UNDUE ASSOCIATION-FEE DEDUCTIONS FROM INSS BENEFITS: ADMINISTRATIVE REDRESS, THE AGREEMENT RATIFIED BY THE BRAZILIAN FEDERAL SUPREME COURT AND THE REMAINING SCOPE OF CIVIL LIABILITY

Abstract

This article examines the undue association-fee deductions from benefits paid by the Brazilian National Institute of Social Security (INSS) and the scope of the interinstitutional redress agreement ratified by the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court in the Claim of Non-compliance with a Fundamental Precept No. 1,236, to determine whether adherence to the administrative program exhausts the beneficiary's right to compensation or merely returns the amounts unduly deducted. The qualitative, deductive research relied on documentary analysis of the ratifying decision, the plenary judgment, the agreement, the related legislation and the official payment data consolidated up to July 2026, alongside bibliographic and case law review. The results indicate that the release signed by the adherent covers only claims against the INSS and the Federal Government, conditional upon actual administrative payment, and expressly preserves the rights against the associative entities, including, where the legal requirements are met, double restitution under article 42, sole paragraph, of the Consumer Protection Code and compensation for moral damages, whose presumption is under review in Repetitive Theme No. 1,435 of the Superior Court of Justice. The conclusion holds that the administrative program operates as a floor, not a ceiling, of civil liability.