The Portuguese parliament approved an additional 1.25% increase in pensions, which will be added to the regular annual increase, on Thursday during the specialised votes on the State Budget for 2025.

The Socialist Party (PS) proposal was carried by a majority of votes from opposition parties, with the PCP, BE, Livre, and PAN voting in favour. The PSD, CDS-PP, and Liberal Initiative voted against.

The PS has estimated that its proposal has a budgetary impact of €265 million. However, a study of the measure’s impact, requested by the PSD from the Technical Budget Support Unit (UTAO), indicates that this extra increase will increase pension expenditure by €273.8 million.

The PCP, BE, and Livre had also presented proposals to increase pensions, but they were all rejected.

Since the PS announced the measure, the government and the parties that support it in parliament have contested it. The PSD and CDS-PP have emphasised that, unlike the supplement between €100 and €200 paid in October to those receiving pensions of up to around €1,500, the increase now approved will become a permanent expense.

Therefore, the government’s position was to repeat that extra increase in 2025 if the budget margin allowed it.

This additional increase of 1.25% applies to all pensions paid by Social Security and the General Pension Fund, including old age, disability, and survivors’ pensions.

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