Lula Announces INSS Queue ‘Zeroed’ at Planalto

Overview

• The announcement was made Thursday at the Palácio do Planalto where President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared the INSS queue “zeroed” using the government’s metric for pending requests.
• INSS partial August data show about 1.282 million total pending requests and roughly 261,000 cases waiting more than 45 days for analysis, figures the institute supplied ahead of the event.
• The administration’s definition excludes any request still within the 45‑day legal period from the backlog, so the “fila zerada” claim applies only to cases the government counts as overdue.
• Benefit denials have surged this year, with rejections up about 70% year‑to‑date and monthly refusal totals reaching record levels, and the Tribunal de Contas da União has kept benefit concessions on its High Risk list.
• The government credits expedited reviews, leadership change at the INSS and targeted work drives for faster processing, but many applicants remain waiting and the shift raises questions about quality control, fiscal cost and political timing ahead of the election.