Maria arrived in Luxembourg in 1992 with two young daughters and spent most of her professional life in the country, first as a cook in a Portuguese café in Mersch for five years and then in the cleaning sector for about 15 years in different companies. She also worked for 12 years cleaning a large European organization in Capellen, where she received about €3,000 net per month. In total, Maria claims to have 40 years of Social Security contributions, including 13 years full-time in Portugal.
Retired for four years, Maria began receiving about €900 monthly in pension, an amount that later increased to approximately €1,100. Of those €1,100, €500 goes towards paying the mortgage on the house she built in Portugal. The pension she currently receives corresponds only to the 15 years spent in cleaning companies in Luxembourg, since the contributions from the 12 years at the European organization were considered as made in Brussels and paid in a lump sum. Maria is still waiting for the pension corresponding to the years of contributions in Portugal.
At 65, Maria returned to work and currently works about 23 hours per week cleaning, distributed across four homes, receiving €17 per hour. The work is done without declaring income, a situation she herself acknowledges is not correct. On Mondays, she gets up at four in the morning to catch a bus to Canach, working between seven and eleven in the morning before heading to another job in Steinsel. Despite adding this income to her pension, she continues to make sacrifices and still contributes to the household expenses of her oldest daughter, with whom she lives in Luxembourg, and helps her youngest daughter.
Maria's hope lies in the pension corresponding to the years of contributions made in Portugal. She believes that if her total income approaches €2,000 monthly, she may finally leave the cleaning work. The Portuguese woman intends to return permanently to Portugal, where the house she built represents the biggest investment of her life and there are about two years left to finish paying the last loan associated with the construction.
