The government reported that it paid “another €54 million” of child benefits and the new child guarantee to 580,000 children across the country, the minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security said.
According to Ana Mendes Godinho, Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, speaking in the city of Guarda, during a visit to the Ensiguarda Vocational School, the government this Friday started paying, “for the first time, something like a guarantee of childhood and youth”.
The minister said in her speech, which also marked the opening of the 2022/2023 school year, that “it is unacceptable” that 20% of children and young people “are at risk of falling into poverty”: “This is unacceptable. It means we are failing as a society. If there are 20% of our children and young people at risk of poverty, it means we have to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
“Today, the childhood guarantee began to be paid for the first time”, he said, explaining that the benefit is not just for children, but for young people up to the age of 18. The minister went on to say that “Today 580,000 children in the country were paid extra, 54 million more” of euro child benefit, compared to the existing one, and the new guarantee for children.
“I think this really changes lives and above all ensures that we give everyone equal opportunities”he said.
In her speech, heard by the Mayor of Guarda, Sérgio Costa, by the management, by students and teachers of Ensiguarda and by representatives of local entities and institutions, the director of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security recalled that this month The The government has also started to implement the free day care measure, which it hopes will “change for many lives”.
“It means that no child can be left out of daycare just because they don’t have the money to pay for it. The logic is: Daycare centers are a tool to bring people into the society we live in from birth, with equal opportunities , without distinction from children because they were lucky or unlucky to be born in a place, or in a family, or with less economic circumstances”he explained.
According to the minister, “this transforms the opportunities in life, it says that people have the same conditions of equal opportunities from the beginning”.
For Ana Mendes Godinho, this is a measure that “it could change the way we look at equal access for everyone to the same opportunities, no matter where they live, where they grow up, no matter what family they are in”.
In the 2022/2023 academic year, the Ensiguarda Vocational School will be attended by about 450 students, according to the institution’s source.
Source: DN
