PENSION DEFICIT IN BRAZILIAN SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM: LEGAL REMARKS AND STRATEGIES TOWARDS FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

Abstract

The present article consists in the brief analysis of the evolution of the Brazilian General Regime Social Security, depicting its frailty against subsequent legal reforms through which it has passed in recent years. It also deals with the impact of socioeconomic changes on the current and future financial sustainability of the Brazilian pension system. In fact, the evolution of the statistics concerning such social indicators can be quite decisive for the future sustainability of the Brazilian social security system. For this, we used the phenomenological method - hermeneutics, by privileging theoretical studies and analysis of documents and texts. Such research is very important in order to provide a glimpse of the general social security regimen in Brazil and its future prospects. The main results show that there is a budgetary concern due to the growth in life expectancy and declining birth rate. Even with the absence of the current financial deficit proclaimed by the media and the federal government, there will be the need for reform to fit the budget of Brazil’s future Social Security System. According to our analysis, the improvement of Brazilian Social Security requires legal autonomy of the Social Security Revenue (thus preventing the withdrawal of it funds to defray social security benefits belonging to another public sectors), the increase of minimum wage in the country, and public policies to stimulate the entry of informal workers in the General Social Security Regimen. Furthermore, this article suggests that, as a matter of immediate public policy, the Brazilian government should focus more energetically in improvement of educational systems, which presents itself as a strong indicator for the improvement of social welfare budget.