Portugal's Poorest Pensioners Will See Their Income Floor Rise to 720 Euros a Month in 2027, the Fourth Increase Since 2024

Pensioners on the lowest incomes in Portugal will have their income topped up to at least 720 euros a month from January 2027, 50 euros more than this year. The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, announced the rise on Thursday, the International Day of Older Persons. It will be written into the 2027 State Budget proposal, which goes to parliament next week.

The benefit is the Complemento Solidário para Idosos (Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly, or CSI). It is a means-tested cash payment made each month by Segurança Social (Social Security) to older people with low resources who have reached the normal state pension age. It does not pay everyone a flat 720 euros. Under the 2005 decree that created it, Decreto-Lei n.º 232/2005 (Decree-Law 232/2005), the supplement is the difference between a person's resources, as Social Security assesses them, and a threshold called the reference value. The announcement moves that threshold.

The fourth increase in three years

The government describes this as the fourth update of the reference value since 2024. The ministerial orders in the Diário da República (official gazette) show the steps. The law sets the value as an annual sum; divided over twelve months, it gives the monthly figures the government quotes:

• Until May 2024: 6,608 euros a year, about 551 euros a month.
• From June 2024: 7,208 euros (about 601 a month), an extraordinary 9.1 percent rise under Portaria n.º 154-A/2024/1 (Ministerial Order 154-A/2024/1).
• 2025: 7,568 euros (about 631 a month), up 4.99 percent.
• 2026: 8,040 euros (670 a month), up 6.24 percent under Portaria n.º 480-D/2025/1.
• 2027, as announced: 720 euros a month. On the same twelve-month basis that is 8,640 euros a year (our calculation), a rise of about 7.5 percent.

In practice, anyone already receiving the supplement gets 50 euros a month more, as long as their resources stay the same. Take a pensioner whose resources Social Security counts at 5,000 euros a year. In 2026 they receive the gap to 8,040 euros, which is 3,040 euros a year or about 253 euros a month. In 2027 the gap to 8,640 euros is 3,640 euros, or about 303 euros a month (our worked example, assuming their resources do not change). A higher threshold also brings in people whose income was just above the old line.

The target has moved

The government has set itself a destination. In 2024 the previous Montenegro government aimed for a reference value of 820 euros by 2028, and the May 2024 order described the longer-term ambition as matching the national minimum wage. The order for 2026, signed in December, restates the goal under the current government programme as 870 euros by 2029.

From 720 euros in 2027, reaching 870 euros needs another 150 euros over the following two years: a larger step each year than the 50 euros announced on Thursday. The 2028 and 2029 budgets will show whether the plan holds.

Two caveats apply. The figure is an announcement for now: as in previous years, the new reference value will need a ministerial order in the Diário da República before it takes effect, and the budget it rides on still has to pass. And the government statement gives no estimate of what the rise will cost or how many more pensioners it will reach.

For who can claim and how, see our guide to claiming the CSI, and our June report on the number of people receiving it.

Sources: Portuguese Government, 1 October 2026; Portaria n.º 480-D/2025/1, Portaria n.º 311/2024/1, Portaria n.º 154-A/2024/1 and Decreto-Lei n.º 232/2005, Diário da República (all in Portuguese). The annual 2027 figure, percentages and worked example are our own calculations.

Feature image: card players in the Jardim de São Lázaro, Porto. Photo by Vysotsky (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.