Actions to hold those convicted of feminicide financially responsible for expenses with death pensions granted by the INSS are in the sights of the Attorney General’s Office (AGU).
Processes filed by the federal agency for this purpose have increased eightfold in the last three years: they went from 12, in 2023, to 54 in 2024 and, last year, they reached 100. These are called regressive actions for feminicide.
Marília’s case
At the beginning of this month, for example, the 2nd Federal Court of Marília, in São Paulo, sentenced a man to reimburse the National Social Security Institute (INSS) for the amounts paid with the death pension in favor of his ex-partner’s dependent, who died as a result of a crime classified as femicide committed by him.
The couple’s daughter was just two years old at the time. The man was sentenced by the Jury to a sentence of 26 years in prison.
Due to the death, the INSS granted a pension to the child from September 2021, in the monthly amount of R$ 1,518, with an estimated maintenance until March 2040. With the regressive action, the man will have to reimburse the Union for the amounts paid and future amounts, assuming the financial burden of granting the benefit, as he was the actual cause of the damage.
Developed by AGU, the thesis aims to reach all social security benefits that are paid as a result of a femicide.
In partnership with the National Council of Justice (CNJ), the objective is to cross-reference national conviction data with information from the INSS, as explained by Adriana Venturini, Federal Attorney General of the AGU.
“The idea is that we will now be able to form partnerships with all 27 units of the federation through the CNJ. And, by crossing the data, we will make it possible for no social security payment resulting from domestic violence to go without a response from the AGU in order to demand compensation from the aggressor. Because the responsibility should not be left to society.”
The initiative also seeks to prevent the defendant himself from appearing as a beneficiary of the death pension, highlights the AGU representative.
“As soon as there is a conviction for feminicide, the INSS is notified and it prevents the payment from being made if it is for the benefit of the defendant himself. If it is for the benefit of the minor child, the payment of the pension happens automatically, because he cannot be revictimized, but we charge the person who caused the death.”
Currently, the experience is present in 13 units of the federation. Last year alone, the processes collected 113 death pensions, with an expected recovery of R$25 million to the public coffers.
For Adriana Venturini, this policy is not restricted to financial reimbursement to public coffers, but dialogues with consolidated initiatives to combat gender-based violence.
“The idea is that it has a preventive and pedagogical impact, thinking from the perspective of a culture of full accountability.”
The AGU is preparing to file dozens of new regressive actions for feminicide for next month, when International Women’s Day is celebrated.
