In an interview with CNN Last Wednesday (4), the newly appointed Minister of Labor, Luiz Marinho (PT), stated that the portfolio plans to extinguish the anniversary withdrawal of the Severance Indemnity Fund (FGTS).
“The previous government, in order to put money on the market, created the anniversary withdrawal, which would be the guarantee for the payroll loan, creating an aggravation. An absurd business that happened in the market and a distortion in the role of the Fund”, he declared. “It is therefore necessary to put it on the rails.”
Last Thursday, however, the minister published on Twitter that the maintenance or extinction of the anniversary withdrawal will be “the subject of wide debate” with the FGTS Board of Trustees and union centrals. The move was seen as a possible step back from the repercussions of the announcement.
The maintenance or not of the FGTS anniversary withdrawal will be the object of wide debate with the FGTS Board of Trustees and with the trade union centrals. Our concern is with the protection of male and female workers in case of dismissal and with the preservation of their savings.
— Luiz Marinho (@luizmarinhopt) January 5, 2023
Understand what it is and how it works
The modality is based on an annual withdrawal of part of the FGTS balance during the month of the insured person’s birthday. Membership is optional and those who do not opt for the benefit category remain in the standard withdrawal-termination system.
The value of the birthday withdrawal, according to the Caixa Econômica Federal official website, is given from the application of a rate on the sum of all balances of the worker’s FGTS accounts, with the addition of an additional portion. The quota varies from 5% to 50%, and there are seven balance ranges to define the percentage and the additional amount.
In short, the lower the total balance amount, the higher the rate. Up to BRL 500, there is no additional installment. Thereafter, the added value ranges from BRL 50 to BRL 2,900, the latter referring to those who hold BRL 20,000 or more.
In addition, policyholders are entitled to the so-called anticipation of the birthday withdrawal, which is when they take out a loan from financial institutions and use the amount to which they are entitled annually as collateral.
Those who opt for the modality can reverse the decision through the FGTS application and, thus, return to the withdrawal-termination, as long as there is no contracted anticipation operation.
Created in 2019 and put into effect in March of the following year, the birthday withdrawal has already been contracted by more than 46 million Brazilians and totals R$ 33.9 billion, according to information from Caixa. In the last year alone, R$ 12.7 billion were withdrawn through this modality.
Source: CNN Brasil
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