A decision by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on Thursday, December 1st, could affect the lives of many retirees and pensioners of the National Social Security Institute (INSS) and also public finances. This involves the possibility of requesting a Lifetime Review regarding contributions and retirement or pension.

It all started with Law 9,876/99. It changed the calculation of the value of benefits and created two calculation rules, one permanent and the other temporary. Look: 

This means that, for those who worked and paid social security contributions before 1994, only the amounts collected after the preparation of the Real Plan would be considered. For example, a person who started working in 1980 would have excluded from his calculation the wages received in 14 years of his life.

Therefore, the Whole Life Review is a new calculation of the monthly average and will mainly benefit those who had good salaries before 1994, even in other currencies – such as Cruzeiro Real and Cruzeiro – because these values are taken into account for the calculation of the supplementary pension. 

It is worth noting that if the calculation determines that the value of the pension should be lower, taking into account the average for the years prior to 1994, the new regulations will not apply. It only applies to the increase and not the decrease in retirement and pension values.

But can anyone request a review? And what types of benefits can be reevaluated after the STF’s decision? Also, what is the process for requesting this review?

The general rule is that employees who contributed to the INSS before 1994 and retired after 1999 may request a Lifetime Review. But there are some prerequisites: See

The rule also determines that, if the insured person has submitted a request for review in the last 10 years, the period will be interrupted and the count will only restart after the INSS responds. If the institution has not responded to the verification request, the protocol can be used as evidence.

The INSS benefits covered by the Whole Life Review are: 

Unfortunately, to request a review, policyholders must file a lawsuit. There won't be an easier way to do this. 

Furthermore, to file a lawsuit, it is necessary to take into account some criteria, such as the value of the case, as depending on the amount the path is different. See the expected situations:

The documents required to file the action, in general, are:

The judgment of this Whole Life Review had been ongoing since 2019. In December of the same year, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided that it was possible to apply the final rule instead of the transitional calculation rule if this resulted in a benefit with more advantage for the insured. 

With the STJ's decision, all that was needed was the STF's decision to end the wait for policyholders who were waiting for a possibility of review.

Thus, in March, the analysis took place in the virtual plenary, with a closed score of 6 to 5 in favor of retirees and pensioners, when a prominent request from Minister Nunes Marques reset the vote and sent it to the physical plenary again.

The result of Thursday's vote, 1, was again 6 to 5 for retirees.

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