According to the company, about a million euros from Portuguese expats who worked in Switzerland and left these amounts in social security accounts have been recovered by a firm dedicated to locating these forgotten amounts.
“SPNow” was created in 2021 by the descendants of emigrants who unknowingly had money in Swiss pension funds and who began to help other emigrants in the same situation.
According to the Swiss Federal Financial Control Authority, 5 billion euros were “forgotten” in 625 thousand Swiss pension funds owned by foreigners of different nationalities who worked there.
This was due to a change in Swiss law, which in 1985 introduced a second tier of social security (compulsory occupational pension), which aims to supplement workers’ pensions.
But whenever there was a change in the workers’ journey, be it to a new company, unemployment or return to the country of origin, funds had to be transferred from one fund to another, which did not happen, and the amounts remained in several drawers. without workers’ complaints.
Renata Santos, in charge of the company in Portugal, told Lusa that since 2021, about a thousand Portuguese expats have registered on the platform to try to find out if they have money in these boxes.
According to him, more than a third (about 35%) have already managed to receive some amount, totaling one million euros.
The values found range from 150 to 20 thousand euros in some cases, he said.
The company only charges for services when it discovers that the money is due back and does not even need to know the amount, which Renata Santos says exceeds the €5 billion originally advanced and should be around €13 billion.
Switzerland is the third country in the world where the majority of Portuguese emigrate, after Spain and the UK. In 2021, the country is once again the country where the most Portuguese emigrants acquired citizenship, according to the Emigration Report published in January this year.
More than 255 thousand Portuguese live in Switzerland, forming the third largest foreign community after the Italians and Germans.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.