Ombudsman calls for urgent changes to prevent seizures of pensions in excess of the amount allowed by law

The Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, sent a recommendation to the President of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Social Security (ISS), urging the urgent implementation of a mechanism to ensure the automatic adjustment of the value of pension attachments to successive updates of the National Minimum Wage (SMN) so as to respect, in the event of attachment, the minimum value of unseizability according to the SMN at that time in force.

Until such mechanism becomes operational, the Ombudsman also recommends that the ISS proceed to manually survey and correct the seizures in progress in all cases where, after deduction, the pension paid is less than the amount of the SMN in force, so that the seizures that violate the legally established minimum unseizability to ensure the subsistence of the person concerned cease immediately and without the need for a request from the interested party executed.

By way of example, since 2018 the value of the SMN has risen from EUR 580 to EUR 600 (in 2019) and to EUR 635 (in 2020); this means that, until the current system is corrected, a pension attachment started in 2018 that still remains active will be leaving the pensioner executed for less than EUR 55/month than the minimum amount that the legislator wanted to guarantee him, or it will be levied on pensions that, in the meantime, have become completely unattachable.

According to article 38 of its Statute, the Ombudsman’s recommendations are addressed to the competent body to correct the illegal or unjust act or the irregular situation of the respective services, and the addressee of the recommendation must communicate, within 60 days, the position he takes on the matter. 

The Ombudsman may act on his own initiative, but as a rule he receives and analyses citizens’ complaints. However, the Ombudsman has no binding decision-making powers. His power lies in the good reasoning of the positions he takes and in his ability to mediate. He can address any calls, suggestions or recommendations to the competent bodies that he deems necessary to prevent and redress injustices. It may also request the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality or legality of the rules.

To read the recommendation click here [in Portuguese only].