“In Portugal, under the general regime of Social Security, to qualify for an old-age pension, one must have reached the legal pension access age (currently 66 years and 7 months); have at least 15 years of salary records; and possess 144 months of salary records if covered by the voluntary social insurance scheme.
However, the law also provides for the possibility of early retirement, meaning that if you are below the legal pension access age, currently 66 years and 7 months, you may qualify for an early old-age pension if you are in one of the following situations: early retirement due to long-term unemployment; early retirement under the age flexibility regime; early retirement for very long careers; early retirement due to disability; and special early retirement schemes due to the nature of professional activity.
In cases of early “retirement,” penalties typically apply. However, retirement without penalties is possible in three types of situations.
One such case concerns very long careers, where those aged 60 or more with at least 48 years of relevant salary records for calculation may retire without penalties; or those aged 60 or more with at least 46 years of relevant salary records for calculation, having started contributions to the general social security regime or the convergent social protection regime before the age of 17.
The second type applies to early retirement due to disability, where individuals aged 60 or more; citizens with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 80%; Portuguese with 15 years of contributory career with disability and a degree of disability equal to or greater than 80%, considering only the last 15 years of effective work, continuous or not, with relevant salary records to define the pension formation rate, may be covered.
The third type that may allow retirement without penalties applies to special regimes, that is, holders of high-risk professions (such as miners, air traffic controllers, pilots, commanders and co-pilots, dancers, maritime workers), which have their own regimes permitting early retirement without penalty.”
‘Trabalho e impostos (des)complicados’ is a column in Notícias ao Minuto, written by Dantas Rodrigues, addressing topics related to work, personal finances, and taxes. Find out the answer to this Monday’s question, September 8.
Notícias ao Minuto | 08:09 – 08/09/2025
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Dantas Rodrigues has been a lawyer since 1993 and is a partner at Dantas Rodrigues & Associados. He has also been a professor of law at the Polytechnic Higher Education since 1995.
