Early retirement
Two distinct early-retirement routes exist: flexibilização, which carries a permanent monthly reduction, and the very-long-careers route, which carries no reduction in the law reviewed for this page. This page explains the conditions and the reduction for each.
Flexibilização — 40 years, with a monthly reduction
From 60 years, with 40 years or more of registered remuneration, the pension can be claimed early under the flexibilização route (art. 20.º (1)(a) + art. 21.º). For every started 30 days between the claim and the normal pension age, the pension is reduced by 0,5 % (art. 36.º (2)-(3)).
Art. 36.º states only the 0,5%/month rate (n.º 3) and how the month count is measured (n.º 4). No paragraph of art. 36.º or elsewhere in the 158 captured articles caps the TOTAL reduction.
Portuguese law does not say whether this 0,5%-a-month reduction stays in place for the rest of the pension, or lifts once you reach the normal (or your own personal) pension age.
Very long careers — 48 years, no reduction located
From 60 years, with 48 years or more of registered remuneration, the very-long-careers route allows an early claim (art. 20.º (1)(b) + art. 21.º-A). An alternate condition applies for a career that started before age 17, quoted in the statute's own words: “Idade igual ou superior a 60 anos e, pelo menos, 46 anos civis com registo de remunerações relevantes para cálculo da pensão, com início de carreira contributiva no regime geral de segurança social ou no regime de proteção social convergente em idade inferior a 17 anos.” (DL 187/2007 art. 21.º-A n.º 1 b)).
CORRECTED 2026-08-19 (task 9515 re-source batch 2), and the correction is a MISCITATION, not a newly-found source. This field cited art. 36.º n.º 8 and could not identify the "lei especial" it defers to. n.º 8 was the wrong subsection for this route: it governs only the regimes of art. 20.º n.º 1 alíneas c), d) and e) — arts. 22.º (penosidade/desgaste), 23.º (medidas temporárias) and 24.º (desemprego involuntário de longa duração) — three DIFFERENT early-retirement routes. The route modelled here is alínea b), "por carreiras contributivas muito longas" (art. 21.º-A, which this route's own qualifyingPeriod already cites), and its amount is governed by n.º 7, which needs no lei especial because it is complete on its own: "O montante da pensão antecipada atribuída ao abrigo do regime previsto no artigo 21.º-A é calculado nos termos gerais, SEM aplicação do disposto nos números anteriores ou do artigo 37.º" — so neither the -0,5 %/month reduction of n.os 1-6 nor the late-retirement bonus of art. 37.º applies. THE ABSENCE THEREFORE STANDS AND GETS STRONGER: there is no per-month rate for this route because the statute AFFIRMATIVELY EXCLUDES the reducing provision, not because a rate sits somewhere unread. This route pays the full, unreduced statutory pension. Art. 35.º n.º 5 e) separately confirms the fator de sustentabilidade does not apply to it either.
No reduction is stated for this route in Portuguese law, so there is nothing here that could be permanent or temporary — and as of the 2026-08-19 correction that is an explicit statutory exclusion (art. 36.º n.º 7) rather than an unresolved deferral.