Government stops paying 25% of precatories in 2022

Of the BRL 43 billion expected by the Judiciary, BRL 32.4 billion were released

The federal government will not pay all the precatories of 2022, including the amounts intended for INSS (National Social Security Institute) insured persons. The Judiciary had requested R$ 42.8 billion, but the total released is R$ 32.4 billion — 75% of the forecast.

Precatórios are government judicial debts above 60 minimum wages. For the Federal Court specifically, which pays the INSS precatories, R$ 25.4 billion was released. The remaining R$ 7 billion are for other areas of the Judiciary.

The numbers were reported by the CJF (Council of Federal Justice) and the Ministry of Economy.

The reduction of the amount is supported by constitutional amendments 113 and 114, originated from the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatórios, which defined a payment ceiling for these debts, causing part of the citizens to remain without receiving. What is not paid in 2022 will be included in the Budget for the next years, which can snowball.

Of the total of BRL 25.4 billion for the Federal Court, BRL 11.1 billion is to pay off judicial debts of INSS policyholders who won lawsuits for granting or reviewing the benefit in court. The list includes social security benefits, such as retirement and death benefits; accidents, such as sick pay and accident pay; and assistance, such as BPC (Continued Payment Benefit).

The approval of the PEC with a limit for the payment of precatories until 2026 was one of the ways found by the federal government to break the spending ceiling — since part of the judicial debts leave the ceiling — and direct the money to the payment of other expenses, such as Auxílio Brasil, a substitute for Bolsa Família and the Bolsonaro government’s bet on an election year.

It is not yet possible to know how many citizens will enter the list of receiving precatories this year. The definition of who will receive it will only come out after July 10, when the courts will have to divide the money to be sent by the CJF (Council of Federal Justice). The forecast of deposit to creditors varies, in some courts it will be until the end of July, in others, in the beginning of August.

The initial forecast, according to the CJF (Council of Federal Justice), responsible for passing on the amounts to the courts, was to pay R$ 14 billion in INSS precatories, attending to processes that were on the list released by the CMO (Mixed Budget Commission) in 2021. However, the money released, of R$ 11.1 billion, is 80% of the expected value.

The cut also affects civil servants’ actions against the Union in search of overtime and unpaid salary amounts. Of the total forecast for 2022, estimated at BRL 10.8 billion, BRL 9 billion will be disbursed for payment, a decrease of 17% of the forecast.

Vitor Augusto Boari, president of Madeca (Movement of Lawyers in Defense of Food Creditors of the Public Power) and effective member of the Commission of Precatórios of the OAB (Order of Lawyers of Brazil) in São Paulo, criticizes the lack of transparency.

“This money saved may be being used in a spurious way, because it goes to Secret Budget and other things that we see. It was the way they managed to pierce the ceiling and roll over the debt.”

The lawyer also highlights other changes made by the amendment, which would be harmful to creditors: the deadline for the precatory to be included in the budget of the following year was changed from July 2 to April 2, in addition to the change in the correction rule, now based on the Selic rate. Before, the index used was the IPCA-E (Extended National Consumer Price Index – Special).

“They put Selic as an index for all doubts. The Selic is up now, but, for previous values, creditors are having a loss of about 35% of the value, according to Madeca”, he says.

Adriane Bramante, president of the IBDP (Brazilian Institute of Social Security Law), believes that the amendments were very harmful to the authors of lawsuits who have been waiting for years to receive their precatory.

“The losses are many, but the main thing is the even longer wait to receive what is rightfully theirs. There are processes with 10, 15 or even 20 years of waiting time and, now, policyholders may be left out of the 2022 list, even if they were included, if their order is outside the budget limit defined by the amendments”, he says.

In the STF (Supreme Federal Court), an ADI (Direct Action of Unconstitutionality) questions parts of the PEC of Precatórios. An injunction request has been made, but it has not yet been heard. “We do not request that the PEC be declared totally unconstitutional. There are passages with which we agree, such as using the precatory to buy a property, for example. We have never seen it happen, but it is an alternative for the creditor”, says Boari.

How will the payment be and who should receive it?

According to the Federal Court, the payment will comply with the priority rules of amendment 114. Priority must be given to food precatories, such as those from the INSS, in addition to salaries and indemnities with a limit of up to three times the ceiling of RPvs (Small Value Requests) for those over 60 years of age or a person with a disability or serious illness.

The limit, in this case, will be R$ 218,160 this year. Afterwards, the other precatories of a food nature will be paid, also limited to up to three times the value of the RPV of 2022, which gives 180 minimum wages. In third place come the other alimony debts and, in the sequence, the other precatories.

The TRFs (Regional Federal Courts) await the amounts to determine who will receive. After July 10, the citizen will be able to consult, on the website of the court of his region, if his precatory will be paid.

The TRF-3 (Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region), which serves São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul, informed that it will receive half of the expected amount, but that there will still be corrections until the payment date. In all, R$ 8.7 billion were requested for 2022 and R$ 4.2 billion should be released – a total still without correction.

In the TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region), which serves the southern states, the forecast is to pay 48.02% of the federal precatories that were scheduled for 2022.

Creditor lawyers can also go without payment. There is an understanding that they also enter into the legal priorities of age, disability or serious illness, but there are other interpretations that the professionals’ budget is not supported by the constitutional rule.

Source: Leaf