Knowledge

The Decree-Law no. 119/2018, dated as of  December 27^th, created a new regime to loosening the access to old-age pension for very long contributory careers, in order to value these long careers and turn the system more equitable and transparent, allowing each employee to adjust the retirement age, according to their own contribution career.

This new scheme is addressed to beneficiaries who are at least 60 years old and who complete at least 40 years of pay statements. Thus, despite maintaining the criteria for the annual fixing of the normal retirement age, according to the average life expectancy, the new scheme provides the possibility of reducing the age to access to the old-age pension in four months for each year of contributions over the 40, without requiring compliance with the minimum age limit of 65 years.

On the other hand, the new regime eliminates the sustainability factor applied in situations of early access to old-age pension, extinguishing the double penalty that pensioners have been suffering.

 These changes take effect on:

a)   January 1^st, 2019, for beneficiaries aged 63 or over, whose pensions start from that date; or

b)   October 1^st, 2019, for beneficiaries aged 60 or over, whose pensions start as from that date.

 Finally, it was safeguarded the possibility to access the old-age pension through the previous flexibilization scheme, for the beneficiaries who do not meet the conditions to access to the new flexibilization regime.