Retirement
Eligibility to join the scheme

Here you can find information about eligibility to join the scheme Caixa Geral de Aposentações.

2026-02-18

Eligibility to join the scheme

Until 2005-12-31, Portuguese civil servants and public sector agents employed by State administrations, Local authorities, Autonomous and military communities, as well as deputies (optional), teachers from private schools and workers of some public (or State owned though private) companies, as long as they kept that job situation and received pensionable remuneration, were obligatorily CGA scheme members.

The civil servants appointed after 2005-12-31 are no longer eligible to join the CGA pension scheme. They must join the general private workers pension scheme.

The civil servants appointed before 2006-01-01 maintain their CGA pension scheme membership as long as they don't leave the civil service according to Law no. 45/2024, of December 27.

Employees' Contribution

Contribution rate

The monthly contribution rate to CGA is 11% of the pensionable remuneration (8% for retirement and 3% for survivor pension).

 

Pensionable remuneration

Pensionable remuneration means all salary or wages, excluding overtime payments and special payments for extra duties, payable to a member for service. The pensionable remuneration is always related to the job that entitled the member to join the scheme (scheme meaningful job).

Both jobs entitle him to join the scheme (2 scheme meaningful jobs) - the pensionable remuneration is the higher of the two salaries;

Only one of the jobs is scheme meaningful - the pensionable remuneration corresponds to the salary of that job.
When the member leaves temporarily the job that entitled him to join the scheme (unpaid leave, secondment, etc.) and the new job is not scheme meaningful, his contributions towards the scheme will remain related to the meaningful job (job of origin).

The pensionable remuneration of the civil servants appointed before 1993-09-01 (old members) is the final salary (the last monthly remuneration the member received before retiring). The pensionable remuneration of the civil servants appointed after 1993-08-31 (new members) is the average of the salaries he received in his entire career.

For the part-time workers, the figure used to work out the pension benefits is the pensionable remuneration that they would have received if they had worked full time.

 

Remuneration exempts from contributions

The exemption from contributions covers, in general, all remunerations that cannot be considered in any way for the calculation of the pension, either because they don't correspond to the job itself, or because they are not paid for service, but to reimburse costs or expenses (traveling or subsistence allowance, etc.).

Contribution payment

The scheme member contributes 11% of his monthly gross pensionable remuneration. That amount is deducted from the salary automatically every month by the employer (withholding).

Leaving the scheme

Scheme membership is directly related to the job that entitles the member to join the scheme. So, if the employee leaves definitively that job (and ceases to be a civil servant) his membership is cancelled. Two situations are, then, possible:

The deferred member is fully vested - he will qualify for a pension at 70 years or, before, in case of incapacity;

The deferred member had not yet acquired 5 years of reckonable service - only if he returns to be a civil servant / scheme member will he be able to qualify for a pension.

Last update: 2026-04-01 Version: RPRD-01042026