THE SPECIAL PENSION FOR ORPHANS OF FEMICIDE: STATE REPARATION OR RESIDUAL ASSISTANCE?

Abstract

The study analyses the legal framework of the special pension established by Law 14.717/2023 for children and adolescents orphaned as a result of feminicide, aiming to identify its legal nature and to assess the coherence between the material grounds of the benefit and the normative design adopted. This is theoretical research, qualitative in approach and descriptive-critical in purpose, conducted through the deductive method by means of documentary, bibliographical and case-law research, the latter carried out in the official databases of the Federal Regional Courts of the 4th and 6th Regions. The research finds that the benefit, although premised on a crime that triggers the State duty to provide reparation, followed the logic of targeted social assistance, with a poverty threshold, a rigid age limit, a single amount shared among all dependants and a prohibition on accumulation with social security benefits. A comparison with the special pension of Law 13.985/2020, which is compensatory, lifelong and individual, shows that Parliament had a reparatory model available and did not use it. The State does not officially count feminicide orphans, and the first administrative analysis of applications took place almost three years after the law came into force. Courts diverge on how to classify the benefit, and litigation concentrates on administrative delay. The article concludes by proposing legislative revision on five fronts.