial lives” based on this expectation, and are now experiencing difficulty or inability to reorganize themselves financially.
What is the “whole life review”
The INSS “lifetime review” is a mechanism that allowed retirees to choose the most advantageous calculation rule for retirement payments.
The discussion dates back to the creation of the Real Plan, in 1994. With the creation of the plan, the INSS started to consider only salaries after July of that year when calculating retirement.
In practice, the measure harmed those who earned well before 1994 and started to earn less after.
With the “life review”, the Supreme for these old contributions (before 1994) to enter the account, which would increase the value of the benefit for some Brazilians.
The judgment in favor of the thesis took place in 2022. However, in 2024, the court .
At the time, the ministers were judging actions relating to the Social Security Benefits Law. The plenary formed a majority so that a rule for calculating retirement must be compulsorily followed, which bars the retiree’s power of choice regarding the possibility of opting for review.
The action that was analyzed by the collegiate last week was presented by the CNTM (National Confederation of Metal Workers), which argued that the Supreme Court should limit the temporal impact of the decision that barred the “lifelong review”. The objective would be to allow those who filed lawsuits before the court’s change of understanding to not be harmed.
