Justice suspends payment of INSS precatories across the country

Payment of federal precatories scheduled for the first week of August is suspended across the country. The measure was determined this Thursday (21) by the CJF (Council of Federal Justice) to discuss how the payment of attorneys’ fees will be made. The category fears not receiving the amounts in 2022 after the cut in the precatories budget.

The food precatories are mostly insured by the INSS (National Social Security Institute) who went to court to obtain the granting or review of benefits such as retirement, aid and pensions.

In early July, when the federal courts began to allow the consultation of precatories, lawyers discovered that their fees were not foreseen for 2022 and the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association filed a request with the CJF to question the methodology, which separated the amounts owed to lawyers for the sums that will be paid to retirees.

The acting president of the Superior Court of Justice and the CJF, Minister Jorge Mussi, accepted the request of the OAB and determined the suspension of payment throughout the country until the body decides, in a meeting on August 2, on the criteria that must be considered by the courts.

The exact amount of beneficiaries paid in each court, as well as the new payment date, will be defined after the meeting on Tuesday (2).​

Precatórios are government judicial debts above 60 minimum wages. Constitutional Amendment 114, originated from the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatórios, limited the payment of these debts and freed up money for the government to spend in an election year.

For the federal government to pay off all precatories of 2022, the Judiciary had requested R$ 42.8 billion, but received R$ 32.4 billion — 75% of the forecast.

Specifically, the Federal Court, which pays the precatories of policyholders who won lawsuits against the INSS, received R$ 25.4 billion. The remaining R$ 7 billion are for other areas of the Judiciary.

The initial forecast, according to the CJF, responsible for transferring the amounts to the courts, was to pay R$ 14 billion in INSS precatories, attending to processes that were on the list released by the CMO (Mixed Budget Commission) in 2021. However, the The money released, of R$ 11.1 billion, is 80% of the expected value.

The cut also affects civil servants’ actions against the Union in search of overtime and unpaid salary amounts. Of the total forecast for 2022, estimated at R$10.8 billion, R$9 billion will be disbursed.

With the budget cut, only 48% of creditors will be paid at the TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region), which serves policyholders in Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, out of a total of 61,758 beneficiaries.

In the TRF-3, approximately R$ 4.7 billion must be paid to 38,043 beneficiaries, of which 34,144 are INSS insured. The total allocated to them is R$ 4.2 billion. Of the total forecast, R$ 3.6 billion should remain for 2023, encompassing 17,481 beneficiaries.