The Portuguese press is ringing the alarm bells: countless Portuguese nationals residing in Luxembourg find themselves in a bureaucratic deadlock. Having accomplished one part of their career in Portugal, they rely on the Portuguese government's help to receive their pensions. The latter needs to send over a declaration certifying their contribution career in Portugal - without this declaration, the Portuguese employees cannot receive their Luxembourgish pensions.
In Luxembourg, any employee who has reached the age of 57 and contributed for 40 years qualifies for early retirement pension at 100%. For Portuguese nationals, however, taking this step may be slightly more difficult. If they have worked in Portugal before emigrating to the Grand Duchy, they need a filled-out E205 PT form, which delineates the paid contributions. Unfortunately, the Portuguese government is allegedly taking its time to send the required documents.
According to the Portuguese television channel TVI24, some of the affected employees are forced to continue working and therefore "feel robbed and abandoned by the Portuguese state."
The origin of the problem is unusual: Portugal does not yet have all all contributory careers saved digitally. In other words, many of the important documents are still stored on microfilm. As the affected people have often worked in Portugal in the 70s and 80s, the research procedures at the social security centers prove to be a difficult enterprise.
The problem is not new. Already last year, the issue was addressed during the visit of José Luis Carneiro, the secretary of state for Portuguese communities. In early February, socialist MP Paulo Pisco also visited Luxembourg and told officials that the Portuguese government had set up a department for international affairs related to the national pension fund. This department is working on digitizing contributory paths, which remain the most helpful too to retrace professional careers completed in Portugal.
