Brazil's Council of the Federal Justice (CJF), the body that coordinates the country's federal court system, has released a new batch of back-payments owed by the INSS, Brazil's national social security institute, to retirees, pensioners and other beneficiaries who won lawsuits against the agency, according to a report published Wednesday by Folha de S.Paulo. The batch covers cases that were filed for payment in July 2026.

The report says 2.745 billion reais (roughly $500 million) was released specifically to cover overdue amounts tied to social security and welfare rulings, including pension recalculations, sick-pay benefits and survivor pensions. The sum covers 125,963 court cases and reaches 173,283 beneficiaries. Including cases from other areas of law processed in the same batch, the total released by the courts reaches 3.3 billion reais, Folha reported.

How the payments work

Each federal court handles the release of funds on its own schedule. During processing, the court opens an account at either Caixa Econômica Federal or Banco do Brasil, Brazil's two largest state-controlled banks, to hold the funds before payout. Once processing is complete, beneficiaries can check the responsible court's website to find out which bank is holding their payment.

Back-payments are only released once a case is fully resolved and the court issues a formal payment order. That happens after what Brazilian law calls 'trânsito em julgado,' the point at which a ruling becomes final and neither side can appeal further. In practice, only claimants who have already won their case with no further appeals pending are included in these release batches.

To check the specifics of an individual claim, including the amount owed and the date funds become available, beneficiaries need to consult the website of the court that handled their case. Folha obtained the figures directly from the CJF.