The waiting time for some reforms to be granted may decrease significantly in the coming months. Pensions resulting from discounts made to Social Security and Caixa Geral de Aposentações continue to take the longest, but the Government is preparing changes that promise to speed up this process.
According to the economic newspaper ECO, currently granting these unified pensions takes an average of around seven months. The expectation is that this period will be reduced to less than half by the end of the first semester.
Pensions that involve two systems take the longest
The so-called unified pensions concern workers who have made contributions throughout their career to two different systems. This happens, for example, when part of the career was spent in the public sector, covered by Caixa Geral de Aposentações, and another part in the private sector, covered by Social Security.
According to the publication, this type of process requires coordination between two distinct entities, which makes the procedure more complex and time-consuming. The authorities’ intention is to simplify this articulation between the two systems.
Luís Farrajota, president of the Social Security Informatics Institute, states that the priority is to reduce the time needed to decide these social security processes. The person responsible indicates to the same source that the average decision period could go from six to seven months to less than half by the end of the first semester.
For the manager, this is an important step in the system modernization process. The idea is to reorganize the way information is collected and processed.
Information can be prepared before ordering
One of the planned changes involves bringing forward the administrative work related to the reform. Social Security intends to gather the necessary data in advance to calculate the pension.
Thus, when the worker announces that he intends to retire, the process can be completed much more quickly. This model is closer to a more automated system for granting social benefits.
The State may notify the citizen before the request
Automation is one of the objectives of the social protection system. According to ECO, some social benefits are already granted automatically when the State identifies that the citizen meets the necessary conditions. Bolsa Família is one example of this model.
The intention is to progressively apply this logic also to the social security process: in the future, Social Security will be able to inform citizens that they have the right to retirement even before they submit a formal request.
New service model in preparation
At the same time, Social Security is preparing a new service model. The objective is to allow citizens and companies to resolve their issues through different channels with the same effectiveness. These channels include digital service, telephone, video calling and in-person service. The intention is that any of these means will allow the same administrative processes to be handled.
The objective is to reduce in-person orders
The changes are part of a broader plan to modernize the system. According to the same source, one of the defined objectives is to reduce the response time to requests submitted by citizens and companies by around 50 percent.
Another objective is to reduce the number of face-to-face services at Social Security counters by around 20 percent. The expectation is that many processes can be resolved remotely.
Administrative simplification for companies
Among the planned projects is also the simplification of the so-called contribution cycle. Social Security is testing a model in which part of the necessary information is automatically collected by the system.
More than five thousand companies have already participated in a pilot project that aims to reduce the need to send monthly remuneration statements. The idea is that, when the State already has the necessary information, it will stop demanding that companies repeat the sending of data.
Changes also planned for independent workers
Another objective is to eliminate quarterly declarations for self-employed workers. According to , this change depends on the connection between the Federal Revenue and Social Security systems. Data integration will allow tax information to be automatically shared between the two entities.
If this connection comes to fruition, independent workers may no longer have to manually communicate various data. These changes are part of a broader process of administrative modernization that aims to simplify the relationship between citizens and Social Security.
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