INSS retirement can be requested at the agency from March 14

INSS (National Social Security Institute) policyholders will be able to request retirement, pension and other benefits in person at the institute’s agencies soon. Scheduling will begin on March 14th.

The return of face-to-face services is part of the plan to reopen Pension agencies, which have been closed to the public since March 2020, the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil. The operation resumed in September of the same year, but in a limited way and remains so until today.

According to the institute, there is still no date set for full operation. In addition, the reopening should start in a staggered way, according to the service capacity of each agency, as the place must be adapted according to health standards to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

To be served, however, the insured person needs to schedule the request through the Meu INSS application or website or by telephone, at Central 135. The novelty is that all services that today can be done over the internet or by face-to-face form.

The change is in a correction made in Ordinance 982, published this Wednesday (2), in the Official Gazette of the Union. Before, only a few appointments were allowed at the branches, and could be done spontaneously, that is, without scheduling an appointment.

Now, the insured will be able to schedule any service they need and will also get face-to-face service spontaneously, as was the case before the pandemic. The opening hours to the public is still not a consensus, although an INSS ordinance, from February, indicates that the operation is from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm, the servers say that this is not possible.

Cristiano dos Santos Machado, director of Sinsprev SP (Union of Public Servants and Workers in Health, Welfare and Social Assistance) and Fenasps (national federation of these unions), says that service to the public must be based on an August 2021 ordinance.

“This ordinance defines that the INSS’s working hours are 12 uninterrupted hours. , from 7 am to 2 pm, and can be started until 8 am”, he says.

According to Machado, for the servers, the service to the public could be 12 hours, as long as the institute hired employees through a public tender. Union data indicate that the deficit of Social Security workers to meet the demands is currently 23 thousand servers.

Service without appointment

According to the INSS, service without an appointment will be intended for exceptional cases in which the insured person does not have access to the internet or telephone. “As provided for in the rules, he will be able to look for the physical agencies to make an appointment or clarify doubts”, says a note from the institute.

The units that will be able to provide this type of service within the standards of safety, hygiene and distance will be defined only after March 30th. With this, face-to-face service with spontaneous demand should start after that date, but .

To be seen at an agency without an appointment, the insured must present an identification document with a photo, for those aged 16 and over. In the case of citizens under the age of 16, the birth certificate will do.

Anyone who only has the electronic document, such as RG or CNH, can present it. The ordinance informs that it has the same validity as a physical document. Legal representatives and attorneys-in-fact must also be identified.

There will be screening for access to the Social Security agency. In addition, passwords will be distributed. Priority care for the elderly must be respected, ensuring the right to special priority for those over 80 years of age.

The citizen who has scheduled service will also need to generate a password on the scheduled day. There will be a maximum tolerance of 15 minutes of delay for the issuance of a ticket for scheduled services, respecting the opening hours of the agencies. The deadline may be longer, depending on the decision of the site manager.

INSS CLOSED FOR SIX MONTHS

Social Security agencies were closed at the end of March 2020, with the advance of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. All services were interrupted, including the medical expertise, which started to be done indirectly, with the presentation of documents by My INSS for those who needed illness assistance.

In October 2020, face-to-face service returned to the branches, but only for some services, such as medical expertise and the delivery of complementary documents for retirement, in the system called compliance with requirements, and with reduced hours because of the severity of the pandemic. .

During the period of operation with reduced hours, the INSS service takes place only from 7 am to 1 pm, and only with appointments for services such as medical expertise, compliance with requirements, social assessment for the BPC (Continued Provision Benefit), defense presentation, proof of life and copy of medical reports.