Pensions in Portugal: retirement age, contribution record and how a pension is awarded
The state old-age pension here is called pensão de velhice, and you get it only when two conditions are met together: you have reached pension age and you have at least fifteen calendar years of contributions. In 2026 the pension age is 66 years and 9 months. For someone who has moved here, the main question is a different one: what happens to the years worked back home. The short answer is that Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh years count for nothing: Portugal has no social security agreement with these countries, and years worked there are not counted here in any way. With Ukraine and Moldova there is an agreement. Below, in order: age and contribution record, how the amount is calculated, what you lose by retiring early, what to do if you have too few years of your own, how to apply and how a pension is taxed.
What this pension is and who gets it
The standard old-age pension from the social security service is called pensão de velhice. In everyday speech it is more often called reforma, and Brazilians call it aposentadoria, but in the service's paperwork it is precisely pensão de velhice, and that is the name to look for on its website.
Everyone who has paid contributions to Segurança Social is entitled to it: employees, the self-employed on recibos verdes, company directors and managers, domestic workers and those who pay voluntarily.
There are two conditions, and they apply together. The first is age. The second is the prazo de garantia, the minimum contribution period: 15 calendar years with recorded earnings, consecutive or not. Voluntary insurance has its own figure — 144 months.
And straight away, something that trips many people up: the Portuguese pension is not a savings account. Your contributions go to today's pensioners, and your pension will come from the contributions of those who work after you. So the question “will I get my money back if I leave” has one answer: no, and the exceptions are covered in the last step.
“A pension is not a savings account. Your contributions go to today's pensioners. And when you become entitled to your own pension, you'll be paid by the people who'll be working in 15 years' time. Don't become entitled — you won't be paid. Become entitled in another country — its workers will be the ones paying. The only real question is whether your years of work can be counted.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkreciboverde24.01.2024
Pension age: 66 years and 9 months
The retirement age in Portugal is not fixed. It is recalculated every year according to life expectancy at 65, and it is creeping up: in 2026 it is 66 years and 9 months, in 2027 it will be 66 years and 11 months.
There is a way out of this rule for those who have worked a long time. With more than 40 years of contributions, a “personal pension age” is calculated: for every year over forty, four months are taken off the general age. In 2026 it looks like this: 41 years of contributions — 66 years and 5 months, 44 years — 65 years and 5 months, 48 years — 64 years and 1 month, 51 years — 63 years and 1 month. You can retire under this rule without any cut, but not before 60, however long your record.
A separate case is people who by law are not allowed to work after 65: they retire at 65, attaching a certificate showing they worked for five years before applying.
Important for newcomers: years worked in a country with which Portugal has an agreement do count towards this — there is a separate step on them below.
Fifteen years of contributions: what counts as a year
Fifteen years does not mean fifteen years of continuous work. Calendar years are counted, and a year counts in full if it has at least 120 days of contributions — this is how it has been counted since 1 January 1994. Years with fewer days are added together until they make up the same 120 days; anything over 120 days in a year is not carried over to the next. For periods before 1994 the rule is different: every 12 months of contributions is one year of record.
These fifteen years also include contributions to other Portuguese schemes — the civil servants' fund Caixa Geral de Aposentações and the banking sector scheme — and contributions to foreign schemes in countries Portugal has an agreement with. But they cannot fully replace a Portuguese record: you must have at least one year in the general Segurança Social scheme — 12 months of contributions before the end of 1993 or 120 days from 1994 onwards.
If you have no record at all, there is still the social pension — but it is means-tested and not for everyone; more on that below.
“We understand. I can't give you more precise information for now. Personally, I won't be entitled to a local pension for at least another 19 years. You can see how much can change in that time. The website has the detailed formula currently used to calculate pensions, you can study it.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes12.08.2025
How the amount is calculated
The pension is the product of two figures: average pay over the years taken into account (remuneração de referência) and an overall rate that depends on how long your record is.
For those who joined the Portuguese system from 1 January 2002, it works like this. Average pay is taken over all the years with contributions, but no more than forty — if there are more, the best forty are used. Total pay is divided by 14 multiplied by the number of those years: the divisor is 14 because a year here consists of fourteen payments. With a record of up to twenty years, the resulting average is multiplied by 2% and by the number of years. From 21 years the rate is no longer single: earnings are split into bands based on the IAS benchmark (€537.13 in 2026), and each band has its own percentage — 2.3% up to 1.1 IAS, 2.25% up to 2 IAS, 2.2% up to 4 IAS, 2.1% up to 8 IAS and 2% above that. The idea is simple: the higher your pay was, the smaller the share of it the pension replaces.
For those who registered in the system before the end of 2001, the pension is calculated twice — under the old rules (the best 10 years out of the last 15) and under the new ones — and the two parts are then combined in proportion to the years before and after 2002. The old part has a ceiling: €6,445.56 — twelve times the IAS.
The pension is paid 14 times a year: in July and in December an extra payment the size of a monthly one arrives.
“I'm due a pension when I turn 67, the estimated amount is 820 euros. Some Portuguese friends of ours — a civil engineer, retired a year later than the suggested age — about 2,000 euros.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes12.08.2025
The minimum pension and the annual update
The pension is not allowed to fall below a certain amount, and that amount depends on how long your record is. In 2026: €341.08 with fewer than 15 years of contributions, €357.80 with 15–20 years, €394.82 with 21–30 years and €493.52 with 31 years or more.
An important caveat: this minimum is not guaranteed to those who retired early under the flexible age rule. Nor does it appear retrospectively: on reaching the normal pension age, an early retiree will not have their pension raised to the minimum.
Once a year pensions are updated — in line with economic growth and prices over the previous year. For 2026 the increase was split into three bands: pensions up to €1,074.26 went up by 2.80%, from that amount up to €3,222.78 by 2.27%, and above that by 2.02%. Anything over €6,445.56 was not raised at all this year. The increase also has a floor in euros: at least €9.29 in the first band, €30.08 in the second and €73.16 in the third.
Retiring early costs you. Retiring later pays
Early retirement exists in Portugal, and it comes at a high price. The general rule: from 60 and with forty years of contributions, you can retire under the flexible age scheme, but for every month before your personal pension age the pension is cut by 0.5% — for good, not just until you reach the normal age. An example from the social security service's guide: a person with 44 years of contributions retires at 63; their personal age is 65 years and 5 months, so they are 29 months ahead of it and lose 14.5% of their pension.
The second cut is the fator de sustentabilidade, the “sustainability factor”: a coefficient calculated from the rise in life expectancy and announced afresh each year. In 2026 it cuts the pension by 17.63%. It does not apply to all early retirees: it is not applied to someone who already had forty years of contributions at 60, but it is applied to early retirement after long-term unemployment and under the old flexible age rules.
Only very long careers retire with no cut at all: from 60 with 48 years of contributions, or with 46 years if the person started work before the age of 17.
The flip side: working past your pension age earns a bonus — from 0.33% to 1% for every month, depending on your record (1% with forty years or more). It is counted up to the age of 70, and the total pension cannot exceed 92% of the best average pay on which the pension was calculated.
Years of contributions in another country
This is the main question for newcomers, and the answer does not depend on what you want but on whether Portugal has an agreement with that country.
Years within the European Union and the European Economic Area are added up automatically — plus Switzerland under the free movement agreement, Turkey under the European convention and the United Kingdom under the withdrawal agreement. On top of that, Portugal has bilateral agreements with Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Canada and separately Quebec, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Ecuador, the USA, the Philippines, India, Morocco, Mozambique, Moldova, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, East Timor, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan are not on this list. This means that years worked there mean nothing for a Portuguese pension: they count neither towards the fifteen years of entitlement nor towards the amount. For someone who has moved from Russia, the pension here will be counted from zero — from the first month of contributions to the Portuguese system.
The agreement with Ukraine and the agreement with Moldova cover pensions directly: if you do not have enough years in one country, the years in the other are counted, and a pension that has been awarded is also paid to someone living in the other country — it cannot be reduced or suspended because of that.
How this works in practice. Foreign years are only brought into play when your own are not enough for entitlement. If they are enough, the Portuguese pension is calculated on Portuguese years, and the other country pays its share under its own rules. When adding up is needed, the amount is reduced proportionally: a “theoretical” pension is calculated for the whole record, and the share for the Portuguese years is taken from it. You apply in the country where you live, and the application is passed on to the others automatically.
“Your pension is earned, it doesn't depend on your tax residency (180 days). But everything else depends on which country you're moving to. With some countries there are agreements and you can add your years there and get a pension in one of them, with some there's no such option (RF, RB etc.). How to sort it all out properly in your case — they'll tell you at seg. social, and you can give them a new account there too.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkRussosEmPortugal07.03.2024
“You have to declare if your total income for the year exceeds a threshold set by law. Pension income is also subject to IRS income tax. Under the NHR regime a flat 10% rate applies, otherwise for a Russian pension, since it isn't taxed where it's received, the standard progressive scale will be used. Russian years of work can't be counted when a pension is awarded in Portugal because there's no agreement between the countries. As for the rest, maybe Oleg [username] and Olga [username] can advise you.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes25.09.2023
If you have too few years of your own: voluntary contributions
For someone who arrived at 45 or 50, fifteen years can still be built up, but only if contributions are being paid at all. Someone living on passive income, working remotely for a foreign employer or living on a pension from another country pays nothing to Segurança Social — and their record does not grow.
For such cases there is seguro social voluntário — voluntary social insurance. A foreign national is entitled to it if they have lived in Portugal for more than a year and are not covered by the compulsory scheme. The rate in 2026 is 26.90% of the chosen income band, and the bands run from 1 IAS (€537.13) to 8 IAS: on the lowest band the contribution comes to €144.49 a month. This insurance covers three things: disability, old age and death.
The key figure here is a different one, and it is worth remembering in advance: an old-age pension through voluntary contributions is awarded not after 15 years but after 144 months — twelve years of paid months.
How to sign up: form RV 1007 through the e-Clic service, together with a certificate of fitness for work from an SNS doctor, a copy of your identity document and a declaration on your honour that you are not covered by the compulsory scheme. A decision takes up to 30 days, contributions start from the first day of the following month and must be paid by the 20th of the month after the one they are for. A year without payment — and you are removed from the scheme.
Two restrictions that people trip over. You cannot be in the voluntary and the compulsory scheme at the same time: if you get a job, tell them, otherwise what you have paid will be refunded and will not count towards your record. Nor can you use voluntary contributions to increase a compulsory pension that is already being built up.
The second route is more obvious: work. Employment is covered in the guide My employer won't give me an employment contract, self-employment in How to open an atividade and work on recibos verdes, and the self-employed person's contributions themselves in How to pay Segurança Social contributions when self-employed.
“If you're not self-employed in Portugal and not an employee in Portugal, then you don't pay seg social, you simply have no grounds for registering.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linktaxinportugal28.06.2023
“You can't increase your pension with voluntary social security contributions if you're already in the compulsory social security scheme. Voluntary contributions are meant precisely for those who don't fit into the standard system: scholarship holders, cruise ship workers, flight attendants, athletes etc.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkreciboverde14.10.2023
The social pension and the supplement for older people
If you have reached pension age but have no contribution record, there is the pensão social de velhice — the social old-age pension. It is means-tested: income no higher than 40% of the IAS benchmark for a single person and 60% for a couple, which in 2026 means €214.85 and €322.28 a month.
Newcomers need to read this carefully. The social security service lists exactly which foreign nationals are entitled to this pension: those living in Portugal under EU regulations (EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) and under agreements with Australia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Canada. Neither Russia nor Ukraine is on this list — so people who have come from there cannot count on it until they have Portuguese citizenship.
The second payment is the complemento solidário para idosos, a supplement for older people on a low income. It has several conditions, and one of them you cannot get round: you must have lived in Portugal for at least six years without a break. In addition, you must have reached pension age, receive an old-age or survivor's pension, stay within the income limit — which is also calculated for a couple — and allow the social security service to see your tax and bank details. They check not only income but also assets, including those of children living with you.
“pension questions are interesting )) what payments are there for elderly people in portugal: the social pension and the contributory one. The social one is paid if you've reached pension age, you don't have enough contributions to segurança for the contributory one and you have no other income. It's about 300 euros.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes12.08.2025
How to apply
Nothing is awarded automatically: you have to ask for the pension. You apply in your Segurança Social Direta online account — the Trabalho section, then “Reforma e invalidez” and “Pensão de Velhice” — or at any social security office and at the National Pension Centre.
There is one deadline, and it is easy to miss: you can apply no earlier than three months before the date from which you want to receive your pension.
Applications made through the online account have a separate rule — the “pension in an hour”: the application is processed the same day and a provisional pension is awarded straight away. The conditions: you applied online, you have 15 years of contributions or more, your case is not a special one (not an early pension for a particular occupation), you have no outstanding self-employed contributions, and you have either a Portuguese address or an IBAN registered in your account.
There is no fixed deadline for a decision: the social security service itself says that in simple cases a decision takes 50 days on average, and applications through the online account go faster.
In terms of paperwork, you will need a valid identity document (for a newcomer, a residence card will do), a bank document with your IBAN, your tax number if you do not have a Portuguese ID card, and proof of address in Portugal — this is a separate requirement specifically for foreign nationals. You fill in form RP 5068 (not needed if you apply through the online account), RP 5080 if you have other pensions, and if you have years of contributions abroad, also RP 5071 and RP 5081.
“My great-grandmother was entitled to a pension here, but we were lied to that she wasn't entitled, and when we found out she was entitled because of a certain situation, they paid us back all the lost money for all the years she's lived here and now they pay it.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal22.05.2025
Check your contribution record and estimate your pension in advance
Everything the social security service knows about you is in your online account: the Trabalho section, “Remunerações e contribuições”, “Carreira contributiva” — this is your work history by year and month, with the amounts on which contributions were paid. In the simulators section there is also a calculator for your future pension.
It is worth looking there not at 65 but as soon as you have your first year of contributions, for two reasons. The first: records have gaps — a month your employer did not pay for will simply not appear in your history, and you will have to sort it out yourself. The second: years with no contributions cannot be filled in later.
“You can get information about your contributory pension in your personal account on the segurança website. Once you have your first year of contributions, it shows the year when you'll be able to retire under the current rules, and what the amount might be if you keep making contributions at the same level all those years until retirement. It shows the percentage of income that's credited, meaning the earlier the contributions are made, the bigger the effect they'll have. There's a form where you can enter the contribution figures by year yourself and see what size of pension you can expect.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes12.08.2025
“Not for segurança. But your future pension is built from these contributions. Its (theoretical) amount will be shown after the first year of paying into segurança, as if you'll be paying exactly that amount until you reach pension age. Obviously it's very approximate, but you'll be able to assess it and draw conclusions. And while you might be able to increase the contributions in the future, there's no way to fill in the years when there were no contributions.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes12.08.2025
Pension and work: you can have both
A Portuguese old-age pension does not stop you working, and earnings do not cancel it. Contributions for a working pensioner are paid at a reduced rate — 23.9% instead of the usual rate: 16.4% by the employer and 7.5% by the worker.
These contributions are not lost: once a year they are turned into an increase to your pension — the acréscimo de pensão. You do not have to ask for it, it arrives automatically, in March and in November, and is calculated from the previous year's pay. The amounts are modest: with pay of €1,400 a month the increase comes to about €2 a month.
There are two restrictions. The first: an employee who has taken early retirement cannot work for three years for the same company or group they retired from — otherwise the pension is withdrawn for that time. The second: an old-age pension cannot be combined with unemployment benefit or with sickness benefits.
Tax on pensions
A pension is income, and tax is paid on it. In Portugal's IRS income tax, pensions have their own category — H — and the rate is the usual one, on the progressive scale: How to calculate and pay IRS income tax.
Category H has its own deduction, and it is equal to the deduction on wages — 8.54 times the IAS benchmark. In 2026 that is €4,587.09 a year: a pension below this amount is not taxed at all. If you have several pensions, they are added together for the calculation.
A tax resident of Portugal must also declare a pension from another country — it goes in the Anexo J annex together with details of foreign accounts. How the return itself is filed is covered in the guide How to file your IRS return for the first time.
On the special tax regimes. The old NHR gave a flat 10% on foreign pensions, and for a small pension this was more often a bad deal: on the normal scale with the deduction, the tax comes to about zero. IFICI, which replaced it, works differently — what it covers and what it does not is explained in the guide How to make sense of NHR and apply for IFICI.
And the reverse case: if you receive a Portuguese pension while living in another country, tax may be withheld twice. To prevent this, the Portuguese withholding is removed by an application — forms RFI 21 and RFI 24 on the tax authority's portal.
“Yes, you have to. You put the amount of your pension in Anexo J, and you list your Russian and other foreign accounts there too. Unless you're a former MP, NHR with a 10% rate for foreign pensions isn't worth it for you, on the progressive scale the tax will most likely be 0 or close to zero.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes16.06.2025
“We'll get to that in due course. For now you need to understand that whether you'll get a visa or not is still unknown, but you'll be made a tax resident, and Portugal will immediately become interested in your income. Tax residency doesn't depend on whether or not you have a residence permit/permanent residence/Portuguese citizenship. The problem with a Russian pension is that it isn't subject to personal income tax in the RF.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linktaxinportugal17.10.2024
If you have moved here to live on a pension from another country
A pension is a valid basis for the D7 visa, the so-called “passive income visa”: you show it with a certificate from the pension authority and statements from the account it is paid into. What exactly is required and in what form is covered in the guide How to get a D7 visa on passive income; the whole journey of moving is in the guide How to move from Russia to Portugal.
Then comes what people only find out once they are here. After living in Portugal for more than 183 days, you become a tax resident — and your pension, wherever it comes from, goes on your Portuguese tax return. A Russian pension is not taxed in Russia, but here it is ordinary category H income, and this is where newcomers most often get an unpleasant surprise.
A Portuguese residence permit does not affect the foreign pension itself: a pension awarded elsewhere remains yours. What to do in your first weeks after arriving — NIF, NISS and utente numbers, a bank account, an address — is set out in the guide Your first weeks after moving.
“a pension plus, say, income from renting out movable or immovable property. ideal option for D7.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkmyptaxes19.09.2025
If you later leave Portugal
A Portuguese pension you have earned does not depend on where you live: it is also paid to those living abroad — by bank transfer, CTT postal order or cheque by post. Bilateral agreements spell this out in a separate line: a pension that has been awarded cannot be reduced, suspended or cancelled just because the person has moved to another country.
In return, there is a yearly obligation — prova de vida, proof that you are alive. It is done from 1 May to 15 September: online with facial recognition, through the social security service's app or in person at an embassy or consulate. If you have not done it by 15 September, payments are suspended from November. For now the rule does not apply to everyone: in 2026 it is only required of those living in Belgium, Cape Verde, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
What you cannot do, however, is get your contributions back when you leave. There are only two exceptions: total and permanent incapacity for work without the required record, and reaching 70 without the required record even taking into account years worked in countries Portugal has an agreement with.
“If you have an acquired right to a pension, it has nothing to do with your residence card. It's important to leave a power of attorney with someone to protect your interests in the country. The account is linked to your phone number. It's important to always keep your phone number active so you don't lose access to your bank account. As for the proof of life for the pension, it can be done online. If you have any questions, you should contact the Portuguese consulate in Moscow. However, I think it would be better for you to apply for permanent residence or citizenship.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkRussosEmPortugal08.03.2024
What to bring
- A valid identity document: residence card, passport or Portuguese ID card
- Your NISS number — without it the social security service has no record of you
- A bank document showing your IBAN with you as the account holder
- Your NIF tax number, if you do not have a Portuguese ID card
- Proof of address in Portugal — a separate requirement for foreign nationals
- Form RP 5068 — the old-age pension application (not needed if you apply through your online account)
- Form RP 5080, if you already receive another pension
- Forms RP 5071 and RP 5081, if you have years of contributions in a country Portugal has an agreement with
- Documents on compulsory military service, if it has not yet been counted towards your contribution record
- For voluntary insurance — form RV 1007 and a certificate from an SNS doctor that you are fit for work
Where people most often trip up
- The pension is not awarded automatically: until you apply, nothing is paid
- Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh years of work do not count here — there is no social security agreement
- Fifteen years means years in each of which you had at least 120 days of contributions, not just any years of living in the country
- An early pension is cut for good: 0.5% per month plus the sustainability factor, which in 2026 is a further 17.63%
- The guaranteed minimum pension does not apply to early retirement under the flexible age scheme
- Voluntary insurance gives the right to an old-age pension only after 144 months — twelve years of contributions
- You cannot be in the voluntary and the compulsory scheme at the same time: the extra money will be refunded, but it will not count towards your record
- The social pension is not available to a foreign national from Russia or Ukraine: it is only for countries covered by EU regulations and five agreements
- The supplement for older people (CSI) requires six years of living in Portugal without a break
- You can apply no earlier than three months before the date you want your pension to start
- A tax resident's foreign pension must be declared in Portugal, even if it is not taxed back home
- Those living abroad need to provide proof of life once a year, or payments will be suspended