The number of pensions paid monthly by Social Security fell by nearly 14,000 between December 2020 and May 2021, indicating the biggest decrease since records have been available. 

According to statistical data published by Social Security, processed pensions have declined over five consecutive months, falling from 2,068,464 pensions in December 2020 to 2,054,699 in May this year. 

For Jorge Bravo, Economist and Professor at NOVA IMS, "the fall in the number of pensions in the five months in 2020-2021 is associated with increased mortality caused by the covid-19 pandemic and other diseases that were not treated in a timely manner, while the reduction seen in the months of 2014-15 will be linked to restrictions on access to early retirement during the 'troika' and the increase in the retirement age." 

In 2012, former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho suspended access to early retirement in the social security system, keeping it accessible only in very specific situations, such as the long-term unemployed who exhausted their unemployment benefits. In 2014, the pension access age became variable according to the evolution of average life expectancy at age 65. 

According to Jorge Bravo, "while in 2014 the decline observed over several consecutive months in the number of old-age pensions paid out was based on administrative factors, in the 2020-2021 period it is associated with the pandemic, and the acceleration of the end of life of some people due to lack of health care or late arrest of serious diseases." 

In addition, the Professor tells the Lusa agency, that he expects at the end of the year and the beginning of next year that there will be a further decrease in pensions paid due to the high mortality that is being caused by the pandemic and other health care that has been left behind.