Legislation also mandates proactive outreach to affected beneficiaries
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed into law a bill prohibiting the deduction of membership fees from benefits administered by the National Social Security Institute (INSS) for associations. The new legislation also mandates actively seeking out beneficiaries harmed by improper deductions and provides for their reimbursement.
The change, made to the Social Security Benefits Plan Law (Law 8.213/1991), prohibits deductions even with the beneficiary’s express authorization, assigning the obligation to reimburse improper deductions to the association or financial institution within 30 days. The exception is for prior, personal, and specific authorization, authenticated by biometrics, with facial recognition or fingerprint and electronic signature.
The new law was published in the Official Gazette of the Union this Wednesday (7) and also regulates the seizure of assets of people investigated or accused of crimes related to improper deductions from INSS benefits.
The debate that resulted in the change in legislation began after the Federal Police (PF) and the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) launched Operation No Discount in April 2025.
The investigation made public the existence of a scheme that defrauded millions of INSS beneficiaries throughout Brazil. Since then, all technical cooperation agreements that allowed association dues to be deducted directly from benefits have been suspended. A task force was initiated to return the amounts to the affected pensioners.
According to the latest INSS report, as of January 5th, R$ 2,835,784,151.87 has already been reimbursed to victims of irregular deductions of dues charged by associations, unions, professional organizations, and other organizations from social security benefits. This amount corresponds to 4,160,369 requests for redress submitted by retirees and pensioners who questioned the irregular deductions.
More than 72.5 million inquiries regarding improper deductions were registered on the Meu INSS app, of which 38.7 million confirmed that the deduction did not exist. There are still more than 6.3 million open appeals. 131,715 cases of improper deductions have already been recognized.
