This work has as objective to analyze the participation and the contribution of the household income “retirements and pensions” for the inequality of the distribution of the per capita household income in Brazil and Rural Brazil, in the period from 1981 to 2003. For that, it revises the literature about concentration of income and social welfare in the country, and it uses the Gini index components decomposition methodology: revenue of the main work, revenue of other works, retirements and pensions, donations, rent revenues and other revenues (interests, dividends, etc.). It stands out, in the results, the growing participation of the retirements and pensions and in the 1990`s in relation to the previous decade, with larger intensity in rural Brazil, explained by the social and economic policies of the period. The contribution of that portion of household income for the concentration of income is significant to Brazil in 9 of the 18 analyzed years, and to rural Brazil, starting from the decade of 1990.