INSS queue grows with impasse around bonuses for civil servants and experts – 05/17/2023 – Market

The queue for benefits from the INSS (National Social Security Institute) grew again at the beginning of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government, amid an impasse over the payment of a bonus for civil servants and experts to expand the analysis of requirements .

According to data from the Ministry of Social Security, 1.05 million Brazilians were awaiting medical expertise in April this year. The number is 13.3% higher than in December 2022 (930.6 thousand) and represents a leap in relation to the average of 490 thousand requests awaiting scheduling in the first three months of last year.

Benefits that have already gone through expertise or do not depend on this analysis collide in a second queue, that of initial application processes at the INSS. In this case, the number of pending orders reached 1.38 million in March 2023 – 300 thousand more than in December 2022. In April, the number dropped to 1.26 million, but is still above last year.

About two thirds of the medical expertise requested are related to disability benefits. Another 20% is related to the BPC (Continued Provision Benefit), paid to low-income elderly and people with disabilities, while a smaller part includes special retirement due to exposure to agents harmful to health.

The INSS general queue, in turn, mainly includes retirement requests.

The delay in granting benefits has an impact on the daily lives of families and also generates costs for the public sector, due to the need to pay retroactive amounts, the so-called INSS arrears, with monetary correction and interest.

Reducing this queue was one of Lula’s campaign promises, which aims to put an end to a problem that has been dragging on since previous administrations. The objective is to update the analyzes respecting the deadlines for responding to these requirements. Today, there are beneficiaries who wait more than six months to get a medical examination.

Paying an extra review bonus has been used intermittently since 2016 to speed up reviews. Since the end of 2022, however, its payment has been suspended, due to the understanding that it was not possible to authorize the expense beyond the election year.

Experts and other INSS employees, in turn, charge for the resumption of extra payment, which means an important increase in their salaries. In the meantime, queues continue to rise.

The Minister of Social Security, Carlos Lupi, has already demanded a solution from colleagues Fernando Haddad (Finance), Simone Tebet (Planning and Budget) and Esther Dweck (Management and Innovation), but there has still been no definition on the subject.

In addition to the need for resources in the Budget, Lupi’s request comes up against a broader issue. After negotiating a linear readjustment of 9% for civil servants starting in May, the Executive does not want to make specific concessions, which may seem like different treatment for a given career.

The fear is that meeting the demand of INSS experts and servers will open a gap for other categories to ask for more substantial salary increases or the implementation of their own bonuses — as is the case of the Federal Revenue Service. The tax auditors even resumed the mobilization asking for the regulation of this bonus (which would result in higher amounts paid monthly to professionals).

Today, experts aim to complete 12 analyzes a day. In all, there are 2,900 experts, for an average monthly volume of 400,000 new requests that require medical expertise at the INSS. According to the Social Security, the current number of servers is able to meet 95% of the monthly demand and is insufficient to attack the accumulated liabilities —which causes an increase in the queue.

The bonus payment is seen as a solution to solve the problem. Until December, experts received BRL 61.72 per extra analysis. That month, employees were able to complete 120,000 additional assessments.

Within the ministry, the resumption of the extra payment is seen as essential for the government to be able to fulfill its promise to eliminate the INSS queue. The intention is that an MP (provisional measure), effective immediately, be published by the end of May.

In this scenario, the folder estimates that it would be possible to clear the queue in six months. The calculation considers the adherence of only half of the experts and an extra analysis of 200,000 expert reports per month.

The amount to be paid for additional evaluation, however, is one of the points of controversy within the government, according to interlocutors from the ministries. There is an expectation that the transfer will be greater than the BRL 61.72 previously paid, and may exceed BRL 70.

To justify the higher amount, one of the proposals is to charge a daily target of more than 12 analyzes so that the expert is entitled to the bonus, paid only for an extra process completed (that is, above the target).

There are also discussions about the need to establish a ceiling for the payment of bonuses to experts, to avoid interference with other careers. However, this proposal has the potential to discourage adherence, according to people who participate in the negotiations.

The MP must also resume the payment of a bonus for the INSS servers that analyze the applications that have already gone through an expert examination or that do not depend on this step to be processed.

While the MP is not published, the government is discussing releasing the appointment of new INSS servants, taking advantage of the reserve register of an already held tender.

In addition to the impasse surrounding the bonus itself, the discussion on the Social Security queue has an impact on the budgetary program. When concessions are dammed, the government gains time and saves resources in the short term. This generates relief on the expense side, albeit a temporary one.

On the other hand, when the government speeds up analyzes to tackle the queue, spending on benefits tends to jump. At the end of 2022, the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) had to resort to the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) to be able to use legal exceptions and authorize a credit of R$ 7.5 billion outside the spending ceiling to pay for the payments of the INSS.

At the time, as shown by Sheet, the rapid reduction of the queue was the main fuel for the increase in expenses. According to interlocutors, assistants of the then Minister Paulo Guedes even asked the Minister of Labor and Social Security at the time, José Carlos Oliveira, to take his foot off the accelerator in the analyzes to avoid a collapse in the Budget.

Now, according to interlocutors of the current government, the Ministry of Finance has also asked for strictness in the calculation of the projected expense with the reduction of the queue, since an increase in Social Security expenses may require cuts in other areas.

So far, an increase of about R$ 1 billion in INSS spending is already expected, if the queue for expertise is reduced by half by the month of December. The total revision, however, tends to be even greater.

The INSS sees the need for a budget supplement from October or November, given that current calculations are considered underestimated. As shown to Sheet, the government chose to consider the minimum wage of R$ 1,302 in the Budget reassessment made in March and cut INSS expenses, despite the Social Security warnings that this movement would be unsustainable. Now, spending should rise again, since Lula made official the new national floor at R$ 1,320.

With the resumption of bonuses, the government’s objective is to return to the scenario that existed in 2009, when the average period of expertise was 30 days. Today, according to data from April by Previdência, this wait reaches 199 days in Tocantins, 188 days in Amazonas and 176 days in Sergipe. There is a concern with the fact that the worst indicators are in the North and Northeast regions, precisely where there are a greater number of families in vulnerable situations.

The Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI) stated that the bonus proposal is being analyzed by the technical area and will have legal and budgetary aspects analyzed. “As soon as the MGI has a defined position on the subject, the necessary referrals will be made, which includes the action of other ministries, such as the Ministry of Planning and Budget, the Ministry of Social Security and the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic” , he says.