Minister of Labour Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho announced that the state has legal grounds to recover overpaid pension benefits from nearly 3,000 retirees following a software calculation error at the Caixa Geral de Aposentações (CGA). The administrative mistake led to an average overpayment of €93.31 per month for civil service pensions awarded between May and August. The ministry stated that affected pensioners will be allowed to select their preferred repayment method for returning the excess funds.
Government Demands Pensioners Refund Overpaid Benefits After IT Error
Saturday, 10 October 2026AI summary
Context & Explainers
Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho is the Minister of Labor, Solidarity, and Social Security (Ministra do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social) in the current government led by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro. She is a legal expert and former member of the board of the Bank of Portugal (Banco de Portugal).
The Caixa Geral de Aposentações (CGA) is Portugal's public sector retirement fund, managing pensions for civil servants hired before 2006. State employees hired after that date are enrolled in the standard Social Security (Segurança Social) system instead. The institution oversees retirement and disability benefits for hundreds of thousands of former public-sector workers, including teachers and administrative staff.
6 sources
- Pension refunds: minister says there is legal basisobservador.pt ·
- Minister assures there is legal basis for CGA to request repayment of fundscmjornal.pt ·
- Minister of Labour guarantees there is a legal basis for the CGA to request the return of fundsdn.pt ·
- Minister confirms legal basis for CGA to request repayment of fundsrtp.pt ·
- "No one will want to receive a pension beyond what is legal": CGA error leads to €93 'cut' in pensionsexpresso.pt ·
- Minister of Labour sees legal grounds for the CGA to request a refund of amountseco.sapo.pt ·
