According to the Social Security Service, the number of old-age pensions granted in 2023 increased by 19.2% compared to the previous year to 102,435, and the average value of new pensions increased by 3.4% to 687.41 euros.
According to data requested by Lusa from the Social Security Institute (ISS), 102,435 new old-age pensions were awarded in 2023, an increase of 16,487 compared to 2022, when the total number of new pensions was 85,948.
ISS highlights that the average value of new pensions “has been trending upward in recent years as a result of new retirees’ retirement careers becoming more consistent than in previous decades.”
In 2023, the average amount of new pensions was 687.41 euros, which is almost 23 euros more than in the previous year (664.77 euros). The institute emphasizes that compared to 2017, when a special regime came into force allowing early retirement without penalties for a very long career, the increase in the average pension in 2023 amounted to more than 67 euros, since this year the average pension was 620.25 euros.
“On October 1, 2017, Decree-Law No. 126-B/2017 came into force, which establishes a special regime of early access to old-age pensions for recipients of the general social security regime and the social protection regime approaching a very long career,” recalls ISS in in his answers to Lusa. The data also shows that workers retired earlier on average in 2023 than in 2022, as the average age of new retirees last year was 65.1 (compared to 65.2 in 2022).
The legal retirement age in 2023 was set at 66 years and 4 months and will remain stable in 2024. There were 21,769 new pensions awarded under the early retirement scheme last year, down 7.6% on 2022.
Early retirement is typically subject to a double reduction due to the sustainability factor, which in 2023 corresponded to a penalty of 13.8% of the value of the pension and a reduction of 0.5% for each month of early retirement compared to legal or personal. Retirement age.
Of the total number of early pensions last year, more than 40% (9,039) were awarded after long-term unemployment, that is, people who had been unemployed for more than 12 months and met the conditions to access this special pension regime. .
These pensions, awarded after long-term unemployment, accounted for 8.8% of total new pensions in 2023, up from 12% in 2022 and 20.7% in 2017, the institute said.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.