The retirement age will increase again in 2027 to 66 years and 11 months. The decree published this morning in the Official Gazette confirms the calculation already made by ECO based on data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) regarding average life expectancy. It also confirms that the cut applied to early retirements will worsen to 17.63% as early as January.
By law, retirement age evolves based on the average life expectancy at age 65. At the end of November, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) published the provisional figure for the three-year period between 2023 and 2025: 20.19 years, that is, 0.17 years more than recorded in the previous three-year period.
It was based on this data that ECO calculated that the normal retirement age in 2027 will be 66 years and 11 months, which is now confirmed by the Government in a decree. “The normal retirement age under the general Social Security scheme in 2027 is 66 years and 11 months,” reads the document.
Until 2013, the retirement age was set at 65 years. In 2014, however, it rose to 66 years, and from then on, it was linked to gains in average life expectancy at age 65. For example, between 2019 and 2020, the retirement age remained at 66 years and five months, as a result of a very slight increase in average life expectancy.
However, due to the mortality generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the retirement age fell, for the first time, in 2023, to 66 years and four months. It remained stable at this value in 2024. In 2025, it rose to 66 years and seven months. In 2026 it will rise to 66 years and nine months, as ECO has already reported.
Pensioners with more than 40 years of contributions, however, have access to a “personal retirement age,” that is, a four-month discount is applied to the normal retirement age for each year of contributions the worker has above 40. Ultimately, it is possible to retire before the age of 65, without any reduction.
Cuts
On the other hand, the decree published this morning confirms that those who request early retirement next year will be subject to a 17.63% cut due to the social security factor, a value that had already been anticipated by ECO.
The social security factor is calculated, by law, based on the ratio between the average life expectancy at age 65 in 2000 (16.63 years) and the average life expectancy in the year prior to the start of retirement, that is, in 2025 for those who retire next year.
Those who decide to anticipate their pension suffer not only this cut. Most early pensions also incur a penalty of 0.5% for each month anticipated in relation to the legal retirement age.
But there are those who escape these cuts. For example, excluded from both of these penalties are Portuguese citizens who request early retirement at age 60, having at least 48 years of contributions, or who request it at age 60 if they have 46 years of contributions and started their career at age 16 or younger. The same applies to Portuguese citizens in professions considered to involve rapid wear and tear.