This Friday (20), the Federal Supreme Court (STF) formed a majority to reject two appeals against a decision, from March this year, which overturned the possibility of .
Until the publication of this report, the score was 7 votes to 1 for the rejection of the appeals. The following voted against the requests: Nunes Marques (rapporteur), Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia, Gilmar Mendes, Luiz Fux and Luís Roberto Barroso.
Minister Alexandre de Moraes disagreed and . The recalculation is a demand from retirees who seek to review the amounts received monthly from the INSS.
The case is analyzed in a virtual session that began this Friday (20). The trial runs until September 27th. In the format, there is no debate between ministers and votes are presented in an electronic system.
The Court judges appeals presented by the Institute of Social Security Studies (Ieprev) and the National Confederation of Metalworkers (CNTM) against a decision by the STF itself, which invalidated the understanding that allowed the review of pensions.
At the time, by 7 votes to 4, the STF ministers understood that retirees cannot opt for the most advantageous rule when calculating their benefit. This, in practice, overturned the “lifelong review” that had been validated in 2022, in another process.
The position was presented by minister Cristiano Zanin and accompanied by Flávio Dino, Luiz Fux, Dias Toffoli, Gilmar Mendes, Roberto Barroso and Nunes Marques.
Ministers Alexandre de Moraes, André Mendonça, Edson Fachin and Cármen Lúcia were defeated.
The decision was given in two actions that questioned points of a 1999 rule that changed points of the Social Security Benefits Law, as a result of the Social Security reform approved the previous year.
By validating one of these points, which deals with a rule for calculating retirement, the ministers voted for it to be compulsorily followed. This, in practice, bars the retiree’s power of choice, which supported the possibility of him opting for the “whole life review” rule.
There is great interest on the part of the federal government in avoiding authorization to review pensions due to the alleged expense that it would cause to the public coffers. An initial impact estimate was calculated at R$480 billion, in a “pessimistic” scenario in which all retirees could review their benefits.
The review
The “lifetime review” has this name because it refers to the recalculation of the retirement value considering all contributions made during the worker’s lifetime, including those prior to the adoption of the Real Plan in 1994.
According to the transition rule adopted after the 1998 pension reform, only contributions made from 1994 onwards should be considered for calculating retirement.
The rule was adopted to avoid harming workers due to high inflation before the Real Plan. It turns out that, in some cases, there was a loss, and the worker would receive a higher pension if he could be covered by the definitive rule and not the transition rule.
In December 2022, the STF decided that retirees could opt for the rule that was most advantageous. Thus, he validated the recalculation considering the contributions made during his pre-Plano Real life (the so-called “whole life”).
