Foreign Nationals Make Up Under 4 Percent of RSI Recipients, Social Security Tells MPs, as the Minister Points Pensioners Hit by CGA Cuts Toward the Courts

About 6,500 foreign nationals receive the Rendimento Social de Inserção (RSI, Social Integration Income), out of roughly 190,000 people on Portugal's minimum-income benefit, the Secretary of State for Social Security told Parliament on Monday. That is under 4 percent. "Out of every 100 RSI beneficiaries, 96 are Portuguese citizens," Susana Filipa Lima said, according to Lusa, as reported by RTP.

She was answering questions from Chega MPs at the hearing of the Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social (Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security) on the 2027 State Budget, held as part of the bill's first-stage scrutiny. The ministry's team also gave figures on what foreign workers pay into the system, said joint civil service and Social Security pensions are now awarded in about 25 days, and indicated that the cuts to almost 3,000 civil service pensions will go ahead.

Who receives RSI

About one in three foreign RSI recipients is a Ukrainian who arrived in 2022, Lima said. By her account, the number of Ukrainians on the benefit has since fallen from about 10,000 to "a little over 2,400".

"So no, MPs, foreign citizens are not a problem in the case of RSI, and they will not be one in the case of the PSU either," she said. The Prestação Social Única (PSU, Single Social Benefit) is the new payment that will absorb RSI and a dozen other benefits; its operating rules were published in August.

Lima said MPs had "mixed up a series of ideas that do not fully correspond to the truth". RSI belongs to the non-contributory system, so "it makes no sense at all" to require Social Security contributions before paying it, she said. What the system already does, she added, is require foreign citizens to have lived in Portugal for more than a year. Our guide to claiming RSI explains who qualifies and how the amount is worked out.

What foreign workers pay in, and take out

On the contributory side, Lima gave figures from the Instituto da Segurança Social (Social Security Institute) for January to June 2026:

• an average of 914,000 foreign contributors a month;
• about 15,000 new foreign contributors registering each month;
• an average contribution of about 412 euros a month each.

On benefits, she counted about 205,000 foreign beneficiaries a month, with an average monthly payment of 349 euros. In the year to August, foreign workers paid more than 3 billion euros in contributions, 13.7 percent more than a year earlier, while benefits paid to foreign nationals came to 563 million euros, up 2.3 percent.

These are the Secretary of State's figures as reported from the hearing. The ministry has not published the breakdown separately.

Joint pensions now take about 25 days

People who worked both in the private sector and in the civil service often draw a single pension combining contributions to Social Security and to the Caixa Geral de Aposentações (CGA, the civil service pension fund). Where the CGA is the last scheme in a person's career, those joint pensions took 122 days to award in 2024 and now take about 25, Lima told MPs, according to ECO. She credited data sharing between the two systems.

Her priorities for 2027 are a more "proactive" Social Security: benefits granted automatically where possible, shorter waits, simpler procedures, and closer links with the health service and the Autoridade Tributária (Tax and Customs Authority).

On fraud, she said more than 7,500 cases flagged as a possible fraud risk had been investigated, including payments to people who had died and invalidity pensions paid without entitlement. That saved 15 million euros this year, she said, and should save 110 million euros over time.

The CGA pension cuts

The minister, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, was asked about the CGA's decision to cut 2,937 pensions awarded between May and August, after a fault in its computer system set them higher than the law allows. According to Jornal de Negócios, the government signalled that the cuts will go ahead and said some pensioners have already repaid money voluntarily.

Palma Ramalho acknowledged that people who retired on the strength of a simulation showing a higher pension had seen their expectations "a little frustrated". She suggested that CGA pensioners who feel wronged could bring a civil liability claim against the State.

That is a claim for damages in the administrative courts, separate from the CGA's own procedure. The fund wrote to each affected pensioner with ten days to respond before the new amount is set. A pensioner whose objection was refused can also complain free of charge to the Provedor de Justiça (Ombudsman). The CGA's rules were also in the news last week, when the Constitutional Court struck down the 2024 law that barred returning civil servants from rejoining the fund.

Recovery plan targets

Palma Ramalho also told MPs that when she took office the ministry's targets under the Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência (PRR, Recovery and Resilience Plan) were barely being met, and some were unrealistic. After the plan was reprogrammed, the targets were met in full, she said. Works still unfinished will be paid for from the State Budget, Portugal 2030 funds or the bodies' own money, and "none of these works will be left unfinished". Staff in the PRR mission structure, extended to the end of 2027, keep their jobs.