MURPI asks for explanations about pensions. CGA? “It must take consequences”

O MURPI – National Confederation of Pensioners, Pensioners and Seniors asked the Board of Directors of the General Pensions Fund (CGA) and the Ombudsman's Office to explain the error in the pensions of the CGA, defending the accountability of the institution.

On Wednesday it was reported that the CGA will correct 2,937 pensions awarded between May and August this year, after having detected an error in the calculation that led to them being fixed above the amount provided by the law.

In a letter sent to the chairman of the CGA Board of Directors, António Valente, the MURPI asks for explanations regarding the situation, arguing that “the State should be a “good person”, without “reflecting on pensioners the consequences of their mistakes”.

“However, we assume that this is a misunderstanding, for which the pensioners, in good faith, contributed nothing, and no one will have anything to return,” he said.

According to the confederation, their associates are “very concerned” and say they used the simulator, asked for the pension and were sent the information of the value for acceptance “very close to the one presented by the simulator”, so they accepted the value and started the payment, “accept by both parties”.

“ Later, they received a letter from the CGA to inform again, lower value, explaining that this was due to the fact that they should only take into account 40 years of work”, writes the MURPI, pointing out that, according to the information he received, “the difference goes from EUR 90 to 200”.

Now, the CGA “gives the pensioners 10 days to respond to the request for a prior hearing, bearing in mind that the money the State says has paid too much must be returned”.

In the letter addressed to the Ombudsman, Luísa Neto, the confederation requests the analysis of this “anomalous situation”, considering that the pensioners “made a decision based on information issued by an entity considered to be a good person”.

“The possible error is attributable to the Cashier and as such it should assume its consequences,” MURPI considers.

The Pensions General Box will this month notify pensioners who received pensions above the legal value on the amount to be returned, refusing to have done a “reinterpretation of the law”, but rather a “parametrization error” in the calculation.

“The CGA has already informed these pensioners of the error in the calculation of their pensions”, reads in a clarification note, stating that “the deadline is in place to pronounce themselves at a prior hearing”, after which they will be “analyzed their responses and then in October, they will be notified of the total net value to be restored and the modalities they can choose for this replacement”.

According to the institution, beneficiaries of the nearly 3,000 pensions concerned may choose to make voluntary payment of a Single Payment Document (SPD) that will be sent to them (having 30 days to do so after receipt of the letter) or to return the amount concerned by compensation in the pensions of the following months, sufficient for them not to liquidate the DUC and not exceeding the monthly deduction 30% of the net pension to which it is applied.

A third option will be, during the period of voluntary payment, to require the CGA to pay the amount to be recovered in instalments by December 2027 and the value of each monthly instalment may not be less than 5% of the total amount concerned.

On average, pensioners will receive less than EUR 93.31 per month. The Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, said in the meantime that the extra paid amounts will have to be restored.