In 2023, almost 16% of new benefits were obtained through the courts

03/05/2024

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Alessandro Stefanutto — Foto: Wenderson Araujo/Valor

The National Institute of Social Security’s (INSS) pension contribution’s benefits granted by court orders in 2023 reached a new record: of the 5.964 million new benefits granted last year, 15.85% came from court decisions. Litigation is concentrated on benefits such as sickness benefits and old-age, disability, and special pensions.

In 2001, when official records began, judicial grants accounted for only 1% of the total, but this has grown year by year to 15.85% in 2023, according to a study carried out by Valor with the help of economist Rogerio Nagamine Costanzi, based on data from the INSS.

Luis Eduardo Afonso, an associate professor at the University of São Paulo’s School of Economics and Administration (FEA/USP), who also specializes in social security, said that the high level of benefits granted in courts is worrying and implies an increase in costs for both the government and the insured, as well as causing delays in the granting of benefits.

INSS President Alessandro Stefanutto admits that the current percentage of benefits granted in courts is high and said that it would be “reasonable” to keep it at around 5%. He believes that Atestmed—the granting of sickness benefits by a digital certificate, without face-to-face medical examination—will help reduce the percentage. “But that’s a personal opinion. I’m not speaking for the AGU [Federal Attorney General’s Office],” he said.

Atestmed was introduced by the government at the end of last year, and today almost 50% of temporary disability benefits (formerly sickness benefits) are granted using that tool. The goal is to further expand the use of this system among the population.

“In Italy, for example, litigation is very low. It’s less than 1%. European countries are at a different level when it comes to litigation,” he said. “There are several reasons. The first one is that the administrative decision is favored,” said the INSS president.

Mr. Stefanutto added that between November and December last year, the proportion of benefits granted by the courts fell to 13.7% from 15.2%. However, even with the reduction, he said that the percentage is “embarrassing” and needs to be reduced.

The INSS president said that in the case of benefits that are granted for a shorter period, such as sickness benefits, it is difficult to recover the amounts if they have been unduly paid because they are usually considered irrecoverable due to their alimentary nature. “But we continue to seek medical evidence to see if the person is on the mend. With Atestmed, I’ll have more [time for] the assessments [that need to be done],” he added.

Mr. Stefanutto acknowledged the difficulty of reducing the judicial grant of rural benefits, which is also one of the main causes of litigation. Currently, about 30% of rural pensions are granted through the courts, while the percentage for urban pensions is about 10%. “Proving rural status has always been a challenge because there are no reliable records. But there are government projects,” he said.

According to the INSS president, during the Rousseff administration, there was a move to create a registry similar to the National Social Information Registry (CNIS) to show how long people had worked in rural areas. “When the insured came to the INSS, there would already be much more evidence to grant a rural pension or even a disability benefit,” he said.

According to economist Rogerio Nagamine, a specialist in social security, disability benefits are highly litigated because they require medical examination. The same is true for rural retirement, due to the greater complexity of proving activity and older employment relationships needed to complete the qualifying period.

The economist also said that reducing the waiting list for benefits should be a concern for the government, as it would help reduce litigation. In 2023, the number of benefits requested monthly from the INSS from August to October was over 1 million, making the government’s task of reducing the queues even more difficult. In January, the waiting list stood at 1.57 million applications, despite the government’s efforts to reduce this number.

According to lawyer Diego Cherulli, director of the Brazilian Institute of Social Security Law (IDBP), the litigation figures could be much higher. “There are places where 50%, 60% of benefits are granted or postponed through the courts,” he said. “There are a lot of benefits granted in court that aren’t registered as such. We have this problem [of underreporting].”

According to data from the Ministry of Social Security, 39.302 million benefits were issued in 2023, and total spending on benefit payments amounted to R$909.13 billion. Of the benefits issued, 84.9% are equivalent to up to two minimum wages.

*Por Edna Simão, Jéssica Sant’Ana — Brasília

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/