Were there guidelines or not? There are new details about pension arrangements

A The controversy surrounding the adjustment of pensions received new details on Thursday, with the hearing of the president of the Social Security Institute (ISS), Ana Margarida Vasques, who guaranteed that there was no alignment or guidance from the previous guardianship regarding dates for adjusting IRS withholding on pensions.

“There was no alignment here on dates, or anything, nor guidelines from the previous guardianship” and “no decision was made on the retention tables with the guardianship, with any guardianship, neither with this nor with the previous“, said the president of ISS, during a hearing in Parliament.

Ana Margarida Vasques explained that the IRS adjustment of pensions took place in April and May after the completion of IT developments and associated tests to this correction without jeopardizing the remaining benefits.

“You arrangements were made in April and Maywhen it was possible to complete the IT developments and tests associated with this correction without compromising the processing of the remaining social benefits”, stated the president of the ISS.

Ana Margarida Vasques stated that it was “a technical issue“, which has “precedents” and which cannot “have any other reading, particularly of a political nature“.

What is at stake?

On April 29, after Jornal de Negócios reported the case of pensioners who were faced with a reduction in the net value of their May pension, the ISS clarified that adjustments were made in the IRS withholding of April and May pensions to correct the withholding made in January based on a “provisional” table for 328 thousand pensioners.

This issue of the provisional retention table and subsequent adjustments took the new government by surprisewith the office of the current Minister of Labor, Maria do Rosário Ramalho, revealing “astonishment” and highlighting that the matter was not conveyed by the previous executive, who accused of wanting to give an “artificial idea” of increasing pensions before the elections legislative.

Maria do Rosário Ramalho also pointed out the fact that this topic was not conveyed to her in the meeting she had with the president of the ISS, after taking charge of the Ministry of Labor.

On Thursday, at the hearing, the president of the ISS said that she did not address the topic in the meeting “of just over an hour” that she had with the minister, saying that she addressed topics that require a political decision or that seemed more relevant to her, and not this question because the adjustment of withholding taxes at source “are purely technical issues, which do not require or require any authorization from the guardianship”, because “what we are doing is applying the law“.

Even so, stated that he informed the Secretary of State for Social Security of the issue when on April 24th he received the questions from Jornal de Negócios.

What rights are at stake? Here are the values

In response to questions posed at the hearing, the president of ISS said that the adjustments made in May (payment of a higher amount of tax to compensate for what was paid less in January) average around 8.8 euros.

Thus, for pensions worth between 944.80 euros and 1,433 euros, the tax refund was between one and five euros; in pensions between 1,433 and 1,816 euros the refund was eight euros and in pensions between 1,816 and 3,364, the refund was around 12 euros.

Read Also: President of the ISS denies that there were any guidelines from the IRS on pensions

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