Portrait of Michel Temer
Politician · policy
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Michel Temer on Social Security

Strong pension reformer (strong)

TL;DR

Michel Temer strongly advocated for comprehensive Social Security reform to ensure the system's financial sustainability for the future.

Key Points

  • He stated in December 2016 that reforming the pension system was the only way to guarantee social security's future existence, citing massive projected deficits.

  • His proposed reform included establishing a minimum retirement age of 65 for men and 62 for women, alongside benefit equivalence.

  • In June 2018, he signed the US-Brazil Social Security Totalisation Agreement into law, allowing workers to aggregate contribution periods between the two countries.

Summary

Michel Temer, during his presidency, was a strong advocate for reforming Brazil's Social Security system, asserting that reform was the sole guarantee for its future existence. He based this position on the system's severe financial shortfalls, which in 2015 resulted in an US$ 86 billion shortfall, estimated to drastically increase by 2017. His proposed constitutional amendment sought to establish a minimum retirement age, initially set at 65 for men and 62 for women, and ensure the leveling of pension benefits across different sectors.

While the necessity of reform was presented as crucial for fiscal health and restoring investor confidence, the proposals faced significant domestic opposition, leading to protests and making congressional approval difficult. Temer also took steps regarding international agreements, promulgating a decree in 2018 to approve the US-Brazil Social Security Totalisation Agreement, designed to prevent double contributions for temporarily assigned workers between the two nations. This multilateral action aimed to streamline retirement benefits for expatriates while the domestic reform struggle continued.

Frequently Asked Questions

Michel Temer strongly believed that a comprehensive reform of the Social Security system was an urgent necessity to ensure it could continue to exist in the future. He framed it as essential to avoid the system's mathematical collapse due to growing deficits under the existing parameters.

Temer aggressively pursued pension reform, achieving a key committee vote in May 2017, but his ultimate failure to secure the necessary two-thirds vote in the full Congress left the tricky task to his successor. The proposal remained deeply unpopular with many voters.

The president forcefully defended his controversial social security reform proposal against critics, even comparing strong opposition to a form of "terrorism" in one instance. He maintained he would keep working for the changes because of their perceived importance to the nation's finances.