Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly
Complemento solidário para idosos, CSI
Coverage
- Persons having resided in Portugal for at least 6 years who have reached the standard statutory retirement age, and who cannot sufficiently cover their necessary subsistence from (pension) income.
Financing
- The supplement is part of the subsystem of solidarity (social aid or assistance), which is entirely tax-financed through transfers from the state budget (Orçamento do Estado) and by the earmarking (consignação) of tax revenues.
Administration
- The ‘Institute of Social Security’ (Instituto da Segurança Social, I.P.) manages this supplement; the payment of the benefits is managed by one of its services, i.e. the National Pensions Centre (Centro Nacional de Pensões).
- The ‘Institute of Financial Management of Social Security’ (Instituto de Gestão Financeira da Segurança Social, I.P.) is in charge of the management of financial resources.
Qualifying Conditions
- Persons must have reached the standard statutory retirement age (i.e. 66 years and 5 months in 2020).
- Persons must have lived in Portugal for at least 6 consecutive years prior to application.
- Benefits are strictly means-tested: the household’s income from all sources shall not exceed EUR 5,258.63 per year for singles and EUR 9,202.60 per year for couples (i.e. the ‘value of reference’). A percentage of the value of assets is also considered. The means testing also takes into account the incomes of children (family solidarity component/ componente de solidariedade familiar). However, the impact of a descendant’s income in the evaluation of means (recursos) is disregarded up to a certain ceiling.
- Persons who do not fulfil the means testing conditions for the social old age pension can still be eligible for this supplement.
- Benefits can be combined with other social benefits, such as the social old age pension and the old age pension from the general social security scheme (incl. the social complement and the extraordinary supplement for pensions of minimums).
Benefits
- Benefits top up the difference between an individual’s financial resources (incl. resources of the household and descendants) and the individual value of reference.
- The maximum yearly amount is equal to the individual value of reference: EUR 5,258.63 per year in 2020. The individual value of reference is 12 times the Social Support Index (Indexante de Apoios Sociais, IAS), which is EUR 438.81 in 2020.
- Benefits are granted for 12 calendar months per year.
- Persons entitled to the supplementary benefit are also entitled to other social benefits (such as social health-related benefits).
- Benefits are not subject to income tax (taxable income must exceed the minimum level of subsistence/
1.5 IAS x 14).
Coverage
Financing
Administration
Qualifying Conditions
Benefits
- Persons having resided in Portugal for at least 6 years who have reached the standard statutory retirement age, and who cannot sufficiently cover their necessary subsistence from (pension) income.
- The supplement is part of the subsystem of solidarity (social aid or assistance), which is entirely tax-financed through transfers from the state budget (Orçamento do Estado) and by the earmarking (consignação) of tax revenues.
- The ‘Institute of Social Security’ (Instituto da Segurança Social, I.P.) manages this supplement; the payment of the benefits is managed by one of its services, i.e. the National Pensions Centre (Centro Nacional de Pensões).
- The ‘Institute of Financial Management of Social Security’ (Instituto de Gestão Financeira da Segurança Social, I.P.) is in charge of the management of financial resources.
- Persons must have reached the standard statutory retirement age (i.e. 66 years and 5 months in 2020).
- Persons must have lived in Portugal for at least 6 consecutive years prior to application.
- Benefits are strictly means-tested: the household’s income from all sources shall not exceed EUR 5,258.63 per year for singles and EUR 9,202.60 per year for couples (i.e. the ‘value of reference’). A percentage of the value of assets is also considered. The means testing also takes into account the incomes of children (family solidarity component/ componente de solidariedade familiar). However, the impact of a descendant’s income in the evaluation of means (recursos) is disregarded up to a certain ceiling.
- Persons who do not fulfil the means testing conditions for the social old age pension can still be eligible for this supplement.
- Benefits can be combined with other social benefits, such as the social old age pension and the old age pension from the general social security scheme (incl. the social complement and the extraordinary supplement for pensions of minimums).
- Benefits top up the difference between an individual’s financial resources (incl. resources of the household and descendants) and the individual value of reference.
- The maximum yearly amount is equal to the individual value of reference: EUR 5,258.63 per year in 2020. The individual value of reference is 12 times the Social Support Index (Indexante de Apoios Sociais, IAS), which is EUR 438.81 in 2020.
- Benefits are granted for 12 calendar months per year.
- Persons entitled to the supplementary benefit are also entitled to other social benefits (such as social health-related benefits).
- Benefits are not subject to income tax (taxable income must exceed the minimum level of subsistence/
1.5 IAS x 14).
Legal Basis: Decree-Law No. 232/2005, 29 December (Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly/Complemento Solidário para Idosos; last amendment: Decree-Law No. 94/2020, 3 November); Decree-Regulation No. 3/2006, 6 February (last amendment: Decree-Law No. 94/2020, 3 November).
Extraordinary Supplement for Pensions of Minimums
Complemento extraordinário para pensões de mínimos
Coverage
- Beneficiaries of an old age ‘pension of minimums’.
Financing
- The supplement is part of the subsystem of solidarity (social aid or assistance), which is entirely tax-financed through transfers from the state budget (Orçamento do Estado) and by the earmarking (consignação) of tax revenues.
- For those covered by the convergent social protection scheme, the supplement is integrally financed by the budget of the ‘Civil Servants’ Pension Agency’ (Caixa Geral de Aposentações, CGA).
Administration
- The ‘Institute of Social Security’ (Instituto da Segurança Social, I.P.) manages this supplement.
- The payment of the benefits is managed by one of its services (Centro Nacional de Pensões).
- The ‘Institute of Financial Management of Social Security’ (Instituto de Gestão Financeira da Segurança Social, I.P.) is in charge of the management of financial resources.
- For the beneficiaries of the convergent social protection scheme, the ‘Civil Servants’ Pension Agency’ (Caixa Geral de Aposentações, CGA) manages the benefit.
- Pensions paid by Social Security (e.g. general social security scheme; social old age pension) or by CGA (convergent social protection scheme).
Qualifying Conditions
- Pensions awarded as of 01/01/2017 with low values (equal to or less than 1.5 times the Social Support Index (IAS), named ‘pensions of minimums’ (pensões de mínimos)).
- In case of beneficiaries combining different pensions, the reference is the total amount (sum of the different pensions), not the individual one.
Benefits
- Amounts of the benefit vary with the schemes they supplement and year of application (rules refer to pensions awarded as of 01/01/2019; there are different amounts for pensions started in 2017 and in 2018).
- Regarding the general social security scheme, the supplement varies with contribution period: EUR 7.66 for up to 15 years; EUR 19.24 for 15 to 20 years; EUR 18.12 for 21 to 30 years; EUR 15.09 for 31 years and more.
- As regards the social old age scheme (and also other equivalent schemes1), the supplement amount is EUR 10.09.
- Concerning the convergent social protection scheme, the supplement amount depends on the years of service: EUR 8.36 (between 5 and 12 years of service), EUR 7.96 (more than 12 and up to 18 years of service), EUR 19.33 (more than 18 and up to 24 years of service), EUR 18.04 (more than 24 and up to 30 years of service), EUR 14.07 (more than 30 years of service).
Coverage
Financing
Administration
Qualifying Conditions
Benefits
- Beneficiaries of an old age ‘pension of minimums’.
- The supplement is part of the subsystem of solidarity (social aid or assistance), which is entirely tax-financed through transfers from the state budget (Orçamento do Estado) and by the earmarking (consignação) of tax revenues.
- For those covered by the convergent social protection scheme, the supplement is integrally financed by the budget of the ‘Civil Servants’ Pension Agency’ (Caixa Geral de Aposentações, CGA).
- The ‘Institute of Social Security’ (Instituto da Segurança Social, I.P.) manages this supplement.
- The payment of the benefits is managed by one of its services (Centro Nacional de Pensões).
- The ‘Institute of Financial Management of Social Security’ (Instituto de Gestão Financeira da Segurança Social, I.P.) is in charge of the management of financial resources.
- For the beneficiaries of the convergent social protection scheme, the ‘Civil Servants’ Pension Agency’ (Caixa Geral de Aposentações, CGA) manages the benefit.
- Pensions paid by Social Security (e.g. general social security scheme; social old age pension) or by CGA (convergent social protection scheme).
- Pensions awarded as of 01/01/2017 with low values (equal to or less than 1.5 times the Social Support Index (IAS), named ‘pensions of minimums’ (pensões de mínimos)).
- In case of beneficiaries combining different pensions, the reference is the total amount (sum of the different pensions), not the individual one.
- Amounts of the benefit vary with the schemes they supplement and year of application (rules refer to pensions awarded as of 01/01/2019; there are different amounts for pensions started in 2017 and in 2018).
- Regarding the general social security scheme, the supplement varies with contribution period: EUR 7.66 for up to 15 years; EUR 19.24 for 15 to 20 years; EUR 18.12 for 21 to 30 years; EUR 15.09 for 31 years and more.
- As regards the social old age scheme (and also other equivalent schemes1), the supplement amount is EUR 10.09.
- Concerning the convergent social protection scheme, the supplement amount depends on the years of service: EUR 8.36 (between 5 and 12 years of service), EUR 7.96 (more than 12 and up to 18 years of service), EUR 19.33 (more than 18 and up to 24 years of service), EUR 18.04 (more than 24 and up to 30 years of service), EUR 14.07 (more than 30 years of service).
1 There are still some other (closed) schemes in the subsystem of solidarity: the special social security scheme for agriculture (regime especial de segurança social das atividades agrícolas) – in this case, the extraordinary supplement for pensions of minimums is lower (EUR 8.49 in 2020) –, transitional schemes of agricultural workers (regimes transitórios dos trabalhadores agrícolas), and other schemes formally considered non-contributory.
Legal Basis: Decree-Law No. 118/2018, 27 December; Regulation (Portaria) No. 29/2020, 31 January.