Federal employees will have new deadline to change retirement regime

In an attempt to assuage demands for salary readjustments in civil servants in an election year, the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) will reopen the deadline for federal servants who entered the career until 2013 to change their retirement regime and join Funpresp, a pension fund. complementary — with part of the contribution paid by the Union.

Migration is advantageous for the government, because it accelerates the reduction of the number of civil servants entitled to the full benefit, above the INSS ceiling (currently at R$ 7,087.22), paid with public resources.

Members of the economic team heard by the sheet argue that regime change can also be beneficial for civil servants, as contributions deducted from salary tend to fall — leaving more of the pay free for personal expenses.

Today, employees who are part of the Union’s own regime pay contributions that reach 22% of their remuneration, when the salary is greater than R$ 47,333.46. The increasing rates for civil servants were stipulated in the pension reform, which took effect in early 2019.

In exchange, he secures in the future a benefit in the amount equivalent to his salary – often close to the civil service ceiling (today at R$ 39,200). These contribution amounts can exceed R$ 4 thousand.

With the migration, the server starts to pay two contributions, one of them subject to the INSS ceiling, of R$ 7,087.22 (that is, the payment will be a maximum of R$ 828.38), and another to Funpresp.

The supplementary contribution is levied on the portion of the salary that exceeds the INSS ceiling. In other words, if the server earns the ceiling of civil service, the Funpresp rate will be charged on approximately R$ 32.1 thousand.

The server can choose between three rates: 7.5%, 8% or 8.5%. As soon as he opts for the contribution, the Union enters with a payment of the same magnitude. In the supplementary pension, there is a kind of individual account of the insured, and the greater the savings, the greater the benefit in the future.

The law provides that the civil servant who makes the migration is entitled to a pension under the Union’s own regime (but subject to the INSS ceiling), to a supplementary pension by Funpresp and to a special benefit, paid by the government, to compensate for higher contributions. collected to date.

Some of the members defend the measure as a way, in addition to raising benefits (such as food stamps), of offering public servants alternatives to readjustments. Others, however, claim that demands for higher wages will not stop.

The decision whether or not to migrate will depend on the conditions of each server.

A civil servant who currently earns R$25,000 a month and is part of the old retirement regime pays around R$3,700 in contributions. With the migration, the maximum payment would drop to R$ 2,350, already adding the payments to the Union’s own regime and Funpresp.

In addition to the value of the contribution, however, it will be necessary to evaluate the perspective of benefit to be obtained in the future with the supplementary pension.

The opportunity is given to those who joined up to 2013 because from that year onwards all new public servants have already joined the new regime, which provides for retirement through the INSS ceiling and supplementation by Funpresp.

To open the new window, the Ministry of Economy has already sent the National Congress a request for a change in the 2022 LDO (Budget Guidelines Law) to authorize the measure.

After that, it will still be necessary to edit an MP (Provisional Measure) or approve a bill authorizing migration. The government will also need to set aside up to R$ 150 million to fund the contribution to Funpresp as a sponsor of the servers that migrate.

From 2013 until today, the government has already opened three windows for the migration of servers to the new retirement regime. The first, right after the creation of Funpresp, lasted two years, until February 2015, and only 120 Executive civil servants joined.

In the second window, from July 2016 to July 2018, there were 9,184 adhesions. Finally, the last window was open from September 2018 to March 2018, with 6,292 migrations.

In addition to these numbers, another 935 employees from the Central Bank and 1,575 from the Legislature also moved to Funpresp, although it is not possible to identify the date of migration.

In all, 18,106 civil servants who entered the career before 2013 changed their retirement regime.

To date, according to Funpresp, 12 migrated participants have already applied for retirement or died, leaving the benefit to pensioners. The average amount paid by Funpresp to these servers is R$ 4,068.44 – to this figure are added the benefits paid by the Federal Government.