Find out which documents guarantee an advantage in BPC

The INSS (National Social Security Institute) published on Thursday (18), in the Diário Oficião da União, an ordinance authorizing the deduction of expenses with health, medical, diapers, special foods and medicines for the elderly or people with disabilities in analysis of the gross monthly family income of candidates for BPC (Continued Cash Benefit).

The supporting documentation must be provided by a medical professional which must include, in addition to the identification of the person concerned, information on the ongoing nature of the treatment and its relationship with disability or advanced age.

A statement provided by the body responsible for the health area will also be accepted, informing the non-availability of the treatment free of charge or its momentary unavailability, by the SUS (Unified Health System).​

If the applicant opts for proof that the expenses exceed the average deduction amounts, the average must be calculated by means of the sum of the expense receipts presented, relating to the 12 months prior to the application or in a number equal to the applicant’s lifetime if the age is less than one year.

The ordinance also states that the applicant must prove that, in all the months that make up the period, he acquired at least one of the remedies related to the treatment of disability or old age. Proof of expenses through receipts does not dispense with the need to submit statements provided by medical entities.

However, there will be no harm if, in the period established for calculating the average deduction, the applicant does not have a monthly receipt for each of the drugs indicated as being of continuous use.

For the lawyer Rômulo Saraiva, when considering the deduction, the family income is more accessible to the benefit. “The ordinance regulates these extra expenses. The Judiciary already has a certain flexibility in the income limit. [A portaria] it ends up helping to fit the per capita income,” he says.

According to the text of the ordinance, social and income assessments will be waived when the completion of the medical assessment is due to the inexistence of long-term impediment in the requirements for assistance benefits.