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Incapacity Degree

Combine the National Incapacity Table coefficients into one global degree, apply the uplift, and see what it pays.

Coefficients from the medical report

Enter the coefficient the medical board assigned to each sequela, as a percentage. The coefficients come from the medical report, not from this page.

The grounds are not cumulative: at most one factor of 1.50 applies, capped at 100%.

Final incapacity degree
65.70%
Global degree (residual capacity)
65.70%
Arithmetic sum (incorrect)
90.00%
Annual pension
€7,726.32
Per instalment (14 a year)
€551.88

How this degree is reached

Number of injuries3
Arithmetic sum of the coefficients90.00%
Global degree on residual capacity65.70%
Gap against the sum24.30 points
Final incapacity degree65.70%
Temporary-incapacity floor at the first examination (double)100.00%
Meets the 60.00% income-tax thresholdYes
Gross annual earnings (14 months)€16,800.00
Share of earnings (70% × degree)45.99%
Lifelong annual pension€7,726.32

The degree and its classification are fixed by the medical board and, in a dispute, by the labour court. This page computes the general rule of Annex I; a special rule in the table prevails over it.

Video: how to use the calculator

1

Coefficients compound on residual capacity, they are not added

The rule is point 5(d) of the Annex I General Instructions: the global coefficient is obtained by combining the partial coefficients "according to the residual-capacity principle", the first measured against the capacity the person had before the accident and each later one against the capacity that remains, with successive deduction of those already counted. The first coefficient bites on the whole capacity; the second only on what is left. Three 30% sequelae therefore give 65.70% and not 90%, and the gap widens with each additional injury. Two consequences worth holding on to: a set of coefficients each below unity can never reach unity, and the order in which the medical examiner lists them cannot change the result, because the calculation is a product.

2

The uplift is a 1.5 factor on the global degree, and it applies only once

Point 5(a) writes the formula out in full, "IG + (IG × 0.5)", a multiplication by 1.5, "up to the limit of unity", where the worker cannot be redeployed in their post or is aged 50 or over. Point 5(b) grants the same factor where the injury causes a visible change in physical appearance that materially affects performance in the post, and closes by stating that it "is not cumulative with the preceding paragraph". Add the condition inside 5(a) itself (available only where the worker has not already benefited from that factor) and the grounds are alternatives: there is at most one 1.5 factor, never two. The statutory formula is written on IG, the global degree, not on each coefficient before combining; the uplifts the table itself provides for in specific chapters arrive already applied in each partial coefficient.

3

Above 66.67% the uplift stops paying, and the cap is unity

Point 3 defines total dysfunction, absolute permanent incapacity for any work whatsoever, as unity. Because the factor is 1.5 and the cap is 1.00, the uplift saturates at exactly 1 ÷ 1.5 = 66.67%: from that global degree upwards the factor adds nothing, because the result already meets the limit. Reaching the coefficient 1.00 is an arithmetic fact about the coefficient; classifying the situation as absolute incapacity is for the multidisciplinary board of point 5-A and for the labour court, and this page does not pre-empt it.

4

The degree decides the money, and at the first examination it counts double

Once the degree is fixed, the pension comes from article 48(3)(c) of Law 98/2009: a lifelong annual pension equal to 70% of the reduction suffered in general earning capacity, computed on the gross annual earnings and paid in 14 instalments. That is the same calculation as our work-accident compensation calculator, which this page reuses rather than repeating. There is also a rule specific to the first medical examination, in point 9 of the General Instructions: temporary partial incapacity is then set at "at least double" the coefficient foreseeable for the future permanent incapacity, without passing the coefficient 1: a floor, not a value.

5

A pre-existing injury is not deducted, and the table cites a repealed law

Point 5(e) directs a pre-existing injury or illness to "article 9(2) of Law 100/97". That law was repealed by article 186(a) of Law 98/2009, so the table in force today points at an instrument that no longer exists. The live rule is article 11(2) of Law 98/2009, and it is generous: where the injury from the accident is aggravated by a pre-existing injury or illness, or the reverse, "the incapacity shall be assessed as though everything resulted from it" (that is, the earlier share is not deducted) unless the worker is already drawing a pension for that earlier injury or has already received a lump-sum commutation.

6

There are two tables, and using the wrong one is the error the decree fixed

Decree-Law 352/2007 publishes two tables with opposite logics. Annex I is the National Incapacity Table of employment law: coefficients expressed as percentages of lost earning capacity, combined on residual capacity as the general rule. Annex II assesses permanent incapacity in civil law: it scores in points rather than percentages, directly adds synergistic sequelae (point 3), asks the examiner for the score equivalent to the global loss in non-synergistic ones (point 4), and falls back on "the residual-capacity calculation (Balthazard rule)" only where that is not possible (point 5). The decree's own preamble says that using the employment table in other areas of law is "potentially productive of significant injustice". Note in passing that Annex I's residual capacity and Annex II's Balthazard rule are one mechanism under two names: Annex I never names Balthazard, and Annex II never treats residual capacity as the general rule.

Worked example

A worker with three sequelae of 30% each and monthly earnings of €1,200. The arithmetic sum would give 90.00%, but on the residual-capacity principle the global degree is 65.70%, that is 24.30 points lower. Gross annual earnings are €16,800 (14 × €1,200), so the partial permanent incapacity pension is 70% × 65.70% = 45.99% of those earnings, that is €7,726.32 a year and €551.88 in each of the 14 instalments. Using the 90.00% of the arithmetic sum the calculation would give €10,584.00 a year: the error is worth €2,857.68 a year. If the worker is aged 50 or over, or cannot be redeployed in their post, the global degree is uplifted by the 1.5 factor to 98.55%, taking the pension to €11,589.48 a year, or €827.82 per instalment. And at the first medical examination the temporary partial incapacity cannot be set below double the foreseeable degree, which here already meets the coefficient 1.

Frequently asked questions

Why do two 30% injuries not give 60%?
Because the law does not add them. Point 5(d) of the Annex I General Instructions combines the coefficients "according to the residual-capacity principle": the first bites on the capacity the person had before the accident and each later one only on the capacity that still remains. Two 30% injuries give 51%: the first 30 of 100, plus 30% of the 70 that were left. The logic is that the same capacity cannot be lost twice.
Does the order in which injuries are counted change the result?
No. Because of how the calculation works, the global degree is a product of the capacities that successively remain, and a product does not change with the order of its factors. Starting from the most severe injury or from the mildest gives exactly the same global degree, so the order in which the examiner lists them in the report is not a ground for disputing the figure.
Who qualifies for the 1.5 uplift?
Point 5(a) of the General Instructions grants it to a worker who cannot be redeployed in their post or who is aged 50 or over. Point 5(b) grants the same factor where the injury causes a visible change in physical appearance that materially affects performance in the post. The two paragraphs are not cumulative with one another, and the condition inside 5(a) excludes anyone who has already benefited from the factor, so in practice there is at most one 1.5 uplift. Whether the ground is made out is decided by the medical board, not by the worker or the insurer.
Can the uplift take the degree to 100%?
It can, and sooner than it looks. The uplift runs "up to the limit of unity", and because the factor is 1.5 any global degree at or above 66.67% uplifts to 100%. Past that point the uplift adds nothing. Reaching the coefficient 1.00 is not in itself a declaration of absolute permanent incapacity for any work whatsoever: that classification, with the consequences of article 48(3)(a), is fixed by the multidisciplinary board provided for in point 5-A and, in a dispute, by the labour court.
I have an injury that predates the accident. Is it deducted from the degree?
As a rule, no. Article 11(2) of Law 98/2009 provides that where the injury from the accident is aggravated by a pre-existing injury or illness, or where the accident aggravates the earlier one, "the incapacity shall be assessed as though everything resulted from it". There is a single exception: where the worker is already drawing a pension for that earlier injury or has already received a lump-sum commutation under the same law. Note that the table itself still refers, in point 5(e), to article 9 of Law 100/97, which was repealed by article 186 of Law 98/2009.
Will this calculator tell me the coefficient for my injury?
No, and deliberately so. Assigning the coefficient to each sequela is a medical act: it is done by the incapacity assessment board or, for work accidents, by the board provided for in point 5-A of the General Instructions, and in a dispute by the labour court. The table runs to several hundred entries, many of them ranges the examiner may move within (points 6 and 7), and Annex II warns that it was designed "for exclusive use by genuine experts". The coefficients are therefore a figure you bring from the medical report; what this page does is the part you cannot do alone, which is combining them and seeing what they are worth.
Does the residual-capacity rule always apply?
No. Point 5(d) itself reserves that "a special rule expressly stated in this table prevails over the rule laid down in this paragraph", and the table does use that power. The clearest case is ankylosis of the fingers, in point 8.3, where the table states in terms that "the values of the partial incapacities are added arithmetically, and not according to the residual-capacity principle". This page computes the general rule; if the medical report invokes a special rule from the applicable chapter, that is the one that governs.
Does the civil-law table work the same way?
No, and that is precisely the point Decree-Law 352/2007 was enacted to fix. Annex II assesses permanent incapacity in civil law, scores in points rather than in percentages of earning capacity, and has different combination rules: direct addition for synergistic sequelae, the score equivalent to the global loss for non-synergistic ones, and residual capacity (there called the Balthazard rule) only where neither of the previous approaches is possible. The decree's preamble says that using the employment table outside its own domain is "potentially productive of significant injustice".
From what degree do tax benefits start?
From 60%. Article 87(5) of the Personal Income Tax Code treats as a person with a disability anyone presenting a permanent incapacity degree of 60% or more, certified by a multi-purpose medical incapacity certificate, the atestado médico de incapacidade multiuso, which is what you ask for by name in Portugal. That certificate is assessed against the same National Incapacity Table, but it is issued through its own process, by the incapacity assessment board following a request to the local health delegate, and it does not follow automatically from a degree fixed in a work-accident case.

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: