Prime Minister Luís Montenegro announced that pensioners who receive up to 1,611.13 euros will benefit from an extraordinary supplement, to be paid together with the December pension. The measure is expected to be approved on Thursday, October 10, during the Council of Ministers, and represents an expenditure of approximately 400 million euros. This support was presented together with an IRS reduction, also valued at 400 million euros, in a set of measures that should cover more than two million pensioners and more than two million households.
The amount of 1,611.13 euros corresponds to the pension limit indicated to access the support, and not the amount each beneficiary will receive. Montenegro announced the intention to assign an extraordinary supplement to pensioners progressively up to that threshold, but individual supplement amounts or the different pension brackets that will determine its distribution were not presented.
The payment will be made with the December pension, so the government decision on Thursday separates the governmental decision from the money reaching beneficiaries. Montenegro associated the possibility of granting this supplement with economic evolution and public accounts management, stating that they are not talking about more debt or illusions for the future.
In addition to the supplement, the Government announced an IRS reduction up to the 6th bracket, in an amount of 400 million euros, with effects expected from November through a decrease in withholding taxes. Although the reduction applies to the first six brackets, Montenegro explained that the benefit extends to all taxpayers due to the progressivity of the tax. The Prime Minister rejected that the Government is making money from the crisis, defending that governing with responsibility means knowing how to distribute results without destroying the conditions that made them possible.
